Comments on: Weekend Physical Computing DIY: Strip an Inkjet Printer for Parts

By: Bob

Bob — Sat, 24 May 2008 23:39:04 +0000

how can I get the specs on the stepper motors in an HP 932C deskjet?

By: annzee

annzee — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 02:07:20 +0000

I want to print t-shirts. I know there has to be away to turn my inkjet into a garment printer. Garment printers are priced from $10,000 to 20,000 because of special ink. If the fabric is treated the ink from inkjet works just fine. But unfortunately I am at a completely lost as to how to accomplish this.
Please Help
Annzee14

By: Rich

Rich — Thu, 23 Nov 2006 16:01:22 +0000

Just in case nobody thought of it…a good source of old printers is thrift shops…goodwill,salvation army etc.

By: Jaymis

Jaymis — Sat, 04 Nov 2006 02:04:50 +0000

Edison: I’m sure you could, but you need to get the beep out of it first, so I guess you could force a paper jam to get some kind of constant beeping, or you could just rip off the piezo and use it for something else.

@Acidrain: Pull the printer apart and have a look at what’s there. In mine there was a great gear assembly in which the power gear only moved in one direction but the armature moves back and forth. Ingenious stuff!

My Arduino speaks Serial through USB, although you can get plain serial or bluetooth versions. USB is easy because it also provides power.

By: acidrain

acidrain — Sat, 04 Nov 2006 01:51:08 +0000

I have an inkjet sitting in the backseat of my car. My plan is to make a autloader for DVD/CD’s for a burner. I have an external burner waiting to go, I just need an arduino and some time to learn it.

Initial thoughts:
Will need a stepper to move the lifting arm back and forth between a pile of blank CD/DVDs, the burner, and a pile of completed discs. Will need an optical or electro-mechanical method of seeing where the lifting arm is along the path. I was planning on trying to use the rod from the printer to build it, right on top of the inkjet holder, possibly using the ribbon cable that connects the inkjet head to the logic board. Need some way to lift and lower the head, possible with a zero-force switch to tell when the head is pushed against a disc or the burner. I was thinking of just a long bolt with a motor to turn a nut to raise and lower the arm. I’m not sure how to do the control yet. I don’t know enough about how the arduino comunicates with the PC. Possibly over the USB or better(easier?) over the serial. Or even over the parallel port, but that would take some pins from the GPIO. Reversible motor to raise and lower the arm.

Feel free to yank my idea (it has been done with legoes, wood and relays in various forms, have yet to see an arduino one), but please post it on makezine or something.

By: edison

edison — Sat, 04 Nov 2006 00:36:58 +0000

Since old printers tend to make beeping sound, probably from a pezo-transducer, I wounder if you can circuit bend a printer?

By: Scavenging a printer for parts » The PC Doctor

Scavenging a printer for parts » The PC Doctor — Fri, 03 Nov 2006 21:05:32 +0000

[...] Create Digital Motion shows you want you can scavenge from an old printer. [...]

By: Peter Kirn

Peter Kirn — Tue, 31 Oct 2006 01:31:12 +0000

I love it; great idea! Now I just need to rescue some more printers … :)

By: slabman

slabman — Sun, 29 Oct 2006 18:30:04 +0000

If you can move the head carriage freely enough, how about replacing the motor that’s linked to the rubber belt drive with a potentiometer, optical encoder or even variable capacitor. That would make a cool Tannerin type controller for wherever you need a long fader-type action.(With the potentiometer, it would be a great controller for a SoundLab minisynth, especially with an envelope triggering button mounted on the head carriage)