Live data from Hacker News

OpenPrinter

opentools.studio

61–70 of 299 posts

Re: OpenPrinter

#62

I had an Epson Ecotank for a couple of years. The printer heads got clogged all the time. We bought a series of cleaning products to address it, they often solved the problem for only a few prints. We finally gave up and bought a Brother laser printer. This project seems like it's trying to address a similar market to the Ecotank. What assurances can the project team provide that OpenPrinter will have better reliabil…

If you print occasionally then laser is the best option. It's just not usable for photo printing. You ideally want to be using the printer every week or two with inkjet.

Re: OpenPrinter

#63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about that license makes you think you can't use the device (i.e. print things) for commercial purposes? The license applies to the thing, not the thing you print using the thing. Me writing software or prose on a computer running Linux using a GPL editor wouldn't change that the copyright of what I write belongs to me, the author. You can't make a commercial competitor of this printer using their design, but us…

> You can't make a commercial competitor of this printer using their design Which means it's not open source. Open source means you have the right to distribute work however you want, including commercially, provided you also provide the source under the same license terms as the original. The second you slap a non-commercial limitation on there, it ceases to be open source.

It's open source : you have the right to study, copy, share and modify

Re: OpenPrinter

#64
just in time. this will certainly juice development of the equally important open source fax machine.

Re: OpenPrinter

#65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about that license makes you think you can't use the device (i.e. print things) for commercial purposes? The license applies to the thing, not the thing you print using the thing. Me writing software or prose on a computer running Linux using a GPL editor wouldn't change that the copyright of what I write belongs to me, the author. You can't make a commercial competitor of this printer using their design, but us…

> You can't make a commercial competitor of this printer using their design Which means it's not open source. Open source means you have the right to distribute work however you want, including commercially, provided you also provide the source under the same license terms as the original. The second you slap a non-commercial limitation on there, it ceases to be open source.

I didn't plan to go into the printer manufacturing business, and there's nothing more open, AFAIK. HP won't let you fix it when they brick your printer for not using their more expensive than blood ink.

Re: OpenPrinter

#68

Richard they did it. You can rest now.

close, but not quite. I suppose in the way that originally set him off, yes.

It looks like they're using the Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0 license so restricting commercial use which I think would run afoul of the purists definition of Freedom?

It's a cool printer, and I'd much rather have something like this!

Re: OpenPrinter

#69
I think the top-ranking comment about complexity is off base: they're not inventing inkjet printing from scratch. It's basically a bunch of existing modules in a new package, presumably with the promise that you will not need to buy subscriptions or DRMed ink cartridges.

Is robustness and reparability a compelling pitch? If I'm counting right, I owned eight different printers in my life. Dot matrix, dye sublimation, inkjet, laser. I don't think a single one ever required any serious repairs beyond replacing consumables, clearing paper jams, and pulling out lint. I upgraded as the technology improved. My first laser printer needed about 4x as much desk space as the current one.

Re: OpenPrinter

#70

Interesting comment from last time this was posted https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48093670 Inkjet printing requires orders of magnitude more engineering expertise, materials science, industry experience and financial resources than most people imagine. That is the reason, open inkjet printers don't exist despite having been consumer products with the same drawbacks for more than forty years. That is why this is…

Try to find an typical consumer inkjet printer on AliExpress, you won't find any, or if you do, it will be someone reselling the usual brands like HP or Canon. You will find label printers, industrial printers, 3D printers, thermal printers, and all sorts of weird stuff, but none of them able to put ink on a stack of A4 paper.

If the Chinese, who are known for being able to make knockoffs of everything are not able to make inkjet printers, this should tell you how hard it is.

It addition to the print head, reliable paper transport is also really hard. That problem is often sidestepped by using a paper roll or by printing one sheet at a time, as it is the case for the Openprinter.

Post reply on HN