I’ll believe this when I see it on GitHub - rooting for them
OpenPrinter
131–140 of 299 posts
Re: OpenPrinter
#132Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I wonder how they will handle the nonsense around yellow tracking dots[1] etc. Hopefully that doesn't become a problem. What's there to handle? They just don't include them and there's no statute that requires them to.
Hm, I guess there is no law. But why would so many manufacturers include this unless there is some legal reason or other pressure on them to do so?
>or other pressure on them
Counterfeiting was a big worry as high-resolution color printers became cheap. They did it motu proprio just like today ~all AI gen services watermark their outputs.
Re: OpenPrinter
#133I 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,…
> I don't think a single one ever required any serious repairs beyond replacing consumables I think your experience has been an outlier. I've had several printers from different brands also, and have had some that last a long time, and still print with decent quality even with off-brand ink/toner. However, quite a lot have also failed due to bad capacitors, bad power modules, or the printer or it's firmware just refu…
I owned a Brother inkjet for some time. I'd print maybe a few times a year. But it seemed like every time I needed to print, the printer was out of ink. Granted I used an ink service (ie not official brother ink) but still where the heck was the ink going?
I've since switched to a Brother LaserJet and I'm still on the starter toner after a couple of years.
Re: OpenPrinter
#134I 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…
I have an Ecotank and my parents have one too (data set size of 2 :). I've had it for 4-5 years now and it's superb for my simple use case (occasional low cost printing at home). I did initially run into clogged heads too, until I scheduled a test print every month which uses all colors. That way no single color stays unused for too long, and it's been working like a charm ever since. If the heads are already "degrad…
what they really need is a built in print program that just prints a color exercise sheet every 2 weeks.
Re: OpenPrinter
#135Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, because that's the thing that makes it open and able to survive the death or corruption of the entity holding the copyright.
The blueprint will be open source and you could technically build it yourself if you have the patience. They are quite proud of how few parts are actually involved in it
If it's CC-NC, it's not open source though, that's the point: a license that restricts fields of endeavor is not an open source license.
Re: OpenPrinter
#136Earlier quoted context omitted.
From the specs: Compatible cartridges HP 63 and HP 63 XL (US) HP 302 and HP 302 XL (Europe) HP 803 and HP 803 XL (Asia) So they just use HP inkjet technology. That makes it less open-source, but even "open source" parts are going to be under non-commercial license (CC BY-NC-SA) anyway.
> even "open source" parts are going to be under non-commercial license (CC BY-NC-SA) anyway You're saying this as if it is a bad thing? I absolutely welcome this decision by the authors!
Why? Restricting it in this way doesn't make sense to me.
If we have a common design them surely we want people to be able to build their own, or buy a prebuilt?
Re: OpenPrinter
#137I talked a bit about this years ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37007815 TL;DR: I'm surprised this isn't a laser printer, as those are actually quite a bit easier to design and manufacture, especially if you can use a cheap, older, commonly available, remanufacturable toner cartridge.
Inkjet cartridges often contain the print heads; toner cartridges still need a fuser roll and imaging head to do anything.
Part of my point is that making a print head driver is, in general, harder than making a laser imaging head. A lot harder.
Of course the details of what specific parts are purchaseable on the open market can and will change this calculus a lot.
Re: OpenPrinter
#138Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah conceptually this excites me but I decided color printing wasn't worth it at home years ago and haven't regretted it.
A colour laser A4 multifunction is only a few hundred bucks these days, five years ago I’d have agreed with you but it might be worth re-evaluating.
I've reevaluated.
Still not worth it. My Brother is hitting 10 years now, and I'm trying to think of many scenarios where I really needed to print colour at home.
Re: OpenPrinter
#139Unfortunate they rely on HP cartridges. HP is a priority BDS target: https://bdsmovement.net/boycott-hp
Re: OpenPrinter
#140Unfortunate they rely on HP cartridges. HP is a priority BDS target: https://bdsmovement.net/boycott-hp
This feels like a bit of a "you must exist in society" situation. If you rule out every company that does any business with Israel you will have a hard time buying anything.