Archive of the former Yahoo!Groups mailing list: Homebrew PCBs

Mycroft,

Be careful trying to run a PCB in on that tray, I jammed my printer
up real bad trying that. I finally got it all back working normal
again and won't be messing with that one anymore.

The good news is (not only did I save the other printer) that I was
in office depot this past weekend to get a USB cable and they had an
R220 on the clearance rack for $37.00 - I snatched it up right quick!

So, I now have two R220s - one designated for the PCB project.

I highly recommend you start out by running your printer normally
for a while. Print on some ordinary paper and watch all the sensors
and such. Then print on a some CDs for a while, again, watching all
the sensors and determining what "Changes" when the printer is
printing on CDs as opposed to paper.

Based on my observations so far, I really think the goal isn't to
use the existing CD Printing features. Rather, I think it would be
easier to work out a way to print the PCBs as if they were fed
through the standard sheet feeder.

If you try to treat the PCBs as "CDs", the printer is going to use
it's "SPecial logic" and may constrain the printing only in the area
where a CD is suppose to be. By working with the standard paper
feeder's rear feed method, you should be able to print full size
(8.5 X 11).

I have not had a chance to tinker yet but I think there would be a
couple of things that have to be done.

1) when you print CDs it appears as though the print head moves up -
so this needs to be done for printing on PCBs. Yet, when this is
done, you dont want the printer thinking it is being fed a CD to
print on!

2) There is a slot in the back to allow the CD tray to pass through
for printing. This is too narrow to allow a large PCB to pass
through, So, Figure out how to widen that slot.

3) Determine what the printer senses to know paper is being fed and
that there is paper in the printer. Something needs to be done to
trick the printer into seeing sensors behave normally while feeding
a PCB into the newly widened back slot.

That's about all I have so far. It may be weeks, possibly months
before I can get back into it so I will be watching your progress
with much interest!

Chris