3 ms·

> With Openprinter, you are free to choose between standard sheets or a roll of versatile paper. A few other comments have concentrated on the printer head and

by bArray 3mo ago

> With Openprinter, you are free to choose between standard sheets or a roll of versatile paper. A few other comments have concentrated on the printer head and ink cartridge, but the roll vs sheets interests me. Manipulating sheets of paper is actually quite a difficult problem to solve - and there is only a demonstration of paper placement. Loading page after page is actually really not easy at all. There is no example of it printing. I see they got a nomination for a design award [1], which in my personal experience has been a negative signal for successful projects. On the same page they mention that they also mention that they don't even know how much this will cost yet: > We know this is your most frequently asked question! Final pricing depends on a moving puzzle of production volumes, BoM costs, industrialization expenses, regulatory certifications, and final engineering developments. On the crowd funding page it mentions for parts [2]: > Main board: Raspberry Pi Zero W > Cartridge board: STM32 MCU Not a specific MCU variant, and the specifics of the Pi variant (i.e. RAM) are not mentioned. I would expect these parts would be locked in by now. I have a feeling that this is not quite as ready as made out - I think there is still R&D going on. [1] https://www.crowdsupply.com/open-tools/open-printer/updates/progress-update-and-details-about-our-nomination-for-a-french-design-award https://www.crowdsupply.com/open-tools/open-printer/updates/... [2] https://www.crowdsupply.com/open-tools/open-printer https://www.crowdsupply.com/open-tools/open-printer

igoose1 3mo ago
> specifics of the Pi variant (i.e. RAM) are not mentioned I agree with the rest but Pi Zero W is a specific machine with 512 MB RAM: https://www.raspberrypi.com/products/raspberry-pi-zero-w/ https://www.raspberrypi.com/products/raspberry-pi-zero-w/ It's also the one everyone can buy online for $19, not Pi Zero 2 W (always out of stock)
- bArray 3mo ago
  > I agree with the rest but Pi Zero W is a specific machine with 512 MB RAM: I thought they came in different variants - my meat-based LLM must have hallucinated it. > It's also the one everyone can buy online for $19, not Pi Zero 2 W (always out of stock) I get the impression that they don't actively manufacture Pi Zero W anymore and it's all old stock. Rapid for example say they have an availability of 761 (at time of writing) [1], but are those all within Rapid's control, or what is reported at Raspberry Pi's remaining stock? If you sell 1k printer units, can you put a Pi Zero W in all of them? Compute modules are probably a bit more reliable and there is some capability with other modules, specifically the DDR2 form factor ones [2] (which is my favorite form factor). For example, ClockWork sold their own compatible compute modules [3]. [1] https://www.rapidonline.com/raspberry-pi-sc0020-zero-w-single-board-computer-1ghz-bcm2835-32-bit-soc-75-2238 https://www.rapidonline.com/raspberry-pi-sc0020-zero-w-singl... [2] https://www.rapidonline.com/raspberry-pi-compute-module-cm3-1gb-ram-0gb-lite-ddr2-so-dimm-75-0643 https://www.rapidonline.com/raspberry-pi-compute-module-cm3-... [3] https://www.clockworkpi.com/shop https://www.clockworkpi.com/shop
sschueller 3mo ago
Pi Zero seems overkill to me for a printer.
- FinnKuhn 3mo ago
  It costs $20 and comes with wifi and bluetooth. Seems like a valid choice to me.
  - bArray 3mo ago
    They are largely sold out, especially at quantity. Not something I would currently be looking to base a product on.
  - sschueller 3mo ago
    An ESP32 is way cheaper and has Wifi and BLe as well. I updated a label printer with an ESP32-S3 to add wifi[1] and it has plenty performance. It is even available with dual-band wifi 6[2]. Most processing is done outside the printer on the sending party anyway. [1] https://stefan.schueller.net/posts/making-a-label-printer-work-under-linux-using-agentic-ai/ https://stefan.schueller.net/posts/making-a-label-printer-wo... [2] https://www.espressif.com/en/products/socs/esp32-c5 https://www.espressif.com/en/products/socs/esp32-c5

by bArray 3mo ago

igoose1 3mo ago

> specifics of the Pi variant (i.e. RAM) are not mentioned I agree with the rest but Pi Zero W is a specific machine with 512 MB RAM: https://www.raspberrypi.com/products/raspberry-pi-zero-w/ https://www.raspberrypi.com/products/raspberry-pi-zero-w/ It's also the one everyone can buy online for $19, not Pi Zero 2 W (always out of stock)

bArray 3mo ago
> I agree with the rest but Pi Zero W is a specific machine with 512 MB RAM: I thought they came in different variants - my meat-based LLM must have hallucinated it. > It's also the one everyone can buy online for $19, not Pi Zero 2 W (always out of stock) I get the impression that they don't actively manufacture Pi Zero W anymore and it's all old stock. Rapid for example say they have an availability of 761 (at time of writing) [1], but are those all within Rapid's control, or what is reported at Raspberry Pi's remaining stock? If you sell 1k printer units, can you put a Pi Zero W in all of them? Compute modules are probably a bit more reliable and there is some capability with other modules, specifically the DDR2 form factor ones [2] (which is my favorite form factor). For example, ClockWork sold their own compatible compute modules [3]. [1] https://www.rapidonline.com/raspberry-pi-sc0020-zero-w-single-board-computer-1ghz-bcm2835-32-bit-soc-75-2238 https://www.rapidonline.com/raspberry-pi-sc0020-zero-w-singl... [2] https://www.rapidonline.com/raspberry-pi-compute-module-cm3-1gb-ram-0gb-lite-ddr2-so-dimm-75-0643 https://www.rapidonline.com/raspberry-pi-compute-module-cm3-... [3] https://www.clockworkpi.com/shop https://www.clockworkpi.com/shop

sschueller 3mo ago

Pi Zero seems overkill to me for a printer.

FinnKuhn 3mo ago
It costs $20 and comes with wifi and bluetooth. Seems like a valid choice to me.
- bArray 3mo ago
  They are largely sold out, especially at quantity. Not something I would currently be looking to base a product on.
- sschueller 3mo ago
  An ESP32 is way cheaper and has Wifi and BLe as well. I updated a label printer with an ESP32-S3 to add wifi[1] and it has plenty performance. It is even available with dual-band wifi 6[2]. Most processing is done outside the printer on the sending party anyway. [1] https://stefan.schueller.net/posts/making-a-label-printer-work-under-linux-using-agentic-ai/ https://stefan.schueller.net/posts/making-a-label-printer-wo... [2] https://www.espressif.com/en/products/socs/esp32-c5 https://www.espressif.com/en/products/socs/esp32-c5