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Inkjet kit start up help — Parallax Forums

Inkjet kit start up help

andruuuandruuu Posts: 4
edited 2008-01-18 17:34 in General Discussion
Hi, I am using the Parallax inkjet starter kit for a school project and feel like I am in the wrong major for this... We are trying to use the kit without the Basic Stamp microcontroller (ie, interface direct from laptop to PCB with USB cable). Has anyone done this? Chris in customer support suggested we might need to use Visual Basic to do this, does anyone have code for this? Keep in mind I'm a mechanical engineering student, so I probably won't understand what you're telling me.

Thanks in advance everyone

Andrew

Comments

  • Chris SavageChris Savage Parallax Engineering Posts: 14,406
    edited 2008-01-14 23:28
    Andrew,

    In order for the PC to control the Inkjet Printer the PC must have some software which can send the appropriate serial data to the Printer Module. You would have to create such a program to do this. We have examples for the BASIC Stamp, however these do not run on a PC.

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    Chris Savage
    Parallax Tech Support
  • andruuuandruuu Posts: 4
    edited 2008-01-17 05:40
    Hmmm okay thanks Chris. So say I wanted to buy all the components for running the inkjet board using Basic Stamp, what is the minimum I would need? I think it works with BS2 right? My laptop does not have a serial port.

    I am guessing Board of Education USB version will work? Is this the cheapest way to get everything I need? I am not planning on using it for anything except this inkjet application. Many thanks.

    -Andrew
  • BeanBean Posts: 8,129
    edited 2008-01-17 12:17
    Andrew,
    What are you printing ? Why do you need the PC ? It might be possible to modify the SX code of the printer driver to print. You would need to get the SX-Key or SX-Blitz to re-program the driver board.

    Bean.

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  • andruuuandruuu Posts: 4
    edited 2008-01-17 15:52
    Hi, I would like to use the inkjet as a micro-deposition nozzle for precision deposition of water to create 3-D ice models. As far as I know (I don't know very much about this), I need the PC to load commands into the inkjet driver board. You are saying I could also use the SX-key or SX-blitz to do this?

    Thanks
  • Chris SavageChris Savage Parallax Engineering Posts: 14,406
    edited 2008-01-18 17:34
    The PC can control the Inkjet Printer Board. But you still need an application to do it. Something has to send the codes to it. You could use the BASIC Stamp, but you’d still need to write a program for the BASIC Stamp to do this as well. We have examples, but they don’t do exactly what you want to do, so you would have to modify them to do so.

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    Chris Savage
    Parallax Tech Support
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