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

It really is very simple. You can either leave the Manual Feed Paper Sensor in or remove it. If you remove it you can actually use one of the Operator Panel switches (the Cancel button) to pull the PCB into the rollers. The only other sensor you would need is the equivalent of the Paper In Sensor (PIS), and the simplest is an optical sensor, either reflective, reading a piece of black tape on the edge or bottom of the carrier, or a "U" shaped one, reading a hole in the carrier. This sensor can be mounted externally, right on the Paper Guide. An Exit Sensor is not needed since the MCU can just emulate one in software. Aside from the PIS, which can be salvaged from one of the unused sensors if U shaped, or bought for a dollar or two if reflective, you just need the MCU chip and maybe a bypass capacitor. You can easily do without even a PCB!

All of my earlier machines used the MCU, though as indicated in a previous post, the first ones were unnecessarily complex. I decided to not use the MCU in the Instructables version to simplify the process, even though this required considerably more mechanical work.

One nice thing about DLP is that a run takes just a few seconds. If the print isn't perfect you can just wipe the toner off with a paper towel and run it through again. Just a few seconds between runs! Try that with Toner Transfer!

Happy to answer further questions.

BTW, I am modifying the actual printing process a bit. I think by first using the acetone fix, then running it through a laminator I get better adhesion of the toner to the copper. Just made a PCB using all 5 mil traces, and it came out great. Still have a few more small bugs to work out, but I think the bottom line will be 4-5 mil traces, though I'm not sure if I can make the spaces between traces that small. More to come.

Mark

-----Original Message-----
From: "Bill Maxwell wrmaxwell@... [Homebrew_PCBs]"
Sent: Aug 4, 2014 6:35 PM
To: Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [SPAM]Re: [SPAM]RE: [Homebrew_PCBs] Direct Laser Printing Video



Can you tell us more about the microcontroller hack Mark?

On 5/08/2014 2:39 AM, Mark Lerman mlerman@... [Homebrew_PCBs] wrote:

Hard to tell because I have opened these so many times, but I would guess somewhere in the 10-12 hour range. The actual time to do it is much less, but keeping yourself oriented, keeping track of screws, etc will require attention.

There is another version of the hack that is physically simpler, but it requires the use of a microcontroller. It's actually the method I prefer, but I wanted to make the process accessible to people without microcontroller familiarity.

Mark

Mark

At 10:55 AM 8/4/2014, you wrote:

I haven't had time to view the video yet, but can you estimate how much time it would take for an average person (one who has never been inside a laser printer other than to change a toner cartridge) to modify one of the subject printers?

Thanks,
Dave M

---In Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com, <mlerman@...> wrote :


Here's the Instructable < http://www.instructables.com/id/Modification-of-the-Lexmark-E260-for-Direct-Laser-/

>

Mark