Thermal Typewriters: The Canon Typestar.

[@Joe_VanCleave]

Wonderfully fun video! I’m glad you are writing regularly with your Typestar. Thermals are great for typing in the woods, while being creeped out wondering if the guy behind you is an ax murderer! I love the aesthetic of the Nagra with its spinning reels. The lav mic seems to have a cardioid pickup pattern that favors the front of the mic. Maybe put it on a stick, Bob Barker style?

[@TypewriterChicago]

I've been loving the quiet convenience! And yeah, Nagras are so wonderful. I had hoped the mic would work hands free, but I guess it'll work okay just set down somewhere.

[@AArtVarkVark]

The rough and tumble out in the field actually makes it quite entertaining. Great to see a working mini Nagra ...

[@bletheringfool]

I thought the video was great. I was recording a piece to camera last year down by the seafront. I was standing on a small pier, and a lady was at the end of her driveway. I thought 'she'll leave in a minute' but actually her neighbour turned up, and they started gossiping. I pushed through in the end but super awkward. That tape machine looks great. I've been think of getting what you call an electronic typewriter. If they can just run off D Cells means they will be handy to bring to coffee shops

[@eddietowers5595]

I just rescued one of these from an e-waste trash pile, mine is the very same color, but a Typestar 5, thankfully it was in its own case, I loaded it with D batteries and it seems to work just fine. It had a cartridge in it and an unopened cartridge in the case. I love the look, the design and function of it and would love to start writing books by it. But, it seems the feed has a bit of a problem. It doesn’t seem to be strong enough to feed the paper evenly, it always catches and pulls left. I find when I press on the external gearing of a tiny geared stepper motor, it seems to feed really well. If you can, can this be the problem and could it be fixed? I am a tinkerer, have various motors of various sizes and have my own machine shop. Can you help/advise on this problem and a possible fix?

[@TypewriterChicago]

I can't diagnose without having the machine, but you could be missing a screw somewhere that's causing the rollers to not lay flay

[@samwalkerjrii]

New to the type writing community. Is this a good thermal print to start off with? Enjoyed the video Sam. W

[@TypewriterChicago]

Hi Sam, This is a good machine in my opinion! It works well, and it's affordable. Paid $40 for mine.

[@sparky60ful]

Great stuff!

Another excellent look at some arcane tech. You still using that Cyberdeck?

[@TypewriterChicago]

I actually sold it!! Someone else is loving it. I may make another soon

[@dadtype2339]

Thermal Typewriters, are wonderful machines! I have a nerve disease that's extremely painful called CRPS, I have type 2, (and I'm a Step Dad so DadType2, lol beat you thought of Diabetes, most do) but there are days I'm not able to make it to the desk and work, as I like to write my first drafts on Typewriters, so Joe, ah yes, Joe and I were talking and I had mentioned that it's hard to use the laptop on my legs in bed, and that I was looking into a Freewrite, but two things I knew about them I didn't like, 1: the price and 2: type delay. So Joe says, how about a Thermal Typewriter? So, I bought a 1981 brother EP-20 and I name all my machines based off their name a kind of play on words or something about them, or in this case the way it looks. To me the EP-20, looks like a computer terminal on the starship Nostromo in the movie Alien, so that's what I named mine, Nostromo. Now this is the world's first battery powered portable thermal typewriter, an absolutely fun machine to write on, I have in fact a manuscript for a cosmic horror I'm working on that has 70 pages from Nostromo (EP-20). It's very print quiet but paper feed is a bit loud. At the time I paid $4 bucks, that included the shipping price, lol on eBay, now they're still not bad price wise but I do see them going up. And Battery life lasts about a week. I was using mine for 6-10 pages a day. It's quality of print is like dot matrix. No darker settings. And so of course I was interested in buying the power cable and luck would have it the power cable for the EP-20 runs the entire brother line of thermal typewriters! Back to eBay I went hunting. I found the adapter for it, but the seller wanted $50.00 for it, and it was the only one, HOWEVER, someone was selling a brother EP-43 that had the power adapter with it for $24.00 and so I thought I'll buy this and pay less AND get another machine. The EP-43 has a bunch more options and a really good dark print. It's paper feed is quit but it's printing is on the noisy side when compared to the Nostromo. This EP-43 looks still really good, classy yet Superhero like, or a vigilantly to my Words, so I named it Bruce Wayne for the Day and Dark Knight (Batman) at night, and the neat part is, when I write on any manuscript I write in the upper left corner Title Cheaper Page Machine used And if I'm reading my manuscript and read Bruce I know it was on the EP-43 AND that it was written during the day. Or Dark Knight, I know I wrote that during the night. The EP-43 is the favorite among the two just because of the extra dark print. It's extremely fun to type on, it stays on my nightstand and Nostromo is in a go bag for if I have to for example take my kid to Gym or Swim practice or Ballet, and I'm stuck in the car for an hour or 2, I bring my go bag with the Weyland-Yutani building better worlds patch on the bag. I find this machine an absolute great option if you want something like a Freewrite but don't want to spend that much pick up a brother EP-43 for pennies! You get the same distraction free machine that saves on paper memory. Which is more rewarding as I can physically see your work produced. Serial numbers with the first Alphabet letter from 'A' through 'J' will have an alarm for end of page. 'K'-'Z' will not. You can buy thermal paper in sheets on Amazon, it's very good quality. Also I know an argument against is fading. But what you have to understand is, your receipt from the store fades for many reasons, first the paper is thin and cheap to help keep costs down, the machines that burn the receipts are doing it really really really fast to keep the lines moving all of this makes for a document that will fad in a matter of days. These thermal typewriters print good strong and slow, and the quality of the paper is way better. Joe has thermal printed documents that are still just as readable maybe just starting to fade some but they're almost 40 years old. I have pages in another manuscript from a year ago and it's fine. So don't worry about fade. When done transfer to a computer. If I were to recommend between the brother EP-43 or EP-20, I would recommend the EP-43. It's that awesome. The EP-20 has that great end of 70s look, and it is an awesome machine, but it's keyboard is a calculator chick lix kind of buttons, and to me their great but the EP-43 has a darker print, it can Bold, E X P A N D print, underline, center, it has an auto return with type function so has the head is in the process of printing and returning you can keep typing you don't have to wait for it to finish. So you can go a bit quicker if you so desire. It looks really good in fact I was using mine outside at a softball practice, and this guy, probably in his early 20s comes up and asks what is that, and I explain it's a Typewriter that uses thermal power to write or print on thermal paper, so long as you have the paper and power you will never run out of ink, and he didn't see it as a Typewriter but a computer with a built in printer and he thought it was the coolest thing ever, and the asked if I bought it online or is it something from Best Buy, and I explained more and his face got red with embarrassment and I told him no need what a compliment that a machine older than him is good looking enough to make someone think it could be bought at a local Best Buy. Lol a computer with a printer built in, and I get it but I suppose that's what a Typewriter is a mechanical computer that has an attached printing press. So yeah, glad you enjoy yours, I highly recommend the brother EP-43 and if you like that older look like being in a sci-fi movie you'll love the EP-20. But I know if you had the two, you would like lol Joe and I agree, tend to favor the EP-43 over the 20. There is a cool EP-22 that looks Russian/USSR that in its day could be connected to a computer and used as a printer! There is a black and red version rare, tends to be more money than the EP-20. Last time I looked 07-14/15 - 2024 you can spend $39-$400 for an EP-20 and especially an EP-22. To give you an idea of price increase just a year ago I bought EP-20 $4.00 EP-43 $24.00 This prices are gone now and I get tempted to look for a parts machine for the EP-20 and EP-43. Well, looking forward to that Olivetti Lettera 35i, do you sell Typewriters? I'd like to buy a OL 35i but I would like to know more about it. Weight and feel How it feels typing Paper feed, does it feel like it's going to break any moment? Lol, what is metal and what is plastic, would it make a good ultra portable typewriter, is it in fact an ultra portable typewriter? Hard to tell in pictures as I never see one with something like a bottle of water next to it for a frame of reference. Anyway, so looking forward to a thorough review like I know you can do. Thanks for reading, sorry about any typos did this on my phone's keyboard and YT doesn't give more room to edit something this epic lol. 👍 Always, hope this finds you with an excellent Monday!

[@tmunk]

Look - A bird! Stranger! Tape Recorder! Typewriter! Ant! :D Sometimes your videos are more Jazz than Rock.

[@TypewriterChicago]

Hahahaha I appreciate that analogy. Adhd adds a specific flavor to things :)

[@mysticmarble94]

12:57 🥸

[@Jergling]

The really weird thing with thermal typewriters is that they're basically a de-engineering of contemporary computer printers, opting to stick a highly simplified word processor directly into the body so the hardware could be used at a lower speed, with fewer features, by people or companies who were not able to adapt to computer typesetting. Many of them actually have parallel "printer" ports that allow them to be used interchangeably as a printer or typewriter.

[@GenophefeElisabeth]

Fun! What taperecorder is that?

[@michaeldiamond2269]

I still have the typestar 7. I also have several cartridges. On eBay, the cartridges are worth way more than the typewriter!

[@marcoszalder8819]

Hello Mister. I love your videos. Because of you Im looking for a thermal typewriter. I live in japan but found hard to find any Typestar. I found some other brands like Brother PICOWORD and CASIO Word Processor HW-500. But i was unable to find out if they are thermal printers. DO you know these one or have any suggestions mister, I would be really thankful.