Hi there,
for an art project I would like to hack some simple functions of an office printer using an arduino.
The printer will probably be either Konica Minolta Bizhub 283 or Konica Minolta Bizhub 363
What I would like to do:
bypassing the mechanism that knows if there is a pages in the drawer or not in order to scan and print at some intervals a loop of pages connecting to each other.
I guess a mechanical hacking - for example - physically pushing the start button using solenoid, or shorting the button with relay will be better idea from trying to hack the software?
Any idea were shall I start? what should I look at?
Those are very advanced laser printers. Consider first the loop of pages. Do you have to connect the papers with adhesive tape? What tape will stand the heat of the mechanism that burns the image on the papers?
The system expects a single sheet to be fed into the machine. You have to detect each sensor that monitors the process. I guess you'd need to find the blueprints of the machine and read them through. And make sense out of it. Or disassemble one machine and find every single sensor participating in the process. And monitor the signals, while the machine works in its designed manner. Then you could start planning a system, where an Arduino would fake the signals and feed them to the Konica Minolta. Some of the sensors are IR led / IR phototransistor couples detecting the edge of a paper sheet either entering or leaving a spot. It's not rocket science. But if you succeed, you are the king of hackers!
I don't know what your final invention will do, but it reminded me of a project of mine, which is put on hold. It's an old inkjet printer. I've cut off the original logics and I've removed the printer head, but not the carriage. I've connected the two stepper motors to my own stepper drivers and I'm able to make the carriage travel back and forth horizontally. And I'm able to move the paper back and forth vertically. The carriage will be fitted with pen holders for 3 to 4 colour pencils. The vertical stepper motor took care of every action of the sheet feeding mechanism by a clever mechansim, but I've removed everything and will do the sheet feeding manually. It could as well be a loop of pages.
Right now I'm working on other projects, but when I return to this project, it will be about drawing svg or G-code images on single sheets. But it could be about drawing to a loop of paper sheets, too. Instead of using colour pencils or felt tip pens, I'm going to try reservoir brushes, too.