Epson R280 Hack to PCB printer

RDHeiliger

In feed tray and PCB carrier sheet dimensions.

Removed parts.

Main top case, held on by 4 screws. Two in rear, one left front, one in a well on the right side. Mostly paper feed parts.

A closer view of some of the paper feed components not needed.

Completed Mod:
This is the new PCB feed plate. This one is made from plywood. The dimensioned drawing at the begging is how I am going to build a new one.

Lid switch overrode with tape:

Position of paper feed switch. A piece of tape over it to hold it down. Printer will not operate unless it is depressed.

Paper feed switch. Indicates that the original (now removed) paper feeder has feed paper into the printer. On this printer the photo paper sensor is in the print head. The printer expects the photo sensor to see paper a fixed time after this switch is tripped. The notch cut in the PCB carrier sheet provides this timing.

APG (auto platen gap) drive shaft:

This is the drive shaft that must remain to drive the APG system. The APG (automatic platen gap). Depending on what media type is selected this mechanism will increase or decrease the gap between the print head and the paper. Selecting CD/DVD will give the widest gap.

This black plastic part is the right side of the paper feeder. The remaning left half is cut off. This half needs to remain to provide the bearing for the APG drive shaft. The APG is driven from the paper feed motor thru the ink pump.

The end of the APG drive shaft that is driven by the ink pump.

Platen height adjustments:

This is the left side print head height adjustment. I redrilled and tapped an additional hole for the shown screw. This screw was originaly in the slot seen just to its left. This gives the maximum available print head height.

Right side print head height adjustment. This side does not need an additional hole drilled. Just push the lever over and reinsert the screw. I added a very short spacer under the screws to prevent the lever from sliding back over the screws. Used a piece of poly tubing. This is also a good pic of the APG drive unit. The gear shown has an eccentric in it to raise and lower the print head.

Rear Bottom case cutout:

Set the piece of plastic I cut out from the rear case back to show what it looked like before the surgery. The aluminum angle is used to mount the new infeed.

I used a coping saw to cut down inbetween the rear top case mounts then across level with the top of the power supply. Smothed out the cut with a file and sand paper. Be sure to not cut any of the wires that are floating around inside the case. They used to be attached to the side of the paper feed tray that is now gone.

Paper feed, what to cut off:

The cutoff part of the paper feeder set back in place to show what it looked like before amputation.

Post surgery. Recovery included a sanding with a belt sander to smooth off the lumps.

Views of cut off and sanded paper feed:

Bit better view of the amputation of the left part of the paper feeder.

Top view of power supply and some of the cutout rear. I removed the power supply and drilled two holes to match the holes in the aluminum angle. Not a good idea to drill holes thru the power supply. The screws feed in from the power supply cavity and screw into the aluminum angle.

Attaching new infeed:

You can just see the heads of the screws behind the power supply.

I had to add a small shim to add a bit of slope down to match the paper platen.

PCB carrier sheet:

The PCB carrier sheet. The notch provides the needed timing to fool the printer into thinking the feeder just inserted paper into the paper drive. The photo sensor in the print head checks for the leading edge, then both sides of the paper. This does allow printing in the same place repeatedly. After a first printing on the carrier. I glue on some strips of construction paper on the board outline. Left and top. A bit of spray glue over the pattern as well. This allows for fast positioning of the heated board onto the carrier.

Notes: