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My group has been looking into this for a couple of months.

Lots of laboratories have achieved inkjet-built circuits in the past, to the level of "proof of concept". To date, all of them require exotic materials or expensive materials or have relatively high trace resistance, or some combination of the three. None are suitable for low-end hobbyist application yet. The project from the article is a good starting point for interesting research.

The issue with silver ink is cost: silver ink is massively expensive, even by inkjet standards. To date AFAIK, no one has been able to lay down copper traces with good (meaning: low) trace resistance suitable for prototype boards. A lot of people are working on this.

Inkjet printers can be easily modified to accept thicker material by mechanically raising the head transport mechanism. This usually involves cutting something apart and inserting shims and spacers (machine-screw washers work well), but this is not terribly difficult. Then cut away the angled paper feed mechanism (that bends the paper from vertical to horizontal) and add horizontal rails to guide the media through the unit. Also not terribly difficult. You can then print on just about anything: phenolic, glass, plastic, &c.

Inkjet print heads use one of two mechanisms: thermal and ultrasonic. Thermal vaporizes some of the ink to accelerate the droplet, while ultrasonic uses a piezoelectric mechanism to "squeeze" the droplet out. Almost all printers use thermal heads, Epson being the notable exception. Check the specs to see if the unit you're using has the type of head you want & if your ink can withstand being vaporized without clogging the pores.

Clean unfilled cartridges are available from InkSupply.com for experimenting, and you may need a cartridge chip resetter to reset the counter to "full". You can directly lay down etch resist by using a wax-based ink such as Mispro Yellow.

I've got a modified printer next to me. You can use it to print just about any liquid onto any flat, thin material... and not just conductive traces. You can print fluorescent dyes, or solvents that make microchannel arrays in CD-rom disks (place in spinner to force a liquid through the microarray channels). A colleague at MIT claims that they are printing biologicals as well; ie - laying down micro-organisms on patterned nutrients. (NB: I don't know that the microorganisms are inkjet printed, his may be a hybrid system.)

Lots of potential for interesting research here.

My group has been looking into this for a couple of months.

Lots of laboratories have achieved inkjet-built circuits in the past, to the level of "proof of concept". To date, all of them require exotic materials or expensive materials or have relatively high trace resistance, or some combination of the three. None are suitable for low-end hobbyist application yet. The project from the article is a good starting point for interesting research.

The issue with silver ink is cost: silver ink is massively expensive, even by inkjet standards. To date AFAIK, no one has been able to lay down copper traces with good (meaning: low) trace resistance suitable for prototype boards. A lot of people are working on this.

Inkjet printers can be easily modified to accept thicker material by mechanically raising the head transport mechanism. This usually involves cutting something apart and inserting shims and spacers (machine-screw washers work well), but this is not terribly difficult. Then cut away the angled paper feed mechanism (that bends the paper from vertical to horizontal) and add horizontal rails to guide the media through the unit. Also not terribly difficult. You can then print on just about anything: phenolic, glass, plastic, &c.

Inkjet print heads use one of two mechanisms: thermal and ultrasonic. Thermal vaporizes some of the ink to accelerate the droplet, while ultrasonic uses a piezoelectric mechanism to "squeeze" the droplet out. Almost all printers use thermal heads, Epson being the notable exception. Check the specs to see if the unit you're using has the type of head you want & if your ink can withstand being vaporized without clogging the pores.

Clean unfilled cartridges are available from InkSupply.com for experimenting, and you may need a cartridge chip resetter to reset the counter to "full". You can directly lay down etch resist by using a wax-based ink such as Mispro Yellow.

I've got a modified printer next to me. You can use it to print just about any liquid onto any flat, thin material... and not just conductive traces. You can print fluorescent dyes, or solvents that make microchannel arrays in CD-rom disks (place in spinner to force a liquid through the microarray channels). A colleague at MIT claims that they are printing biologicals as well; ie - laying down micro-organisms on patterned nutrients. (NB: I don't know that the microorganisms are inkjet printed, his may be a hybrid system.)

Lots of potential for interesting research here.

You don't really need a new printer. What you need is a Continuous Flow Systems. Never used one myself, but it does fit your description and is available today for a lot of printer models.

Yeah, there are a few solutions out there to reset the cartridge chip so that you can refill it.

Inksupply seems to have a few solutions.

British company proprint has some pay solutions.

Also found this.

I couldn't find any "free software" solutions to the chip problem, albeit I only looked for a little while.

Companies claim it is possible. I was asking for the experiences of people who had actually done it. Note that both sets of instructions say you can just press a button for 5 seconds, and the Canon printers won't check for ink. It appears that, by being less abusive than other printer companies, Canon is slowly taking over the market (until the Memjet printers discussed in the Slashdot article are released):

Canon ink cartridge refill kits for the latest series of printers:
http://www.inksupply.com/cankits.cfm

http://www.atlanticinkjet.com/ink-cartridge-refill s-canon-PGI-5,CLI-8BK.asp

Refill instructions

More refill instructions:
http://www.bsprintcartridges.com/canon-pgi5-refill -instructions.htm

Actually, if you do a lot of printing, you can get a continuous flow system for some ink jet printers. I used one when I was doing alot of printing. Took price per page (11X17 page, not 8.5X11) from 30 cents per page to 1.9 cents per page, AND you can still print high quality photos as well http://www.inksupply.com/cobra.cfm

Don't get me wrong... I still like film as a medium. It's beautiful, high resolution per volume, and requires pretty base fundamental technologies. That old medium or large format camera from the early 20th century is still going to outperform digital in terms of raw resolution. Small format is debatable, esp since color resolution was getting close to that of old B&W the last time I checked. Contact prints, while lossy, is as low tech as you can get. I use to get away with using an old slide projector and an easel on the wall.

But who wants to work in a dark room? You've got the chemistry issue, bulky enlarger issue, and making a room light tight issue, not to speak of working under a safe light. And the printer market is so saturated that you can get an entry level photo printer for $100, an a5 dye sub for $300 and laser for $400. HP has their own photo gray cart for their printers, or you can go with bulk ink and B&W multitone ink.

http://www.lyson.com/quad-black-tone.html
http://www.inksupply.com/bwpage.cfm
http://www.weink.com/ecom/catalog/chromiumbw_-_mak e_your_own_b_w_ink_kits_4228684.htm

If I was going to get back into B&W imagery... I'd get my self a $100 Canon i960 inkjet printer if not an Epson, hex black tone ink, and go print happy. Lots of control, buckish/page, Ilford classic pearl paper, and go print happy.

I bought a refill kit at Costco as it was the first one I'd found that had Photo Cyan, and Photo Magenta (for 6 color prints)

Oh gawd that stuff. IMS. http://www.ims-ink.com/

Don't get me wrong, I'm willing to believe there are printers out there it works well in. I have used it once is a C6578DN color cart, and I was pleased with the result but I didn't use the enclosed plugs. They are hard plastic and don't seal anything well. But from what i've seen they tend to leak out of Epsons and Canons alike. Will have to try it in an old canon BJ on it's last legs just for laughs. But my master plan is to dump it's ink and use the bottles for stuff bought elsewhere.

I've been ordering ink from http://www.inksupply.com/ . The average price is about $2.00 or $2.50/oz for ink at least matched to the printer. IIRC the IMS kit averages to about $1.00/oz. Like most bulk ink shops, they are more geared tward Epson esp for archival inks, but carry matching ink for most printers.

Not to be anal, but isn't it cyan, magenta, yello (CMY)? Blue is part of RGB. There is a difference IIRC.

Even if it is a three-colour CMY ink cartridge, that's not particularly advanced - my fairly basic Epson Stylus Photo 1290 uses five-colour CcMmY cartridges along with the separate black one, the lower-case initials being lighter versions of the 'pure' colours.

If I printed a bit more, I'd buy one of those continuous ink flow systems as mentioned earlier - but they're terribly expensive!

From my own experience with cheap photo paper and cheap, non Epson ink in off-the-shelf cartridges - the colours are awful, the printing can be fuzzy, and I've no idea how long the printouts will last. So I just stick with the Epson stuff...

(Oh, and Spider Blog: when I started work this morning, the spider was waiting on my mouse-mat (actually a coffee-stained iBook manual). I moved my friendly arachnid out the way, and it's currently trundling around some paperwork on my desk. Wahey!)

I know, for example, that inksupply.com offers continuous flow ink systems that use some tube connections to feed the cartridge directly from bottles of ink. (but they currently only support Epson)

There is much more support for Epson CIS systems than Canon. The only place outside of e-bay that sold CIS canon kits was www.colorbat.com. They stopped making the "Canon Weasel Widget" because, "I'm simply tired of trying to deal with folks who buy things, can't figure out how to use them, and then want their money back". Canon is more ideal to the DIY than Epson.

-Epson cart Deutch-
http://www.enderlin-direkt.com/spa/modules.php?op= modload&name=News&file=article&sid=33

Those interested may checkout these pages
http://www.colorbat.com/constructiontips.htm
http://www.neilslade.com/Papers/inkjetstuff7.html

http://www.colorbat.com/cfsparts.htm
http://www.inksupply.com/cfsparts.cfm

It may be possible to set up a continuous ink system . I know, for example, that inksupply.com offers continuous flow ink systems that use some tube connections to feed the cartridge directly from bottles of ink. (but they currently only support Epson)

There's Lyson, InkJet Mall's generic, Luminos, Jet Tec, and Media Street.

I'm probably missing some, too.

the short answer is that what you want will depend on the volume of prints you plan to output.

if you'll look around at most every digital photography review site, you'll find that pretty much everybody recommends and uses epson printers. i'm currently using the epson r800 and it's great for my technical docs and printing direct to cds, and my wife (who is a professional photographer) loves it for photos. epson is very particular about the inks they use, both in terms on longevity and in color gamut.

with any inkjet printer, you're going to get raped on ink from the manufacturer. if you're going to be printing with some serious volume, look into a continuous flow inking system. the system that (used to be) offered here: http://www.inksupply.com/index.cfm?source=html/cfs _r800_new.html is what i'm currently using. i'm not sure what's going on w/ their site, but it looks like they may be re-engineering the unit. anyway, for $400 bucks you get what would roughly be $800-$1000 worth of ink when purchased from epson and refills for this system are $200, resulting in a huge cost savings.

Nobody wants to pay $300 for thier printer when they can pay $100 for it (and later pay $40 for the cartridges).

I'd be more than happy to buy one, provided I could refill the cartridges with a bottle. Presently I'm paying 30 U$S per liter for Epson replacemennt ink, so the ink cost is negligible, but the syringe process is an awful mess.

The kits on the site you linked to all come from MIS which sells them directly.

The additional inks they have available also seem interesting.

I don't know if the ink comes out less expensive in the end (probably does) with the CFS and it seems a bit of a hassle, but it seems very useful for high volume printing.

Actually, a gallon of ink retails for $264.

Just as an aside, I use one of these, both at home and at work:

Continuous Ink System

Works great, and I bet it scares printer manufacturers like hell. I can print all day on these things and when the ink runs low, I just unscrew the top of the bottle and pour a little more in.

I was printing 11x14s by the dozen without worrying about it. Great stuff!

N.

Wouldn't companies want to make their printers last longer because it would build customer loyalty (and hopefully result in the customer buying LOTS of cartridges from them)?

It's funny to note that the expensive epson 3000,5000,5500,7000,9000
printers (wide print format) don't have print cartridge chips .

As for knocking down color printing costs, I'm looking into getting an automatic ink refill system. These are the ones I've encountered so far.

"IJC Bulk Feed Systems" (chip resetters and 'full' chips)

"Continuous Inking System(1)"
"Continuous Inking System(2)" (not necessarily affiliated with each other.

"Continuous Flow Systems"
(automatic chip resetter at this company)
Parts for building your own feed system for an un-supported printer.

"Continuous Charging System"
(carries continuous refill systems for Canon printers in addition to Epson models and option of buying smaller [cheaper] bottles.)

"Camel Ultra-FLO CRS(TM)"
CRS(TM) - abbreviation for the term Continuous Re-inking System(TM)"
(Carries Canon as well as Epson)

Inkjet Buying Guide(with printer recommendations, and refill companies, drivers, etc.)
"I have two Canon BJ-200 printers that have made a total of at least 150,000 copies without any problems...The gallon of black ink is about $32 including shipping."
"Other than the Canon BJ-200, all other CANON PRINTERS are off my buy list because the HIGH COST of operation."

(The author doesn't give definitive numbers nor methodology --duhhhh...he's not "testing" either)
His copy rate for ink is running at almost 1/50th of a cent ($0.00021) at a fraction of a laser printers speed I suppose --Though he is running two in parallel, and is adding a 3rd I believe; that could speed things up.

For comparison Samsung ML-1430 Laser Printer (a nice printer IMHO) runs at 1/5 of a cent per page at higher print speeds.

Wouldn't companies want to make their printers last longer because it would build customer loyalty (and hopefully result in the customer buying LOTS of cartridges from them)?

It's funny to note that the expensive epson 3000,5000,5500,7000,9000
printers (wide print format) don't have print cartridge chips .

As for knocking down color printing costs, I'm looking into getting an automatic ink refill system. These are the ones I've encountered so far.

"IJC Bulk Feed Systems" (chip resetters and 'full' chips)

"Continuous Inking System(1)"
"Continuous Inking System(2)" (not necessarily affiliated with each other.

"Continuous Flow Systems"
(automatic chip resetter at this company)
Parts for building your own feed system for an un-supported printer.

"Continuous Charging System"
(carries continuous refill systems for Canon printers in addition to Epson models and option of buying smaller [cheaper] bottles.)

"Camel Ultra-FLO CRS(TM)"
CRS(TM) - abbreviation for the term Continuous Re-inking System(TM)"
(Carries Canon as well as Epson)

Inkjet Buying Guide(with printer recommendations, and refill companies, drivers, etc.)
"I have two Canon BJ-200 printers that have made a total of at least 150,000 copies without any problems...The gallon of black ink is about $32 including shipping."
"Other than the Canon BJ-200, all other CANON PRINTERS are off my buy list because the HIGH COST of operation."

(The author doesn't give definitive numbers nor methodology --duhhhh...he's not "testing" either)
His copy rate for ink is running at almost 1/50th of a cent ($0.00021) at a fraction of a laser printers speed I suppose --Though he is running two in parallel, and is adding a 3rd I believe; that could speed things up.

For comparison Samsung ML-1430 Laser Printer (a nice printer IMHO) runs at 1/5 of a cent per page at higher print speeds.

Sorry, bad link... Let me try that again:

CFS Systems

N.

I've had good success with epson printers in linux. I had an epson stylus photo 1200 (6 color), which I gave to my sister, a photographer. Currently, my wife and I have a 980 (4-color). With CUPS and gimp-print, my printing looks beautiful. There is a utility (epsutil?) that I use to get ink levels, reset the printer, etc. I NEVER use epson inks or paper. There are plenty of aftermarket solutions for paper. For ink, I use a continuous flow system and bulk inks from MIS Supply It's never clogged or dripped, and when I screwed it up by causing a siphon, MIS sent me a new cf cartridge and a set of regular cartridges to use in the meantime.

I have one installed on my Epson 1160. It works like a charm; even with the pigment quadtone I'm using. I don't know of one for HPs.

Consumables is where the printer companies make their money. They may even lose money on some models. It's like razors and razor blades.

HP inks

Epson CFS

I have one installed on my Epson 1160. It works like a charm; even with the pigment quadtone I'm using. I don't know of one for HPs.

Consumables is where the printer companies make their money. They may even lose money on some models. It's like razors and razor blades.

HP inks

Epson CFS

There are continuous refill systems that store ink in large printer-external reservoires.

Here's a resource for you: MIS Associates. For around $24, you can get a kit that'll allow you to refill your cartridges ~12 times. How's that for an improvement? That's what I'm doing with my 842C.