Canon S200SPx Printer "project" report + other related topics... Lol!

Still remembered in my first post I talked about I would be talking about my printer? Hmm... Actually the main starring is my old printer la. I already kept this printer for 3 years (But I think it's already processed become a new Canon printer). This is the first printer that I got anyway. I still remembered that time the staff said that the print head had gone (Cause I used imitation ink) Lol... I think I am the "pengasas" for Canon's new gurantee terms, stated on every printer now "Warranty void if non-genuine Canon ink are used"... Anyway, it will only spoil after 1 year, not within 1 year... Lol...

Hey, don't look down on this print head, it cost nearly a new printer's price!

Feeling like switching topic pula... Lol... Life is quite busy for me nowadays... With robotics going on... And if you can come... Meet us (Joel, Andrew and me!) at PWTC 27-29... IF we cannot make it through elementary game then 27th is the first and the last day la... Lol...

Okay, back to the title... Hmm... You curious? I don't think people will be interested in this, but for me its fun! Dismantle this and that (Although sometimes you will break some so called "tabs" and "clips") does makes you think. Especially those screwless ones'... But I just can't take my hands out of it... And I love it... Lol... Any electronics you wanna dump? Give me first... Don't waste. Let me do some small "research" then go ahead and throw... Haha... I accept nearly all electronics la, but preferably complicated ones like players, phones, Hi-Fi, computers, printers, modems, speakers, even microphones! XD... Still remembered I got electroculated when repairing my small little night light (Or so called Cat-eye light)... I think it shocked me 3 times (No earth wire connected)... But I thought it was fun! Lol... Then another time I was trying to connect 240V directly to a hair dryer motor... Then you know what happen? A deafening loud "pop" sound and the RCB tripped. Smart? Anyway, the motor still functions well until today... Still using it as my computer CPU fan... Haha... These 2 "first times" did arouse my interest into this (although it's failures) Lol... Then the first electronics that I managed to repair from "hang" till usable is 2 VCD players... (Believe it, its not only computers that "hang"s) Just by changing a rubber ring... I think I could charge RM55 for that... The ring only costed about RM2, so count RM 3 profit from this, and service charge Rm50 (standard price for technician that provides door to door service)... Haha... And that 2 VCD players faced the same problem... So I managed to have one which is 7 years old in my room! (Last time thought it will cost much to repair, so just got a new one which is Bellcorp) At that time this Thomson player cost about 600+... Now you can even get a DVD player for RM98... Tesco Orbitz brand if not mistaken... Lol... So now you can see the technology gap is so obvious at that time.

Enough of the first experience. Haha. Have some angle-views for my printer first...

Frontal View



View from the back

View with the front cover opened

This few shot is the easiest shot of all... Just place there and adjust some lighting... And Snap! Well, it took about 15 minutes to open the cover. To unscrew the adaptor screw and i spent the most time in figuring out how it holds the printer cover without any screw. Finally, I saw a 2 tabs at the side! After 2 cracks for each side it finally revealled it's metal body... (With the plastic stand below of course...) Took me a hard time to opened it without forcing it hard... Then I came to here...

Frontal View
Now we can have a very clear view of the belt, the roller, the print head, and a metal bar that supports the print head.

Back View
Here we have the motors to move the print head around and motors to power the gears and "slrrp" the paper into the printing zone, a circuit board that consist of many IC's, capasitors, transistors, (And whatever about electronics in KH)... Lol... A white "data" wire connected to the print head sticking out to its output (Print head) and a horizontal bar that moves and helps the mechanisms to "slrrp" the paper too. The box below with a wire sticking out is an adapter.

Back-Left View (As it's not clear in the "Back View" picture)
A clearer view of motors that functions to move the position of the print head or belt. By understanding the gears mechanisms, we can know the actua process when a printer "slrrps" its paper in for some inking... Lol...

Erm, Nothing wrong with your eyes, it's the same picture again with 2 red circles in it. The circle above explains how it moves the paper into the printing area. Note that the bar fixed on the right in the circle is springed. So when the printer is ready to print, it will move the gears in the red circle and the "floating" part of the circle will be off the bar and the bar will springed up and the 2 roller motors hidden inside the paper loading zone will does it job by pushing the paper into the printing area. That's why it's quite noisy when it starts sticking its paper into printing. The noise was quite annoying some times. Know why this printer doesn't push back the paper into the paper loading zone eventhough the paper jammed inside the printing area. This is becaue of the circle below of the picture. The black tab that is springed will stop the gears from rolling in the wrong way. The spring will extend if someone tends to pull the paper out from the paper loading zone when its stuck. the spring will absorb the force so that gears won get easily inpositioned and later damaging the printer. Thats why the printer will try to push the paper out of its mouth everyime it encounters error.

Back-Right View (As I can't image on the same "Back View" picture)

Center View
The black bar running across with 2 grey rubber helps pushes the paper in.

Ok... Lets get started...

This picture syok sendiri one la, Lol... Lets move on and get serious... XD

Okay... Starting from the top front... Hmm... Lets take out the print head and get the belt out of the way.

On the right edge of the printer
The bigger circle in the picture (Look carefully, there's a red circle) provides clean up for the print head everytime it does a row of printing and for the smaller circle which is more towards the right, this is the place where the print head stands by to wait for document or to provide absorption for ink during cleaning process.

Right edge of the printer (Below)
The sponge beside the gears provides a medium for ink to flow down towards an ink waste storage which is located at the below of the printer. So when a cleaning process is run, the contaminated ink will flow towards the "waste station" to be absorbed.

Forgot to mention... The waste station can be seen as a sponge like foam below the print head allocation area. So it will directly flow down to the drainage without overflowing the sponge above the print head. Thus allowing the print head to be cleaned neatly.

A closer and clearer view of the absorbent foam

Notice that the foam has 2 layers. It only managed to ink 3 quarter of the below one as I only used the printer for a year. At the right of the drain seems clogged as the ink doesn't have enough time to be absorbed into the foam before it dries up. The foam gives a spongy feel and when you touch the inked part surface, your fingers will be stained with some thin dry black powder. I suppose that it undergoes a long process of evaporation of those ink over here.

Parts of my finger already stained with the powder (The skin near my finger nail)

To test the absorption rate of the foam, I tested it with normal water (The can is just for illustration purposes) Lol... After i pour about 10ml of water onto the foam, I pressed on the spot, and guess what happened...

The result of this experiment tells us that the absorption rate for this foam is ultra fast. (Eventhough my fingers got wet a little) The water doesn't got repelled again. At first I thought it was a normal sponged foam. It evaporates quite fast for the first layer as the next day I got the spot quite dry compared to normal foam. The first layer absorbs quite a lot of water as the second layer only managed to got wet a little. The layer also has another properties that it only ensures one way flow. Meaning if some liquid enters the foam it won't manage to come out again. (Okay, I am not doing commercials about those pampers or whatever thingy, cause I don't expect this foam to absorb 6 cups of water... Lol...) This unique characteristics plays an important role in making sure that the ink doesn't setrains back to the sponge then towards the surface of the print head to ensure best printing qualities. I was prettily astonished. I think maybe someday I could use this foam to wipe over spilled water... Hassle free and best of it is... Disposable... Haha... Easy and cheap... (Should be cheap gua...)

Ok, now we should go back to the body of the printer... Here's the part below the printer.

Note that there is a black rubber roller sandwiched between 2 black plastics. Below the roller of the top, on the left of those white gears. This bar helps to "slrrp" the paper in to the printing zone then loads it out to its mouth.

Very suprisingly, I found this bar (the above picture), useful to me. I was thinking about maybe I can use that in robotics. Cause it produces well friction between gears and the bar or roller or whatever you call it. I will see what I do... Lol... Need some crazy ideas...

After dismantling the bar (Nearly broke the edge), found something that I was always saw in my HP printer. Those thread like thingy... Its a super fine thread taped on the exit of the paper. I still have no idea about it until now... Suggest some in my chatbox... Remember, it is always placed at where it could make contact with the paper.

Now gotta fix back the cover to the body again...

Main cover without any parts...

Internal view of the printer without cover...

Fixing the printer back to its original state

Among the things that I gained from this printer... Lets see... Hmm... A kinda cool USB cable which I had used for 3 printers... XD... An AC cable, a simultaneous 240V to 24V and 5V adaptor, 2 simultaneous 24V and 5V powered motors, and the roller/bar or whatever you named it. P.S. The blue-yellow and green screw drivers' were misplaced... Haha... Anyway, thanks to them...

So now the S200SPx printer already made a farewell with me for another time... Maybe its already recycled into a new Canon printer... And of course, farewell to a year old HP PSC 1510... Perhaps now it's wandering in the HP office now...

And say "Hi!" to my new print mate! Welcoming HP OfficeJet 5610!

I think thats too much for a post la... Perhaps some already yawning or fell asleep when reading this... Haha... Anyway... The printer is working well till now... Wah... Late dy le... Gotta go man... Tata...