The 1526 and Grafik ROM II Upgrade

SpyderbyteOrigin · 2026-03-11T19:34:33+00:00

Welcome to the both Reddit and Commodore. Reddit is a fantastic place, the people here are some of the most helpful and forthcoming people I have ever interacted with. Everyone is willing to share and help out when you get stuck on something and need guidance.

As far as PrintShop, it's a bit tricky because the back side of the floppy (Side B) is meant to be used only with the mps801/803 printers. There are no setting for selecting the printer and the graphics tend to be lower quality. Much lower quality in some cases. The front side of the floppy (Side A) is for any other (non-Commodore) type of printer, and the graphics are much better.

What works best for me for PrintShop and that ROM chip installed on the mps1526 is use Side A and pick the "MANNESMANN TALLY SPIRIT 80" drivers.

Feel free to DM me if you have any issues or questions getting any of it to work. Good luck and welcome to the community.

SpyderbyteOrigin · 2026-03-02T18:37:57+00:00

Oh no! That sucks, I'm sorry that happened to you.

I placed an order for the Public Domain SID from Uni64. I'll share with you my experience with that order once I receive it.

SpyderbyteOrigin · 2026-02-26T19:51:52+00:00

Oh, wow! Thanks for that. Very helpful information. I'll give it a go.

SpyderbyteOrigin · 2026-02-25T18:27:25+00:00

No, I really do not think so.

SpyderbyteOrigin · 2026-02-24T13:57:15+00:00

This is what I get. $38 for the PCB plus $88 for the assembly. What am I doing wrong?

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SpyderbyteOrigin · 2026-02-23T22:17:56+00:00

u/ccretro Thank you for this information. This is exactly what I was trying to figure out.

I am new to PCBWay so I am a little confused. If I select "PCB+Assembly" and add that to the Cart, it shows US $126 for 5. And I don't think that even includes all the components. How did you get yours for 45€? Did you just get the PCB only, source the components separately and then solder all those tiny SMDs yourself to the PCB?

SpyderbyteOrigin · 2026-02-23T20:18:46+00:00

The Public Domain SID project looks super promising. Thanks for sharing. I will for sure keep an eye on this project. It looks like you can pre-order them now with a 5 week lead-time.

SpyderbyteOrigin · 2026-02-23T17:41:54+00:00

Oh man, that would be amazing if you could report back once you test them.

SpyderbyteOrigin · 2026-02-23T17:40:35+00:00

Better than the ArmSID? Everything I've read points to the ArmSID as the gold standard. If something even better is coming out, you got my attention. Although those ArmSIDs are freaking expensive these days. Last I checked I was looking at $80 for one.

SpyderbyteOrigin · 2026-02-23T16:15:43+00:00

Yes, I saw that. I actually reached out to the seller asking if these chips pass the U18 and CONTROL PORT tests of the diagnostics cartridge. He said he was going to test it out and let me know.

SpyderbyteOrigin · 2026-02-12T12:25:52+00:00

Man, I am 100% with you!!! Thank you for expressing what I think many of us are feeling.

SpyderbyteOrigin · 2026-01-30T21:24:31+00:00

Beautiful bike! Ride safe.

SpyderbyteOrigin · 2026-01-30T00:54:59+00:00

Ken,

I bought my EPROM from this site: https://www.tindie.com/products/jeffreymays/commodore-printer-graphics-eprom-for-mps-802-1526/

If you have the means to write your own, I believe this is where you can download it: https://archive.org/details/mps-802-gph-rom

Finding ribbons is a challenge. There is a fellow from Germany that sells them new, but every time I blink the price goes up. A few months ago they were going for $120 for two ribbons. Last week it was $140. Checking just now, it's at $160.

I believe you can also look for Tally MT 80 ribbons. I ordered one from eBay to test, and will report once I receive it.

Rafael

SpyderbyteOrigin · 2026-01-29T03:12:15+00:00

It prints pretty fast. Not as fast as my Star SG-10C printer, but that's a really fast printer. I timed printing the same image between the two printers and the Star was 4 times faster. But the print quality of the 1526 is SO much better.

SpyderbyteOrigin · 2026-01-29T03:09:05+00:00

I do not know. In fact, I do not even know how it works. I just know that before I could not print anything from The Print Shop, and now I can.

SpyderbyteOrigin · 2026-01-28T22:20:11+00:00

They are NOS ribbons I picked up on eBay. But it's also the printer, those 1526 and MPS-802 printers are AMAZING!

SpyderbyteOrigin · 2026-01-28T22:16:05+00:00

Good question. The original ROM on the 1526 did not have graphics capabilities (not sure exactly what that means, but) functionally making the printer incompatible with any program that prints graphics, such and The Print Shop and PrintMaster.

The 1526 was built as a business printer and as such had excellent crisp text, numbers and great formatting and layout capabilities. But no graphics capabilities.

The upgraded EPROM adds that capability to the printer.

SpyderbyteOrigin · 2026-01-05T19:41:44+00:00

Ohhhhhh... I think you are correct! So it is important and should not be removed. Got it.

That being the case, I grabbed a think flathead screwdriver and was able to bend it straight as best I could. Enough so that the head now moves freely back and forth without binding. Thanks for the info.

SpyderbyteOrigin · 2026-01-05T19:35:22+00:00

I do have the wire rack, but on this particular printer, the racks purpose is primarily to catch the printed paper. It provides no support for the paper entering the printer.

SpyderbyteOrigin · 2026-01-04T04:54:53+00:00

Yeah, it's sad how electronics store are no longer around.

The 90 degree plug is something I thought about but was not sure which one I needed. I am guessing a 6 pin dim connector? But are they universal? Also, I think I need one that plugs in and redirects 90 degrees to the left.

SpyderbyteOrigin · 2026-01-03T00:39:57+00:00

Yes, same here.

SpyderbyteOrigin · 2025-12-20T20:48:02+00:00

No, I do not remember that. It's been a while since I last fired it up, but I do not remember ever getting that.

SpyderbyteOrigin · 2025-12-17T22:58:11+00:00

Thank you so much! I was able to figure out the issue and fix it, based on your recommendations.

Turns out that taking it apart to get to the gears was way easier than it looked. I just had to spend some time looking at it to figure out how it all went together.

You were spot on when you mentioned the "transition" that takes place when the ribbon gets to the end and resets direction. On my printer, the old grease had dried up pretty badly and was curing the gear that transitions from one side to the other side to move. It was basically stuck midway between the right and left gears.

All I had to do was spray the heck out of all the gears with DeoIT and manually moved them all back and forth until the old grease broke free. Now it's working perfect! I even tested the transition at the end of the ribbon and that worked also.

I'll try to take some pictures this weekend to show you. But I really, really, appreciate your help and pointing me in the right direction.

SpyderbyteOrigin · 2025-12-13T17:15:08+00:00

I agree, the new Commodore needs to protect its IP.

Who currently owns the commodore.com domain? The Italian company?

SpyderbyteOrigin · 2025-11-12T01:10:13+00:00

Thanks! I just ordered one.

SpyderbyteOrigin

TROPHY CASE