• YⓄ乙 @aussie.zone
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    1 year ago

    I dont know the technical knowhow or how complex will an open source printer hardware and software could be ? Like nobody ever tried building one ?

    • WaterWaiver@aussie.zone
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      1 year ago

      I’ve thought of doing hardware design attempts on this before. My rough mental notes:

      .

      Ink:

      • Ink tech is mostly the heads (either piezo or thermal). There are some projects on the web where people repurpose these for other stuff, so it’s doable, but you then have to rely on parts from 1st party printer makers (?)

      .

      Toner (aka “laser”):

      • Toner and drums are cheap and made by many 3rd parties. Design around whatever models are easiest to get clones of, don’t reinvent the wheel.
      • Similar for coated fuser rollers (hot rolly bit that melts the toner to the paper).
      • To put the image on the drum you will need either a high res LED bar (only available 1st party?) or a spinning prism + laser (probably easier to get parts for to make).
      • Work around prism spinning stability issues by attaching a honking great rotational inertial mass to it.
      • Stick to single colour (single laser, single drum, single toner) to begin with; colour is the same thing x4

      .

      Paper path:

      • Modern printers folder the paper over several times in complicated ways. It’s very space efficient.
      • Stuff that: do everything flat and linear. The printer will be an awkward shape (long and thin) but will be many times easier to work, test and modify.

      .

      Electronics:

      • Chuck a small SBC on it and keep the software as portable as possible to other platforms (not tied to the one micro/brand/peripheral set). This means using simple GPIO for paperpath sensors and standard buses like I2C for digital sensors. (My current work project has been burned by a microcontroller going out of stock, it would have been much better if we threw a more generic SBC at the problem).
      • Best interface to throw high bandwidth sync’d laser pulse data (image) out of? For compatibility and headache reduction maybe a USB bridge chip to some simple SRAM that gets dumped as a row when the laser starts a row across the drum. Maybe that doesn’t exist.

      .

      Extras:

      • A printer that scans and prints with almost the same mechanism. Feed a page over the drum where the laser hits, record the reflected light intensity, produce a B&W (or maybe even grayscale) image from this.

      .

      Legal:

      • Do it in a country where you are free to break patents for non-commercial use
      • Commercial attempts: LOL I suspect the existing printer companies will own patents on everything including the concept of human vision. Be prepared to spend your entire life savings (and lifetime) in courts. They do NOT want more competitors.
  • rambos@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    I think I have the same model (dont judge me, didnt pay for that shit lol), but no sticker here. Not using cable anyway Im thinking should I toss it after reading about hp

    • cheesepotatoes@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Same, bought an HP a few years back without knowing about their shady business practices.

      Eagerly waiting for when it kicks the bucket so I can get a Brother printer.

  • slumlordthanatos@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    HP tech here. Stay FAR away from any of their consumer-grade devices. They’re cheap, poorly built, and difficult for even HP techs to work on. Save your money and get something with better build quality.

    Their business-class devices are okay, because most of those actually have decent build quality and are easily repaired. But stay away from their cheap devices, especially their printers (obviously).

    • Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      1 year ago

      We are also an HP/HPE shop.
      Like you said. Not the cheap shit. And definitely not the cheap printer shit!
      ProDesk or EliteDesk (maybe even used?)

    • FishersDonut@lemmy.ca
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      1 year ago

      Thanks for this, good to know. I’ve had nothing but problems with my HP and had many a day of wanting to schwing it out the window.

      Any particular brand out there that’s still known for decent build quality? I feel wary of them all now.

  • LichbaneLB@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Can someone explain why there’s a cloud printing service involved here at all? We’ve been able to print over WiFi for a decade now.

    • Fuck_u_spez_@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Because they want you to subscribe to their ink cartridge auto-ship service that will send you a new one and charge your credit card any time one is empty, clogged, or just because they feel like it.

  • ChapolinColoradoNZ@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Best trick in the book is to download the Windows 7 version of the drivers or software package as it is all prior to this cloud BS. Install that in your windows 10 or 11 and it will all work as intended.

    • TimeNaan@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Or just use linux with CUPS and you never have to let hp install spyware on your computer.

  • zaph@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I had a customer come in on Friday because they couldn’t get their brand new printer to work. When I pulled the sticker off a new hp hater was born.