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