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Testing per Hand

A project log for CIJ Printer

An Open Source Continuous Inkjet Printer

dominik-meffertDominik Meffert 04/05/2021 at 00:232 Comments

To test the printer for the first time without GCODE and software I 3D printed two parts (A printhead mounting bracket and an encoder mounting bracket) for mounting the printhead and encoder to a cheap 3D printer.

To test it I entered HACKADAY.IO on the CIJ printer display and powered the printer controller what also powered the MOSFET board and triggered the product detect.

Then I moved the printhead by hand to print the message and that's it. The first printed message.

I also tried printing on my hand :)

The ink that I used is (as far as I know) acetone based and could be cleaned off by soap with some effort or immediately with the make up fluid.

Discussions

Paul McClay wrote 04/08/2021 at 04:28 point

It sounds like you could use the generated EMF from a (disconnected) stepper coil for the _encoder_ signal. Then you could push the head across the page by hand and get text metered out exactly along that axis. If I'm understanding what _encoder_ does. Dunno what use it would have.

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Dominik Meffert wrote 04/08/2021 at 06:11 point

For placing the ink dropplets at the right position the printer needs an encoder signal - it could also use a fixed feedrate but I thought the encoder signal would be much more practical, because it would work at every feedrate.

The encoder signal is a pulsed signal created by a rotary encoder that you can see on the second picture. The one that I use sends 600 pulses per revolution.

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