The RepRap project is looking at using the HP 51604A inkjet cartridge,
which is cheap and easy to interface. There's an excellent book on
it: Inkjet Applications by Matt Gilliland -
It's very easy to drive from any microcontroller - all the extra it
needs is an open-collector transistor array to shift voltages. We'll
probably use the Arduino microcontroller, which, again, is simple to
program (just type C in a window and hit the download button...)
All the RepRap driver software is open-source, of course; it's still
under development, but you can download it now. It's Java, so it's
completely platform independent. It is geared to the RepRap hardware
architecture, but it's pretty modular. Take what you need for free!
Best wishes
Adrian
Dr Adrian Bowyer
http://staff.bath.ac.uk/ensab
http://reprap.org
> C.Hauser@liverpool.ac.uk writes:
>
>
> Dear List,
>
> Has anyone successfully retrofitted a desktop printer (Epson, Lexmark, HP
> etc) with build height capabilities ? (for the sake of argument
> lets ignore the
> addition of powder dispensing technology). The mechanical system is not my
> major concern (although perhaps someone might suggest otherwise)
> but more the
> control side, particular the supplied software and drivers of said chosen
> printer. I would like to use a multi cartridge printer for
> dispensing more that
> one type of ink/binder and one of my concerns is with the way in which the
> printer chooses which cartridges to dispense ink from. I initially thought I
> could control this by the use of different colours within images to be
> printed, but in reality the solution appears far from trivial. I
> think I may need
> the likes of HP, Epson etc to help out with printer software source code.
>
> I would be interested to know anyone's thoughts and experiences on this
> topic.
Received on Wed Feb 13 21:02:18 2008
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