The v4 Retro-Printer module is now available (6th October 2021) for the full price of £90 inc VAT (with case).
Improvements over the v3 Module:
- Correction of the all-important manufacturing fault on the v3 which resulted in the reversal of pins 19-36 on the Centronics connector
- Change to the on-board chips and addition of diode to the +3.3V GPIO pin to allow the v4 module to work with the amended power scheme on the Raspberry Pi 3 Model B+ (and any later models)
- +5V on Pin 18
- Jumpers to allow you to disable the +5V on each of pins 13, 18 and 32
- Use of LVC versions of some chips, as these help to catch the leading edge of signals
- Addition of pull-up resistors on the data control lines (Strobe and Data0..Data7) to prevent false signals when connected equipment is not turned on
The only downside is that due to the changes to the layout of the Raspberry Pi 4 - the Pi 4 will not physically fit within our case!