Illust Booster and Print Booster

[NecroPhile]

There's not much info. about these things here, so I figured I'd share what little I've learned about 'em since picking 'em up.  If I ever snag a Photo Reader, I'll amend my findings.

First up is the Illust Booster.  At first I'd feared it was broken, as it wouldn't work with Artist Tool on the flash cart.  The rom loader utility thing can't use the I.B as a controller, so I tried starting with a regular pad and switching to the I.B., but no go.  Apparently Artist Tool has to recognize the I.B. on boot (if it does, it changes "push run button" to "push III button" - there is no run button), and only then will it work properly; I thought I'd have to find a real Artist Tool (or a chucard), but luckily it can find the pad on port two of a tap.  Success!  It works okay but it's not great: the window is smallish, so you have to pick up the pen and reset a lot, and you have to press rather hard for it to register, making me fear that I'd break it.

Now that I could draw some shit, let's see how it prints!  The Print Booster is more of a Plot Booster, using regular pens to draw your art.  Unless there's a way to get it to plot each color separately, letting you change pens after each color is completed, you'll get just the one color; there may be such an option, but the only options I could figure out were one where you directly control the pen (like an etch-a-sketch) and printing the whole shebang at once.  Here's what my meager abilities could produce (don't laugh!):

   

The random straight lines crossing over areas are from having the pen pushed too far into its carrier, so try to ignore those.  In the first pic, the top left is from etch-a-sketch mode using a normal controller's d-pad, the upper obey was drawn using a d-pad, the moon rune is from the built in text/stamp tool, and the bottom obey and smiley were drawn with the Illust Booster; and the second pic is all I.B.  The flat bottom of the smiley was caused by the paper being hastily cut a smidge too wide at the bottom, making the page curl up as it hit the printer's side when it neared the bottom of the page.

Here's the manuals if anyone cares to read 'em: Illust Booster and Print Booster

[Otaking]

interesting read, thanks for sharing.

[roflmao]

Awesome stuff, necro!

[SuperPlay]

Great info, I have been looking for a reasonably priced set of these for my collection.

[esteban]

Necro, I love this post. I feel like we can recycle most of it and turn it into an informative page documenting this odd piece of hardware/software.

Can you film any of this stuff? You don't have to narrate if you're not inclined to, just have music. 

At the very least, seeing it plot a picture "all at once" would be neat.

Anyway, no pressure.   

[Tatsujin]

thx for sharing, great stuff necro. and happy hear..see..read that it finally works now

[NecroPhile]

Can you film any of this stuff? You don't have to narrate if you're not inclined to, just have music. 

At the very least, seeing it plot a picture "all at once" would be neat.

My pos camera can do video, but don't expect much by way of image or production quality (and no guarantees on when it'll happen).

To help with future plotting, can someone please translate some of the printer's manual?  Not the whole thing (unless you really want to); I'm interested in the stuff that pertains to printing with different pens and anything that explains how to insert a pen to the proper depth so it doesn't drag.

[NecroPhile]

A few pics for y'all:

[esteban]

Great photos. 

[roflmao]

A few pics for y'all:

Sexay!

[VestCunt]

Necro - please buy that modem prototype and fax me your drarwings. Thx -vc

[SuperPlay]

Quick query, what do you use in the printer, is it ink or do you use a standard pen?

[esteban]

Quick query, what do you use in the printer, is it ink or do you use a standard pen?

PCE felt tip marker. Naturally.

[shubibiman]

How awesome is that ? :p

[NecroPhile]

Quick query, what do you use in the printer, is it ink or do you use a standard pen?

Standard pens.  The little red and black things (bottom right of printer) slide over the pen, then the two drop into the gray carriage on the printer.

[SuperPlay]

Quick query, what do you use in the printer, is it ink or do you use a standard pen?

Standard pens.  The little red and black things (bottom right of printer) slide over the pen, then the two drop into the gray carriage on the printer.

Thanks for the info, I have been wondering about this for ages :-)

[esteban]

Quick query, what do you use in the printer, is it ink or do you use a standard pen?

Standard pens.  The little red and black things (bottom right of printer) slide over the pen, then the two drop into the gray carriage on the printer.

Call me daft, but I don't see his this works, can you take a pic or two? I don't see how anything can slide to the grey carriage.

[NecroPhile]

Eventually I'll make a video, but for now: the red and black carrier things just sit in those holes and are held in by gravity.  There's a compression fitting between the pen and carrier (black rubberbandy looking thing visible in the pics), so insert a pen into one of 'em to pull it out*, then drop both into the keyed hole atop the gray carriage (inside the clear cover), and you're ready to print.

* - I pulled them out with my fingers, which is kinda hard to do as there's not much sticking up to grab onto.  Perhaps this was by design, getting you to push the pen in until it bottoms out in the hole, setting the pen at the proper distance from the paper so it won't drag like mine did.

[esteban]

Eventually I'll make a video, but for now: the red and black carrier things just sit in those holes and are held in by gravity.  There's a compression fitting between the pen and carrier (black rubberbandy looking thing visible in the pics), so insert a pen into one of 'em to pull it out*, then drop both into the keyed hole atop the gray carriage (inside the clear cover), and you're ready to print.

* - I pulled them out with my fingers, which is kinda hard to do as there's not much sticking up to grab onto.  Perhaps this was by design, getting you to push the pen in until it bottoms out in the hole, setting the pen at the proper distance from the paper so it won't drag like mine did.

Gotcha! I thought carrier slid over to the plotter mechanism. You actually pick up the pens+carrier and drop it into the plotter. Damn. I'm slow.

[esteban]

Eagerly awaiting hi-res, super sharp pics taken from interesting angles so I can use them on my site. Thanks.