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Why is there no open source printer yet? We have the most cool 3d printing rigs, mounting it to some rails etc is not the problem.. Just a black and white prin
by tiku 5y ago
Why is there no open source printer yet? We have the most cool 3d printing rigs, mounting it to some rails etc is not the problem.. Just a black and white printer, nothing fancy..
- falcolas 5y agoTechnically, we do. Pen Plotters. You can even re-use a large part of your 3d printer frame.
- nathanvanfleet 5y ago2d printing sounds a bit less romantic than the 3d kind.
- userbinator 5y agoThis. 3D printing is a trendy fashion, 2D is boring. I'm sure the community has enough intellectual ability to create, if not a full printer, at least replacement firmware for existing ones. There just doesn't seem to be much motivation to do so.
- bobsmooth 5y agoIf you're willing to waste a stupid amount of plastic you can 3D print a stamp and stamp your letter. You could do multi-color printing if you used a paintbrush instead of a roller to apply the ink.
- nicoburns 5y agoMy understanding is that the nozzles for squirting the ink are genuinely difficult things to design and manufacture. I so far think too few people have the expertise and resources to make an open source version.
- sterlind 5y agolaser could be easier right?
- _moof 5y agoI wonder if one could design open source replacement electronics for an off-the-shelf printer. Keep the mechanical, replace the electronics and the software. (I'm assuming any moderately successful open source firmware-only effort would motivate manufacturers to start using some kind of "trust management" garbage in future models.)
- yjftsjthsd-h 5y agoAlternatively (and as a shortcut to not deal with hardware that's actually difficult to build), why is there no FOSS aftermarket firmware?
- HPsquared 5y agoThe same reason printers made by large manufacturers break all the time: printing is hard.
- pabs3 5y agoEven just open source firmware for an existing proprietary printer would be interesting.