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Ask HN: Why are there no open source 2d printers?

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Re: Ask HN: Why are there no open source 2d printers?

#181

Post by Finnucane »

vekelly09 wrote: post #128
gonzo41 wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had a burst of creative thought, thinking about getting a typewriter and hooking up a ton of actuators to it so I could just slide it an array of a document to type out. But it'd probably move to fast or slow, jam and then there's feeding it paper. It'd probably be easier to make a nice block alphabet for a plotter and then just print your documents as biro drawings. But again, feeding paper seems like a very fiddl…

I remember it well. All of us computer hackers back in the late 1970s did something like that with a bunch of solenoids. It worked, but you got about 12 cps on a good day, and only constant width fonts. Also, if one of your solenoids was a bit sluggish it would throw off the registration of some of the characters. The advent of daisy wheel technology killed off the Selectric printers. Remember daisy wheels, especiall…

I have a vague memory that there was even a commercial option for that--a device that fit over the typewriter keyboard, that you could buy, and it would drive the typewriter from the computer.

I had for a while a NEC Spinwriter--loud, slow, built like the proverbial tank. My recollection--it's been more than 30 years since I used it--was that it did support proportional spacing.

Re: Ask HN: Why are there no open source 2d printers?

#182

Post by sleepybrett »

manyxcxi wrote: post #27
detaro wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would you do that tinkering if you could just buy a 3D printer cheaply that didn't need upgrading and worked perfectly? You can probably adapt a printhead from a printer to your 3D printer today if you want a crappy DIY 2D printer and go from there.

I got into it specifically because you can get good printers cheap. There is a manufacturer that offers an open source based printer that was better than it had any reason to be for less than $300. My printer today looks nothing like the printer I started with, I’ve switched boards, recompiled my own firmware, the whole bit. I was confident in hacking on it for two reasons: 1) It was open source based 2) Replacement…

Nothing like a extruder that is not user serviceable and only prints PLA. When I was told that my office went through several of those extruders, I took some year end left over funds and purchased a lulzbot (Taz5). As far as I know that thing is still doing the work they need it to do.

Re: Ask HN: Why are there no open source 2d printers?

#183

Post by nendroid »

You have to analyze the reality of this world. First off open source cannot exist without closed source.

Imagine if everything in the world went open source. Then nobody would be getting paid, everyone would starve because they're giving away there work for free.

Most things in this world are profit oriented products produced as a direct result a capitalism. Open source is an offshoot phenomenon in software arising because software is both easier than other forms of engineering (see thousands of bootcamps) and also easily copyable.

However it should be known that most software developers need to have a job in closed source software in order to pay the bills.

Whenever you see something open source you have to know it's an offshoot phenomenon. These are side projects spawned by intense interest but ultimately still a side project to a person's main line of work which is ultimately profitable. Be surprised that there are 3D printers because it's abnormal. The fact that there are no open source 2D printers arises because there's lack of interest and because there's no profit in open source 2D printers.

Re: Ask HN: Why are there no open source 2d printers?

#185

Post by zrobotics »

scoutt wrote: post #145
Nbox9 wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you remember printing in 2000? Literally every printer was suffering from constant paper jams and other mechanical malfunctions. In 2020 a top consumer or business printer will not jam on you. The business printers in 2000 had slow processors and more ram. It was significantly bad that printing PDFs spent more time processing the file than putting toner on page. Finally, the interfacing for printers today is fanta…

> Finally, the interfacing for printers today is fantastic. Still in the year of our Lord 2020, once a document hits the Windows Printer Spooler, good luck trying to cancel/abort it.

From an elevated powershell/cmd:

  net stop spooler
  cd *:\windows\system32\spool\printers
  (remove all files in this directory) 
  net start spooler
Stupid, but this fixes like 80% of windows printer problems, most of which IME are random one-off issues with a document getting spooled and the printer not being activated

Re: Ask HN: Why are there no open source 2d printers?

#186

Post by self_awareness »

somehnguy wrote: post #113
callamdelaney wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

TIL Richard Stallman's middle name is Matthew.

Thanks for point this out. In my head it's always Richard 'Mainline' Stallman, like a competitive video game handle, no idea why.. I knew it was absolutely wrong but never cared enough to Google it. Now I know.

If RMS is involved, maybe try DuckDuckGo'ing instead of Googling, I'm sure he would prefer it that way

Re: Ask HN: Why are there no open source 2d printers?

#187

Post by zrobotics »

fizixer wrote: post #158
Nbox9 wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you remember printing in 2000? Literally every printer was suffering from constant paper jams and other mechanical malfunctions. In 2020 a top consumer or business printer will not jam on you. The business printers in 2000 had slow processors and more ram. It was significantly bad that printing PDFs spent more time processing the file than putting toner on page. Finally, the interfacing for printers today is fanta…

> Do you remember printing in 2000? Yes I do. No there were no "literally every printer was suffering". 1995-2000 was a perfectly fine era of B&W desktop laser printing (others can chime in about how it was before 1995). Go get some computer history education, or ask an adult in the room.

I'll just point out the existence of the movie "office space" in here as evidence that yes, people were frustrated with printers. That movie came out in 1999, and the most iconic scene is the printer being smashed. That resonated for very good reasons, printers (and drivers) were almost more obnoxious back then than they are now. Please lose the superior "adult in the room" tone.

Re: Ask HN: Why are there no open source 2d printers?

#188

Post by trynewideas »

gonzo41 wrote: post #82
lpfabiani wrote: post #7

I worked for a while in the R&D department of HP printer division. As @jacquesm said, good 2D printer costs peanuts. The amount of R&D in color quality, speed and other parameters is huge. There were a lot of teams involved: mechanical, electrical, software, chemical... And because of that investment, there are thousands of patents that the big players are continuously paying each other for. It's a very old market wi…

I had a burst of creative thought, thinking about getting a typewriter and hooking up a ton of actuators to it so I could just slide it an array of a document to type out. But it'd probably move to fast or slow, jam and then there's feeding it paper. It'd probably be easier to make a nice block alphabet for a plotter and then just print your documents as biro drawings. But again, feeding paper seems like a very fiddl…

2017: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Awxbu8y5cv8

"A reverse-engineered typewriter hack to make it into a printer. Using a simple MOSFET circuit and an Arduino (actually, a Light Blue Bean+ arduino compatible board), I reverse-engineered my IBM Wheelwriter 6 typewriter to print out text and some rudimentary graphics. The GitHub repository is here, and I'll continue to update it with schematics, etc., when I get some time: https://github.com/tofergregg/IBM-Wheelwriter-Hack"

Same user has a similar hack for a 1960s Smith Corona Sterling Automatic 12: https://github.com/tofergregg/smith_corona_printer

Re: Ask HN: Why are there no open source 2d printers?

#189

Post by toast0 »

zrobotics wrote: post #187
fizixer wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Do you remember printing in 2000? Yes I do. No there were no "literally every printer was suffering". 1995-2000 was a perfectly fine era of B&W desktop laser printing (others can chime in about how it was before 1995). Go get some computer history education, or ask an adult in the room.

I'll just point out the existence of the movie "office space" in here as evidence that yes, people were frustrated with printers. That movie came out in 1999, and the most iconic scene is the printer being smashed. That resonated for very good reasons, printers (and drivers) were almost more obnoxious back then than they are now. Please lose the superior "adult in the room" tone.

I mean, they were made because the printer was asking the player character to load letter paper, and they couldn't figure that out.

Ok, I don't know what PC stands for, but load letter means you're out of paper, please fill me up. It's not a blinking clock on a VCR.

Re: Ask HN: Why are there no open source 2d printers?

#190

Post by marketingPro »

webmaven wrote: post #173
marketingPro wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If this topic turns out to be the start of a FOSS, I'll join as a (senior) design engineer. Find one that doesn't have a patent and reverse engineer it. I imagine the first/original control system was extremely difficult to develop. But since the technology already exists you can reverse engineer it. After that, you pay a supplier to make parts. In my experience, these suppliers will end up redesigning to match bette…

> Find one that doesn't have a patent and reverse engineer it At this point, it would be better to start looking at expired (and about-to-expire) patents. A circa Y2k printer would be a perfectly acceptable design, IMO.

I completely agree. But given I got 4 downvotes for offering to contribute to a FOSS, seems like demand is low.
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