261–270 of 299 posts
I really love the idea of a paper roll rather than individual sheets. Being able to print out to the size you want rather than only in pre-set sizes is quite cool.
I do wonder if they print end of page lines for you to cut afterward (sorry couldn't read the whole webpage, maybe they explained it)
I 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.
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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
This printer will use refilled cartridges. It could even use cartridges that have been sent out under the 'instant ink' subscription scheme. People in that scheme usually end up with a drawer full of spare cartridges, as they send them to you like they are worth the pennies that they actually cost.
Heck, it may actually save them money. At one point they were losing money on every printer sale and making it back in ink No idea if that’s still the case.
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If it is not an open source license, you should not call it open source. Imagine someone saying the same thing about MongoDB's license, for example.
Is there a Linux server run on fully open source hardware (what would that mean btw?)? Should we stop using "open source" because almost all computers are not fully open source?
If you can't legally use the product, the fact that the source is available is meaningless. CC-NC is a source available license, not an open source license.
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…
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…
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Is there a Linux server run on fully open source hardware (what would that mean btw?)? Should we stop using "open source" because almost all computers are not fully open source?
Quite a lot of open source hardware is licensed under the BY-SA Creative Commons license which is an actual open source license. E.g. the Arduinos and things like the Milkymist One which can actually run linux.
Also, the bottom spinning button CTA doesn't read like a CTA to me. My skimming eyes almost missed, but YMMV.
Other than that - awesome project and godspeed OpenPrinter team!
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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.
Samsung ML-1630. I had it for a really long time. I had opened it up to solder the page counter to ground so it always thought it was on page 0, instead of demanding to replacement. And I had manually refilled the toner many times into the toner cart. But I don’t think the smell is because of that, it’s the same laser printer / photocopier smell you smell in all print shops. I believe it is small aerosolized toner pa…
Very few domestic / small office printers will ever hit that number, but for a ~20 year old model, it's possible yours has. The service manual suggests it's rated for 50,000 pages (as are the drum and roller), but unfortunately isn't replaceable.
Time for a new model?
(The canonical print shop smell is ozone - imagesetters produced way more than a laser printer - together with solvent from the inks and lots and lots of stale coffee. Possibly mixed with cigarette smoke, depending on just how long ago you're talking about...)
Probably a stupid question: But where do you get (refillable) ink for this printer from?
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laser printers are cheap and don't need catriges
Color laser printers (MFPs with ADFs to be exact) aren't exactly cheap. Last I checked they were 2-3x more expensive than equivalent inkjets, and occupied a lot of space too.
all printers are the size of microwave. Inkjets aren't any smaller
> MFPs with ADFs to be exact
at that point you're talking about a full-on office appliance and far above DIY repair scale the discussion is about