Stefan,
Be careful the "But the pattern i printed could be etched just fine"
may come back and haunt you.
Why not go ahead an etch the board to actually duplicate Voltan's
success.
Remember based on Voltan's work, some inks are less stable in the
etchant than lhters
Myc
--- In
Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com, "Stefan Trethan"
<stefan_trethan@...> wrote:
>
> I managed to replicate Volkan's success with direct inkjet
printing.
>
> First i had to deal with the ink chips. I ended up soldering them
together
> in a stack (they are connected all parallel in the printer). I
simply
> stuck wires through the vias and made a stack out of them, also
connecting
> them to the little PCB carrying the contacts for them. This PCB
is
> attached to a section of ribbon cable that can be cut from the
rest of the
> head cable (don't slip with the knife!).
>
> The really neat thing is one can simply pull the ribbon cable out
of the
> PCB now, and take the whole stack of chips to a resetter like
> <http://www.eddiem.com/photo/printer/chipreset/resetchip.html>
(make a
> blind reset to reset the whole stack at once).
>
> Now the the bloody printer shuts up about the chips being empty i
could
> find out why it would no longer print.
>
> I found there was no ink whatsoever in the black cart. The whole
fill must
> have gotten out somehow. I have no idea how it managed that feat,
looking
> at the waste ink absorber i think it may have gone there, may...
I
> wouldn't know where else.
>
> Anyway, i put a small amount of MISPRO ink into the black cart and
the
> head started to work just fine again.
> I can feed a strip of PCB through, if stuck to a page horizontally
so it
> will go around the paper path bend.
>
> Then i started to experiment with printer settings and got
something that
> worked after a while.
> I must play with the settings some more since i still have some
puddling,
> and i must modify the paper path for PCBs and raise the head
(currently it
> is too close). But the pattern i printed could be etched just fine
and
> everything, just like Volkan says.
>
> The vanishing ink problem must be resolved - maybe it is the "dry
sponge"
> refill method that is the problem. I should get a spongeless cart
for this
> printer.
>
> When i'm confident the printer is no longer losing vast amounts of
ink i
> can fiddle with the settings some more to get things just perfect.
I
> noticed the different settings will affect resolution (too low and
you see
> banding just like with a old printer), ink amount (too much and
you see
> puddling), and color mixture. Some settings will use vast amounts
of blue
> color even though i print something black.
>
> Anyway, i'm confident everyone can do it. The key is just a modern
printer
> with enough resolution to prevent the banding. The old models i
tried
> before had the nozzles too far apart they would form individual
lines on
> the (not wicking) copper.
> I expect i can soon put the fuser for TT into long term storage. I
hope to
> find the usb cable later to do a scan.
>
> ST
>