The Phoenix Project: Recycled Epson Printer Parts into 3D Printer

... ye older, the better motors were used - newer printers/scanner mostly use DC-motors with optical stripes, in older systems you'll find NEMA17 or sometimes even NEMA23-steppers ...

In a really old type-wheel-printer I've found a linear drive for the (real heavy) head with a milled comb-bar across the printer and a group of small solenoids in the head, representing a linear stepper-like driving mechanism

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/04/2012 03:03AM by VDX.

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Viktor
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Aufruf zum Projekt "Müll-freie Meere" - [reprap.org] -- Deutsche Facebook-Gruppe - [www.facebook.com]

Call for the project "garbage-free seas" - [reprap.org]

Hi Guys,

Well an update. I'm not an electronics expert, but I can follow directions. I have the parts I need from 2 Epson Photo 13" printers and I just dismantled a Apple Laser writer pro 600. Boy is that heavy.

I got stuck on the driver side. I have an Arduino. Understand how it communicates to a stepper. The Arduino doesn't speak the same as the stepper drivers from the printer.

The beauty of doing this correctly, is we already have power, wiring, stepper controller and end sensors wired and ready to go. We just need to know where on the printer motherboard to tap in.
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Yes, you can pull off the parts and start from scratch. But if you do this right, all the hard part has been done by Epson.

When I get some time and maybe some electronics advice, I want to figure how to have the Arduino send the signals to the chips on the Epson.

In the Laser printer are components that could be used as a hot head. There are some high temperature parts to melt the toner.

I think I may like to build it as a Delta 3D printer. I've seen some cool designs.

I will update when I have progress.

Also, please post pictures or tell me what you find in your printers, scanners etc.

A great source are those free electronic recycling days. I bet you can find a ton of old printers to scavenge.

The point of this was that we throw away all these printers that have electrical, electronics and motors that are 100% fine. A couple printers built 10 years ago, can become 90% of a 3D printer.

That is an amazing idea.

... for driving the steppers you should find something like STEP and DIR signals for controlling them, as this is, how they're driven commonly.

If the motors have 4, 6 or 8 wires (not counting the wires to an eventual tachometer), then they should be bipolar types (or configurable to), so you can use a common stepper driver like the Pololu.

With 5 wires this should be unipolar types, with two they wouldn't be steppers but DC-motors, used as servos ...

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Viktor
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Aufruf zum Projekt "Müll-freie Meere" - [reprap.org] -- Deutsche Facebook-Gruppe - [www.facebook.com]

Call for the project "garbage-free seas" - [reprap.org]

I have pulled apart a few printers but they have all had DC motors (2 wires). There are certainly plenty out there for FREE. I have just come across a company locally that recycles old IT gear for resale into 3rd world countries and they have a lot of redundant stuff they just throw out.
I will be collecting some samples of these to pull apart. I will post some pictures.

Andrew

... best NEMA-23-motors I've found, were in old NEC-printers with 24-needles-printhead and even older 5"-hd-drives with NEMA-17-steppers moving the head.

Some of the not so old 3.25"-had-drives had steppers with a round flat housing and super precise bearings ... then the voice-coil actuators started to replace the steppers

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Viktor
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Aufruf zum Projekt "Müll-freie Meere" - [reprap.org] -- Deutsche Facebook-Gruppe - [www.facebook.com]

Call for the project "garbage-free seas" - [reprap.org]

Just picked up a 18 year old Epson dot matrix printer, it has DC motors in it :-(.

Andrew

Thus is what ive started to build using old printer parts. If anyone can think of a good way to lift a decent size print bed and only use one motor. ideas would greatly be appreciated. Thanks. I also have 2 precision rods.

... I'm using three threaded rods synchronized with a chain or toothbelt and nuts in the bed ...

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Viktor
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Aufruf zum Projekt "Müll-freie Meere" - [reprap.org] -- Deutsche Facebook-Gruppe - [www.facebook.com]

Call for the project "garbage-free seas" - [reprap.org]

Hello I'm pretty new to motor controllers in general.. but am also very interested in salvaging printers for my cnc parts.. i luckily found a nice old epson stylus color 800 with some really nice steppers.. i as a few people on this thread, i am curious about the set of a2917seb's three of them unlike the unit with two pictured above.. as far as i've found so far this c202main board controlls the pre driver signals logically.. currently i'm trying to figure out how to add maybe a 2n222, a 4070n, and a 4027n or equivelant of this combo (resistors omitted) to control the step/direction inputs before the a2197.. i have seen this combo run a L293D, tho i fear i may have to disassemble the pcb and start over.. isolating this portion of the circuit looks a little more complicated than the 2 driver circuit although the chips are arrainged in a very simular fashion.. have any of you had any luck with the a2917? and do you think this idea will work?

also i intend to use mach 3 to interface with my machine..

what old printers would i find nema 17s in. im a carbooter searcher and it be nice too have a idea what too look out for

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/28/2013 12:36PM by chris33.

SRD420 Wrote:
i as a few people on this thread, i am
> curious about the set of a2917seb's three of them
> unlike the unit with two pictured above.. as far
> as i've found so far this c202main board controlls
> the pre driver signals logically.. currently i'm
> trying to figure out how to add maybe a 2n222, a
> 4070n, and a 4027n or equivelant of this combo
> (resistors omitted) to control the step/direction
> inputs before the a2197.. i have seen this combo
> run a L293D, tho i fear i may have to disassemble
> the pcb and start over.. isolating this portion of
> the circuit looks a little more complicated than
> the 2 driver circuit although the chips are
> arrainged in a very simular fashion.. have any of
> you had any luck with the a2917? and do you think
> this idea will work?

This page is interesting ...
[www.bristolwatch.com]
because a 7404 is used to free up 3 digital pins.7, I think it could be made to work because Ignoring the PWM current part of the a2917, it is only an H-Bridge.

The other idea would be to use a 74HC595 8-stage serial shift register. The Ladyada Motor shield uses these. Nice overview here...

[docs.google.com]

Here is a page detailing piggybacking 2 of these shields to drive 4 motors. So a pair of 74HC595's and the guts of 2 printers should give 4 Axis.Read his whole blog because there also code and a way to send Inscape images serially and a graphical user interface.

[blog.workingsi.com]

If anyone works this out, please document it. It could be a cheap way to build a repstrap. Also check out the Wolfstrap!

[reprap.org]

I've been pouring over the data sheet for the A2917 and there just isn't enough information for me to hack it. I'm guessing that there used to be an application note or some other documentation.

I think that Petrus had the right idea, using cheap ATMegas to translate for the chips. With that in mind I think I'm going to try using some "New Pro Mini atmega328 5V"'s as translators and use the same schematic as Petrus.

They are on eBay for $4.44 shipped!

[www.ebay.com]

Wow!
This is a fantastic Project!
I have quite a few older scanners and older printers that I have torn down.
I have saved all the motors, rods, gears, wiring, electronics, power supplies and most of the plastic and metal casings.

I have been studying intently the listings here and am almost ready to begin to build my own rep rap style printer.
I have over alot of stepper motors and knew there was a way to make these work for a 3d printer.

I will be watching this thread intently and where applicable I will contribute my own experiences so other can benefit from it.

Thank you all.

BTW my for emergency project was to take one of the Mitsumi stepper motors in its raw form. Plugged two led into it directly, attach a window crank I had laying around. and use it for an emergency light when our power went out unexpectedly.

If anyone is interested I already have code that I made to get an ATtiny24 to convert dir/step signals into 4 outputs for the stepper drivers.

It's nothing fancy as far as the code goes but it does the job for what I need and is very simple to understand.

Yvan256 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> If anyone is interested I already have code that I
> made to get an ATtiny24 to convert dir/step
> signals into 4 outputs for the stepper drivers.
>
> It's nothing fancy as far as the code goes but it
> does the job for what I need and is very simple to
> understand.


I would love to see that code. Can you attach it here?

Yes, please post a link to the sketch here so others in the future can benefit. My original plans changed a bit and I'm working on a Delta Bot, using the 13" wide printer cariages from the Epson Photo pro. Motors and belts in tact. Just need to tap into the stepper controller.

Good luck everybody.

Also, check out when they offer FREE ELECTRONICS RECYCLING in your area. You may be able to pick up some good old printers/scanners.



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I ordered from ebay: Arduino Nano v3.0 - ATMEGA328 w/USB Cable + Jumper Set for $11.99 shipped from the US.

[cgi.ebay.com]

The cheaper ones did not have USB so I figured it would be harder getting it programmed.

Will the translator sketch you mentioned work on this?

Next, it has been a while, if anyone has successfully done this, maybe you can provide some wiring diagrams. What pin to what pin. Its exciting because this may be the missing piece to get this working.

Thanks!

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/26/2013 10:23PM by disneytoy.

disneytoy Wrote:
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> Yes, please post a link to the sketch here so
> others in the future can benefit.

It's not Arduino code, it's plain C code for Atmel microcontrollers. I sent it to you via email, where you able to do anything with it?

Here is the code for the Atmel ATtiny24. Can also be used with other Atmel microcontrollers as long as you modify the pins-related lines if needed.

I'll try to update the package with a USA-Letter PDF file for making PCBs via the toner transfer method.

Old Epson printers are great. Here is my first GRBL one axis test with an Epson 600 (Main logic board has two udn2917eb drivers). I used an Attiny2313 as translator between the Epson C200MAIN and Arduino Uno. This Nerma 17 comes from an old Panini Vision X bill scanner: VIDEO

The same attiny2313 translator with an old Panini Vision X mainboard (this main has two L6219SD stepper motro driver...Panini Vision X has also two Nema 17 motors, belts and much more): VIDEO

Download the .hex and diagram, burn your attiny2313 and follow the wire schematic

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/15/2015 09:51PM by zandunga.