Power supply

Today got my brand new bench power supply I can use for high current/high voltage applications. I have run all my previous electronics projects off simple batteries. However, this project here requires experimentation with high current DC motors.

So the model is MATRIX MPS-3005L-3. It has one fixed output at 5V/3A and two variable outputs at 0-30V/0-5A. It has a big-ass fan at the back that is quite noisy. But I guess that was to be expected. Pretty heavy too - 8kg.

It is clearly Chinese though, as all cheap electronics these days. This can be readily verified from this chinglish:

It's Christmas Come Early :)

I got some tools I need for this project. It seems so far I have not lived like a man. I didn't even have a hacksaw. I do now :)

Into pieces

Today I found time to pull it into more pieces. No going back now.

This is the printing rail: It slides on an aluminum pipe, driven by a motor with two leads. Probably pulse modulated then. Positioning information/motion control is provided by a BPW encoder strip.

This is the underside of the printer:

And this is the brain: Paper is driven again using a two-lead motor. Motion/position control is provided by BPW wheel and I'll probably use it at my end application. I'm going to cover up the cartridge/printing heads with some tape to prevent them from drying up. It'll probably be a month or more before I can put life back into it.

A printer acquired

Welcome to my gray projects. Here I will try to document my activities in trying to make something cool.

The aim at the current project is to build a 3D printer. It will be difficult as fair amount of mechanical engineering is involved - all I'm accustomed to is moving bits around.

So I acquired a printer. I picked the HP F2280. It only has one print head but they are replaceable. This allows for easy and relatively cheap experimentation with bounding agents. When I get there one day.

Here it is: Cost me $60. Will now try to print a test page using Linux and then I will head on to destroying it. This will be fun. Yes.

The aim is to utilize the inkjet printing mechanism, so basically leaving the printing functionality intact. But replacing the ink with adhesive.

It uses cartridges c21 and c22. c21 is the black ink and c22 is the tricolor ink. Both cartridges are installed side by side. Yay! I can do color printing :) There are instructions on how to refill them. This same mechanism can be used to actually replace the ink with something more useful for our purposes.

Printing a page under Linux took a bit of juggling, but finally worked. Then I decided to take my first action, and opened the cover. The scanner side is just a piece with embedded motor, gears and rollers. The timing belt is made from hard plastic.

[0]indrek: envy me :)
[5]logan: oh ok
[5]logan: what am i looking at indrek?
[0]indrek: a hp printer. opened up. ready for surgery.
[1]ns: indrek can you fix printers
[1]ns: could u fix my espon printers indrek
[5]logan: what are you going to do to it?
[0]indrek: terrible things. muahahaha!

Here's where the middle part has been lifted off: