The Great Little Printer

The Great Little Printer (GLP) is a matrix printer featuring an IEEE 1284 parallel interface. It can print on regular sheet paper or perforated paper using the optional tractor feed mechanism.

The name "Great Little Printer" stems from Centronics of the famed parallel port connector. Centronics had a close coorporation with Brother in the printer manufacturing business, and both companies sold two editions of the printer under different names. It was also licensed to other sellers.

Great Little Printer

Great Little Printer II (with NLQ and an additional RS-232 interface as standard)

If you need a new ribbon, look for "Centronics GLP-3101", "Brother 9010", or "Pelikan 551846". Failing to source any of these, you can buy any 8mm ribbon and transplant it into your existing cartridge.

IMPORTANT: I only have a GLP II (the Brother M-1109), so the following information is invalid for the first GLP edition.

The GLP is configured by two banks of dip switches and can emulate Epson FX and IBM printers. Notice that the banks and the switches are arranged from right to left. Also, OFF is UP and ON is DOWN.

Bank 1

Switch Description ON OFF Default
1 Interface mode and parity See table 1 ON
2
3 XON/XOFF Transmit Not transmit ON
4 Baud rate See table 2 OFF
5 OFF
6 ON
7 Char. code level 8 bit 7 bit ON
8 Not used ON
9 1" skip perforation Yes No OFF
10 Print mode default NLQ Draft OFF

Table 1 : interface mode and parity

Switch Parallel Serial (no parity) Serial (odd parity) Serial (even parity)
1 ON OFF ON OFF
2 ON ON OFF OFF

Table 2 : baud rate

Switch 9600 4800 1200 600 300 150 110
4 ON OFF OFF ON OFF ON OFF
5 ON ON OFF ON ON OFF OFF
6 ON ON ON OFF OFF OFF OFF

Bank 2 in Epson FX mode

Switch Description ON OFF Default
1 Form length 11" 12" ON
2 Printer mode Epson FX IBM ON
3 National character See table 3 OFF
4
5
6 Slashed/unslashed with without ON
7 Data buffer XON:153 bytes XOFF:1936 bytes ON
8 Not used ON
9 Auto line feed CR w/LF CR w/o LF OFF
10 SLCT IN Fixed Not fixed ON

Table 3 : national character

Switch USA England Germany France England I Sweden Italy Spain
3 OFF ON OFF ON OFF ON OFF ON
4 OFF OFF ON ON OFF OFF ON ON
5 OFF OFF OFF OFF ON ON ON ON

Bank 2 in IBM mode

Switch Description ON OFF Default
1 Form length 11" 12" ON
2 Printer mode Epson FX IBM ON
3 Character set Char. set 1 Char. set 2 OFF
4 CAN Invalid Valid OFF
5 LF amount 1/8" 1/6" OFF
6 Buffer full print with without ON
7 Data buffer XON:153 bytes XOFF:1936 bytes ON
8 Not used ON
9 Auto line feed CR w/LF CR w/o LF OFF
10 SLCT IN Fixed Not fixed ON

Sample configuration for parallel port Epson FX emulation

Bank 2 Bank 1
Switch 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Position ↓ON ↑OFF ↓ON ↓ON ↑OFF ↓ON ↑OFF ↑OFF ↓ON ↓ON
Switch 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Position ↑OFF ↑OFF ↓ON ↓ON ↓ON ↑OFF ↑OFF ↓ON ↓ON ↓ON