Smoke_Jaguar
Man who touches printers inappropriately.
After doing lots of homework on the hundreds of dirt-cheap Chinese DTF, solvent and UV printers flooding the market, I figured there had to be some basic ecosystem to them. Most of these printers are based on commodity parts, off-the shelf printheads and tend to share a vast array of parts.
Since Epson launched the i3200/i1600 heads and started selling them to other integrators, heads like the DX4, DX5 and DX7s seem to be on the way out. i3200's seem to retail in the low $700-900 range for the 4-channel variants and have both a large path and great DPI/nozzle count. The heads come in UV, aqueous and eco-solvent variations, as well as 8-channel versions, so there are a lot of options.
All in one control boards are also pretty prevalent and can control anywhere from a single head, to 16 or even more. These boards typically use a fiber optic network cable to link to the slider board that actually controls the board, so data connections are absolutely dirt cheap and can pass an insane amount of bandwidth. Mimaki EPL/slider boards use a similar configuration as well. Firmware is passable, but translations are kind of dodgy on a good day, but that is something that can be fixed Depending on the capability of the board, they can run around $70-$1200.
Slider boards are typically slotted with driver boards that actually run the piezo heads, usually at 42 volts and a pretty hefty current. This allows for replacement of much cheaper driver boards if one blows up, as well as makes reverse engineering them much easier. Should there be a need to modify boards, this comes in pretty handy. A typical dual (4-channel) i3200 slider runs on a single fiber link, a four head board will run dual fiber link, and so on. Complete with drivers, these can be purchased for roughly $120-150 per head. Since data is run over fiber, the cable chain just needs ink lines, fiber and power, resulting in a decently compact harness or umbilical without the need for flat flex cables.
Motors, power supplies, drivers, encoders and the like are all off-the-shelf items, so no real engineering there. Printer frames can be sourced from dead printers with a retrofit head carriage, new capping station and custom board mounts where needed. Ink can be handled with some basic pour-in tanks, with circulators if needed. Flatbed printers are also an option, since the motors don't care if they're moving a roll of media, or driving across a flatbed if the encoder knows how many steps it needs to go per millimeter or whatever. Lots of this stuff can easily transfer over from systems like 3D printers if need, which can help a ton for things like customizing firmware.
Software is going to be the real trick on this project, most Chinese RIP software sucks. As insane as it is, we want to keep it free and open source as well, to allow it to be modified as needed and built on. With good driver support, can do some pretty basic layout and RIP work just through the print service of most operating systems. With proper profiles and such, wouldn't be crazy hard for commercial RIP to support such a printer as well.
Currently talking to some Chinese suppliers of the printer kits to see what all they can offer in the way of hardware, firmware and such. Seems like it'll definitely be a project that takes time, but a good portion of the work is already done. Just lots of customization ahead, as well as a concerted effort to make things modular and easy for advanced end-users to play with.
Since Epson launched the i3200/i1600 heads and started selling them to other integrators, heads like the DX4, DX5 and DX7s seem to be on the way out. i3200's seem to retail in the low $700-900 range for the 4-channel variants and have both a large path and great DPI/nozzle count. The heads come in UV, aqueous and eco-solvent variations, as well as 8-channel versions, so there are a lot of options.
All in one control boards are also pretty prevalent and can control anywhere from a single head, to 16 or even more. These boards typically use a fiber optic network cable to link to the slider board that actually controls the board, so data connections are absolutely dirt cheap and can pass an insane amount of bandwidth. Mimaki EPL/slider boards use a similar configuration as well. Firmware is passable, but translations are kind of dodgy on a good day, but that is something that can be fixed Depending on the capability of the board, they can run around $70-$1200.
Slider boards are typically slotted with driver boards that actually run the piezo heads, usually at 42 volts and a pretty hefty current. This allows for replacement of much cheaper driver boards if one blows up, as well as makes reverse engineering them much easier. Should there be a need to modify boards, this comes in pretty handy. A typical dual (4-channel) i3200 slider runs on a single fiber link, a four head board will run dual fiber link, and so on. Complete with drivers, these can be purchased for roughly $120-150 per head. Since data is run over fiber, the cable chain just needs ink lines, fiber and power, resulting in a decently compact harness or umbilical without the need for flat flex cables.
Motors, power supplies, drivers, encoders and the like are all off-the-shelf items, so no real engineering there. Printer frames can be sourced from dead printers with a retrofit head carriage, new capping station and custom board mounts where needed. Ink can be handled with some basic pour-in tanks, with circulators if needed. Flatbed printers are also an option, since the motors don't care if they're moving a roll of media, or driving across a flatbed if the encoder knows how many steps it needs to go per millimeter or whatever. Lots of this stuff can easily transfer over from systems like 3D printers if need, which can help a ton for things like customizing firmware.
Software is going to be the real trick on this project, most Chinese RIP software sucks. As insane as it is, we want to keep it free and open source as well, to allow it to be modified as needed and built on. With good driver support, can do some pretty basic layout and RIP work just through the print service of most operating systems. With proper profiles and such, wouldn't be crazy hard for commercial RIP to support such a printer as well.
Currently talking to some Chinese suppliers of the printer kits to see what all they can offer in the way of hardware, firmware and such. Seems like it'll definitely be a project that takes time, but a good portion of the work is already done. Just lots of customization ahead, as well as a concerted effort to make things modular and easy for advanced end-users to play with.
