Electronics > Projects, Designs, and Technical Stuff
A4-sized pen plotter
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Alex Eisenhut:
I briefly had one of these waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay back

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/COMMODORE-computer-vic-1520-color-colour-printer-plotter-vintage/184035375596?hash=item2ad95cf9ec:g:BAQAAOSwNoBdzLH0

Although these must be dry as Mars by now

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/VINTAGE-COMMODORE-PRINTER-PENS-FOR-1520-COLOR-PLOTTER-LOT-OF-5-SETS/383271787539?hash=item593cc75c13:g:RsMAAOSwfVtd0dS1

The plotter eventually fails when the tiny plastic gear on the motor shaft cracks. But it's fun to watch going, and it serves no real purpose since it plots on 4 inch wide calculator paper.

IDEngineer:
It's also useful to note that the one-time market leader (?) in pen plotters, Hewlett Packard, long ago abandoned that approach in favor of ink jet "plotters". I actually had one of those, could print on E size media (!), and used enormous cartridges that are still widely available from HP and many third party suppliers.

Pen plotting is cool to watch but like using a slide rule in the face of modern calculators. There's several good reasons nobody uses them anymore.
tooki:
Yep. True plotter mechanisms only survive as vinyl cutters.
austfox:
Like others have said, if it’s a cost issue then either a laser printer or an Epson eco-tank is the way to go. I have both, however my daily printer is the eco-tank because I like the prints it produces.

However, if you like the idea of a plotter and rather than reinventing the wheel, have a lookout for a 2nd hand HP7475A printer. There are adapters you can 3D print (or buy from eBay) to allow you to use Sharpies for the plotter pens. There are few videos on Youtube where you can see the Sharpies in action, eg:

https://youtu.be/soS4-wyP3KI
mariush:

--- Quote from: pixelsafoison on November 27, 2019, 03:47:11 pm ---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


--- End quote ---

Dude, get a laser printer that can easily be refilled, without having to use reset chips or expensive reset stuff.

There's cheap models like Brother HL-1222we  or brother HL-L2312d which can be refilled with toner (about 10$ for ~1000 pages) after you install a reset gear that costs a few dollars (or you can buy an original toner for 50-100$ which you can then refill lots of times)
However, the drum is usually rated only for about 10k pages, so you'd have to replace that, and that will also cost 50-100$.

It's more efficient to pay a bit more, for example have a look at:

Brother-HL-L5000D : https://www.amazon.co.uk/Brother-HL-L5000D-Printer-Connected-Printing/dp/B01C96C99C/

It's 147 uk pounds (170 euro or 190$)
Comes with a drum that's rated for 30K..50K pages (new genuine drum is ~150$)
Comes with startup toner that's good for 2000 pages. 
There's:
Standard Toner TN-3430 - Approx. 3,000 pages, (genuine one is ~75$)
High Yield Toner TN-3480 - Approx. 8,000 pages (genuine one is ~125$)

You can easily refill these toners, so you only need to buy one of these and then keep refilling it with toner that costs less than 10$ for 1000 pages.

here's a video - remember you do this once every 3000 or 8000 pages so in your case maybe twice a year, taking 30m to 1h to refill won't be a big deal:



 

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