CHAPTER ONE
1.0 INTRODUCTION
The term Printing is associated with two dimensions products and decoration techniques, whether on paper or fabric or even printed images, in order to associate the printing expression with one of the methods of formation as the workers in graphic design field are not used to it.
The print cartridge to design around is the DESKJECT 1050 PRINTER. There is extremely detailed information available about this particular print cartridge [1], and it is very versatile.
The printer requires a device to hold the cartridge, and needs some means of connecting to the electrical contacts on the cartridge. The mechanical holding parts must be manufacturable by the rapid prototyper (RP machine) used to make many of the RepRap’s parts. It is thought that the RepRap should be able to produce similar parts fairly soon.
The electronics which connect to and drive the printer (to cause it squirt ink, rather than actually move the print head) must also be designed and produced. To aid this, an open source microcontroller,Arduino, has been provided. Thearduino uses its own coding language, based on C++, which must be used to programme the microcontroller; writing the code is also part of this project.
1.1 AIM AND OBJECTIVE
The primary aim of this project is to maintenance of a deskjet 1050 printer. The aim of this project is not to produce a perfectly designed printer, just one that works. Future versions of the printer are likely to be designed more efficiently, and in a more suitable manner for the capabilities of what the RepRap will be capable of.