Interesting idea...
For convenience, I load all my good paper from the front feeder in my printer, which as I think about it, has a very straight path all the way to the fuser.
Only standard copy paper comes from the bottom tray.
I'm guessing your printer doesn't have an alternative paper input?
--- In Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com, "godzilera" <yah.5.peteben@...> wrote:
>
> Hello everyone,
> thanks for the responses.
>
> I forgot to mention that I was only getting scaling problems in the 'Y' direction. Speed of the paper through the printer is what affects this scaling.
> After a few tests, I have gotten much better results, at least with the HP photo paper. I figured that the inexpensive printer was struggling to drag the paper out of the bin and into the unit, especially since the paper path of this printer is not straight at all.
> So, instead of printing my PCB design at the top of the page, I asked the driver to flip the page upside down, so that the design now comes out at the bottom.
> I think the printer is struggling to pull out the page and slows down at the beginning. Once the paper hits the fuser, I think this stabilizes, and the bottom of the page comes out a the right speed. I think this is more pronounced with the thicker paper, as there is a one inch difference between the position of the PCB layout on a page of regular paper and photo paper. This seems to confirm that the thicker photo paper moves more slowly through the printer, at least initially.
>
> Thanks,
>
>
> --- In Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com, "Dennis" <nojoeco@> wrote:
> >
> >
> > I use multiple printers and suddenly all of them seemed to develop a similar problem to yours at the same time.
> > Turned out it was my son's A/C cycling and pulling the power down on that circuit. On my fastest printer you can actually hear the printer slow in sync with the power drop. It shouldn't effect the scaling but it did.
> > My oldest printer doesn't do this at all, so it tells me that manufacturers are probably making the power supplies as cheap as they can.
> > I've now got a power stabilizer thing for big home theaters and the problem is gone.
> > You may also want to make sure there are no power saving or toner saving settings turned on, no telling how the power or toner is "saved"!
> >
> > --- In Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com, "godzilera" <yah.5.peteben@> wrote:
> > >
> > > Although I have been making successful single-sided PCBs for a while now, I just recently decided to try making a double sided board with SMD (.5mm TQFP) parts. So, I went out and bought a new inexpensive Samsung ML-2165 printer. The problem I am having is getting the scaling right. It's inconsistent and varies from print to print. Plain paper works pretty good, but the Pulsar paper comes out too short. I tried adjusting the scaling in the Kicad print dialog, but it seems to come out either too wide or too short. Very frustrating, and I have wasted four sheets of TTS paper so far.
> > > I have a couple of boxes of HP glossy photo paper, so I may try that.
> > >
> > > Any advice?
> > >
> > > Thanks,
> > >
> > > Pete
> > >
> >
>