Live data from Hacker News

OpenPrinter

opentools.studio

171–180 of 299 posts

Re: OpenPrinter

#171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Use a monochrome laser printer for your ransom notes.

In all honesty for years I had one in my small home office, and every time I printed something I could smell it in the room afterwards for an hour, sometimes even getting headaches from this. Switched to inkjet a few years ago and will never look back.

What was the printer?

I haven't experienced the odor of ozone when printing at home since my HP Laserjet 4 died from water damage 18 years ago.

My current Brother laser printer (an MFC-2750DW, IIRC) is so non-stinky that I haven't thought about for a very long time.

Re: OpenPrinter

#172
post #118
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the technology side, I'm somewhat hopeful because it looks like they're using off-the-shelf HP ink cartridges for this. HP cartridges embed the printhead into the cartridge itself, and that printhead is arguably the most complicated part of the entire device. Outsource the printhead, and you're just designing a plotter with a PCL interface. I agree that the bigger challenge is going to be patents. It also wouldn't…

Why would they bother? They make all their money on the ink cartridges. If this drives more cartridge sales it’s a win/win for them. They generally don’t make much, if anything, on consumer ink jet printers themselves

It’s negligible revenue and carries some risk. Say the printer works well, and these enthusiasts drive a couple of thousand more cartridge sales. And that encourages someone to develop an alternative cartridge, which is mechanically and electrically compatible with HP’s.

It just seems easier to fire off a cease and desist than to take a risk of other people messing around with your ecosystem.

Re: OpenPrinter

#173

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…

The single hardest part is the print head. If you can reuse an existing one, and you can, then you're most of the way there.

The paper path itself is mechanically involved, but not to an impossible degree - it's hard to make it work, but it's not MEMS magic, it's manufacturable in the same way advanced 3D printers are manufacturable.

Re: OpenPrinter

#175
Isn't this hilarious:

> A patent as well as a design and model registration have been made to protect the technical architecture and design of Openprinter.

So, open as in OpenAI.

Re: OpenPrinter

#178
post #114

Does "open source" even mean something anymore, or should we give up and just accept it as common catch-all phrase for everything that suck less, without one definition? Open source AI without a source. Open source software, oh but only up to 4000 users after two years of release for people on south hemisphere. Now open source hardware but your copies of design are for noncommercial use, only our copies are not restr…

If they don't do this (noncommercial, patent), the lesson is that a succession of Chinese vendors will take it and perhaps even secure patents on top of their work. They want time to finish it their way.

My point is not whenever this is good or bad, hardware tools cannot by nature be self-replicated like software tools, but they should not call it open source.

Re: OpenPrinter

#180
post #118
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the technology side, I'm somewhat hopeful because it looks like they're using off-the-shelf HP ink cartridges for this. HP cartridges embed the printhead into the cartridge itself, and that printhead is arguably the most complicated part of the entire device. Outsource the printhead, and you're just designing a plotter with a PCL interface. I agree that the bigger challenge is going to be patents. It also wouldn't…

Why would they bother? They make all their money on the ink cartridges. If this drives more cartridge sales it’s a win/win for them. They generally don’t make much, if anything, on consumer ink jet printers themselves

big companies seek control, not money, because money alone is a weak shield against disruptions
Post reply on HN