| Electronics > Projects, Designs, and Technical Stuff |
| A4-sized pen plotter |
| << < (3/5) > >> |
| pixelsafoison:
Thanks for all the answers guys - I print roughly 500-800 pages a month, I'm using a Brother printer that can manage somewhere along the lines of under 200 pages per 30€ cartridge. Usually 150ish I've taken a look at HP Instant Ink and that may be a very interesting package for me. What I print is mostly text with a lot of graphics and schematics. The speed of a pen plotter isn't really an issue if I can manage to create an ejection mechanism (a pseudo-paper-tray) as it can run in another room without my supervision, however it is 100% true that no matter what, I'll have fuck ups in my design, some components will not have been chosen properly (AKA: by thinking like an accountant "TAKE THE CHEAPEST ONE!"), and I'll encounter problems that I didn't even know existed. Then the software end of things will have me begging friends in other fields for help which is something I hate doing as apparently no such software seems to exist. Regarding print shops, they are never open when I need them - I end up classes at roughly 6/6:30 PM and they close at 5. They also open later than my first classes - meaning that all in all it would be a complete chore given that there's no one day where I finish early. So I'll probably just go with an HP Instant Ink 20€ membership and see how things go ... That or switch to a lenovo 2-in-1 laptop and just use onenote for all the things instead of using paper. Annotating and so on... I never imagined needing a printer this much - I hate printers x) |
| rstofer:
I don't know that Windows uses the HPGL language to drive an HP LaserJet. Or even PCL. But, if it did, things would be easy. All you need to do is trap the HPGL and translate it to GCODE and that's going to be very simple. I did the reverse: I converted a LaserJet into a plotter. I have an implementation of an IBM 1130 running on an FPGA. One of the most important peripherals, to me, was the CalComp 1627 Drum Plotter. The 1130 emitted 100 6 bit codes per inch of travel. The codes were sparse, consisting of Pen Up, Pen Down, +x, -x, +y, -y. Obviously some combinations are mutually exclusive. So, in keeping with the concept of not changing the factory software, I send these codes to an ARM board (mbed LPC1768) where I accumulate steps, as appropriate, and ultimately convert the steps to HPGL which I send over the network to the LaserJet. It was a simple project. PCL/HPGL is well documented. The thing is, I don't know what the Windows driver sends to the LaserJet. One way to find out is to ask around. The other way is to build a TCP client on a Linux box that will become a printer as far as Windows is concerned. The client will grab the data and store it for later analysis. If it is RAW data, you're out of luck with that particular driver. There may be optional drivers. It seems to me that getting to GCODE from HPGL would be pretty simple. From RAW, not so easy... What does Linux CUPS bring to the dance? |
| SiliconWizard:
Short of not printing as much, of course, there's pretty much only one answer to your quest: just buy a low-cost laser printer, and move on with your life. For $100 of toner, you'll be able to print probably 10000+ pages. If you're currently using an inkjet printer, which I'm assuming, it's a plain disaster for high-volume printing. A pen plotter for printing datasheets and otherwise lots of documents? You must be kidding. It would probably take a whole week to print just one. ;D Not to mention that it would "eat" up pens like candy and would cost you even more in pens than what you may for printer ink. And not to lecture you excessively, but back to my first point: you should definitely stop your current habit of printing everything, and build an habit of reading documents in electronic form. I agree it's easier to read on paper, but at some point you need to suck it up. If you do what you're currently doing at your first job, you'll get your managers angry, and if you keep doing it, you'll eventually get fired. |
| golden_labels:
While I agree it is not a good idea to build such a printer to save money, the argument about ballpens cost is not true. I use the orange BICs (0.30€/pc here) for drawing, and they last for over 80 A5 pages — often including completely covering areas in the drawing. I believe that would be comparable to 40 A4 pages of text. That is 0.0075 €/pg, which is comparable to laser printing. |
| tooki:
€0.15-0.20 per page is extremely expensive. You’d be better off investing in a more expensive printer that uses cheaper ink. My Canon inkjet uses black cartridges that last for 500 pages and cost €15. That’s literally 1/5 the cost of yours. And there are printers that cost less still per page. --- Quote from: SiliconWizard on November 27, 2019, 06:50:59 pm ---Short of not printing as much, of course, there's pretty much only one answer to your quest: just buy a low-cost laser printer, and move on with your life. For $100 of toner, you'll be able to print probably 10000+ pages. If you're currently using an inkjet printer, which I'm assuming, it's a plain disaster for high-volume printing. A pen plotter for printing datasheets and otherwise lots of documents? You must be kidding. It would probably take a whole week to print just one. ;D Not to mention that it would "eat" up pens like candy and would cost you even more in pens than what you may for printer ink. And not to lecture you excessively, but back to my first point: you should definitely stop your current habit of printing everything, and build an habit of reading documents in electronic form. I agree it's easier to read on paper, but at some point you need to suck it up. If you do what you're currently doing at your first job, you'll get your managers angry, and if you keep doing it, you'll eventually get fired. --- End quote --- I agree with everything except your claims about laser vs inkjet, because it’s just not that simple any more. Low end laser printers use $50 cartridges that last just 500 pages, and there are desktop inkjets that use internal ink tanks that last for 7000 pages (and come full!!), with refills costing $20. So again: the cheapest page costs in existence are now with inkjet, not laser. You just can’t look at the cheapest printers. |
| Navigation |
| Message Index |
| Next page |
| Previous page |