281–290 of 299 posts
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Why is the CC BY-NC-SA stopping me to build my own?
I didn't say it did. If it is a noncommercial licence then it removes the other option to set up a business selling these pre-built. Not everyone wants to build a printer.
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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?
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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.
> 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
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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…
The cartridge heads have a super curious digital protocol - the cartridge electronics have no power supply . There is no power rail internally either. Instead they use the fact mosfet gates have capacitance, and can therefore store 1 'bit' of information. Through a network of hundreds of MOSFETs, the right bits can be put on all the nozzle gates as needed, and then a 'fire' pulse is sent which for around a microsecon…
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The most compelling argument for me is this: https://www.eff.org/pages/list-printers-which-do-or-do-not-d...
Are any of those printers inkjets? I think tracking dots are strictly a laser printer thing.
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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.
[0] https://www.eff.org/pages/list-printers-which-do-or-do-not-d...
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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.
I respect that point of view. But to me, it being easily hackable and lacking the surveillance features of all other modern printers[0] is still a strong selling point and I hope for the project to succeed. [0] https://www.eff.org/pages/list-printers-which-do-or-do-not-d...
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Maybe they should have purchased a design from Canon or someone that isn't really in this market anymore. It seems like not only are they locked into a specific older technology generation (which could be ok idk) but they also risk HP just discontinuing that cartridge. It seems like the printers for this cartridge were released around late 2017 so they could deprecate earlier than they normally do. Seems like they pr…
I did some research on weird inkjet printers a few years ago. We wanted to do stuff like print white[1] graphics continuously onto rolls of black heat shrink tubing. One thing I discovered was that there's whole Chinese industries supplying this stuff in the forms of industrial printers and the application-specific cartridges they consume. And they all had one thing in common: They were based around the functionality…
>The head gets perma-clogged with solids within minutes of disuse in open air. So starting a print job is a race: Get everything set up, uncap the cartridge at the last moment, and then put that cap back on ASAP when the job is over
Decades ago I helped manage a local's school IT systems and we had these Epson C84 printers that used a very photo grade ink. The printheads would clog after a year of teachers printing like 1 document in that year. During that time it seemed like regular purging of ink regardless of print or not was what kept the printheads going. Strategies used by third party repair firms included submerging the head in a cleaner to dissolve the ink on the outside, connecting pipes with the same fluid to the inputs of the top to the printhead and then finally pulling pressure to try and dislodge the material through the head. Due to the non removable design of the Epson print heads, my attempts at trying this would destroy many printheads. I'd like to think this would be a solved problem in 2026. In your case why not run a purge liquid the printhead after each print? The printhead could then be primed with fresh ink each time.
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I did some research on weird inkjet printers a few years ago. We wanted to do stuff like print white[1] graphics continuously onto rolls of black heat shrink tubing. One thing I discovered was that there's whole Chinese industries supplying this stuff in the forms of industrial printers and the application-specific cartridges they consume. And they all had one thing in common: They were based around the functionality…
Are you referring to the numerous Chinese UV printers? >The head gets perma-clogged with solids within minutes of disuse in open air. So starting a print job is a race: Get everything set up, uncap the cartridge at the last moment, and then put that cap back on ASAP when the job is over Decades ago I helped manage a local's school IT systems and we had these Epson C84 printers that used a very photo grade ink. The pr…
We were using fixed-head printers that we found at the bottom of a deep rabbit hole. The work moved through the machine while the printy-bits remained stationary. We were doing this with HP-style monochromatic carts that came loaded with high-solids "ink" (closer to paint, really) that used opaque white pigment.
Unlike Epson's ecosystem, HP carts most-commonly come as assemblies, with a new print head included in the same disposable cartridge as the ink is. The only connection between the carts and the rest of the printer is electrical; there's no plumbing or functional fluids that are external to the carts.
This self-contained nature means that when ink runs out or heads gets clogged, replacement of everything involved with fluids is fast and easy. Production can continue immediately.
It's not problematic at all...other than being expensive. :)
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Are any of those printers inkjets? I think tracking dots are strictly a laser printer thing.
Tracking dots (or lines, or barcodes, or whatever other technique) are not unique to laser printers. They are also not the only surveillance technology built into printers. There's digital watermarking, steganography, CDS, telemetry, and even logs kept in local memory/storage.