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submitted 10 months ago by ylai@lemmy.ml to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[-] spacecowboy@sh.itjust.works 260 points 10 months ago

Don’t buy HP printers. Buy Brothers instead. They’re a better product anyways.

[-] dan1101@lemm.ee 108 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

For now anyway. Enshittification strikes too many products eventually.

[-] itsJoelle@lemmy.world 10 points 10 months ago

Which is making me sad. 3d printing is so open atm, but I wouldn’t be surprised if enshittification will take place in this space in my lifetime.

[-] lemann@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 10 months ago

That's mostly going to be in the hands of Bambu I think, they only recently just allowed users to flash custom firmware onto the X1.

If Prusa doesn't come back with a strong challenger we will be in trouble IMO. They have that amazing corexy that rivals the Bambu in performance (but not price!) but for a lot of people it's too big anyway sadly

[-] evranch@lemmy.ca 3 points 10 months ago

There's a huge world of clone printers, aftermarket mainboards, hotends, extruders etc. that doesn't look like it's going away.

Some manufacturers may go closed but it's way too easy to build your own printer for it to be a big concern in the FDM world.

Resin on the other hand already has lots of custom slicers, firmware etc. probably because there's a lot less mechanics and a lot more screen. But I'm not sure of the future of consumer resin anyways, a lot of people are realizing how toxic that unlabelled Chinese product really is.

[-] frezik@midwest.social 1 points 10 months ago

I had someone a while back arguing that FDM printers were hopelessly toxic and resin printers would be the only ones on the market within a year. Naturally, this was well over a year ago.

Resin printers have their uses, but man, they are a mess to use.

[-] frezik@midwest.social 1 points 10 months ago

It sorta did, but pulled back. DaVinci tried selling printers that had chips in the filament spools and used the same razer blade business model as low end inkjets. Anet also sold printers that cut too many corners and they often caught fire.

Then Creality made the Ender 3. I unironically think it's a brilliant design. It cuts corners just enough to be cheap, but not so much that it's useless garbage. They had two issues early on: lack of thermal runaway protection in the firmware, and a bad connector to the power supply. Both were fixable by end users, and both have long been fixed in shipping models.

At the same time, companies like Prusa refused to join in that race to the bottom. Good for them. If you're an established player like that and already have a reputation for quality, never get involved in a race to the bottom. That's how you become what HP is now.

[-] pearsaltchocolatebar@discuss.online 38 points 10 months ago

I'm just now having to replace my brother printer (HL-2170W) I bought in 06, because the NIC is toast.

The printer still works great, but duplex printing sure would be nice.

[-] monkeyman512@lemmy.world 27 points 10 months ago

If it still has working USB you can hook it up to a $10 raspberry pi with wifi to act as a print server. I can understand if that's a more ambitious tech project than your ready to take on.

[-] user224@lemmy.sdf.org 7 points 10 months ago

There also used to be network printer adapters in the past. For example, the Belkin F8T030 Bluetooth AP. Yes, Bluetooth AP. I'd like something like that just for fun. Perhaps not this one specifically, as it only supports BT-LAP out-of-the-box and requires firmware upgrade for BT-PAN. Good luck finding firmware for a niche product from 2003.

But anyway, perhaps something like that (the printer part) is still made.

[-] LifeInOregon@lemmy.world 6 points 10 months ago

The old Apple AirPort Express could turn any USB printer into a networked printer.

[-] projectsquared@lemmy.world 4 points 10 months ago

Absolutely this. Find them online for $10 all day.

[-] pearsaltchocolatebar@discuss.online 3 points 10 months ago

I'm a systems engineer, so it would be a short project for me. My homelab router could run the print server, but the USB port is currently powering my pi hole.

I feel like there would be some way to rig an esp32 or similar micro controller to do the same thing (pis can be scarce atm

[-] mosiacmango@lemm.ee 2 points 10 months ago

A powered plugin usb hub would likely be easier.

[-] pearsaltchocolatebar@discuss.online 2 points 10 months ago

But not as fun as making my own.

[-] mosiacmango@lemm.ee 2 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Entertainment always wins over efficiency.

[-] pearsaltchocolatebar@discuss.online 1 points 10 months ago

Security too. I dont trust 90% of internet connected devices.

[-] frezik@midwest.social 1 points 10 months ago

Rpi stock issues are well behind us. You can buy them straight up now. Even the 1GB RPi4.

Esp32 may not have enough RAM to buffer large prints, especially if there's a lot of graphics. It is possible to give it up to 4MB of external RAM, but that's still not much.

Pi Pico can do a 16MB external RAM chip. That's starting to be adaqute.

I had an HP 5si for a while with 20MB of internal RAM. It struggled with Postscript printing--could only buffer and print one page at a time. Did fine with HP's own PDL drivers, though.

[-] pearsaltchocolatebar@discuss.online 1 points 10 months ago

I still had some trouble getting the Zero 2Ws, but a lot of sellers still have a limit of 1 per order.

I'll probably use my Zero W for the print server once I replace the controller for my snake's enclosure with a 2.

[-] LWD@lemm.ee 12 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)
[-] pearsaltchocolatebar@discuss.online 15 points 10 months ago

I haven't had any reason to print in color for like 20 years. I'm sure many consumers are the same.

If I do need to print color, I'll pay $0.10 at UPS or the library or whatever to print it off.

[-] Gerudo@lemm.ee 9 points 10 months ago

Every inkjet printer on this planet has a choice. Cheap ink, accessible printheads, expensive. You have to pick one.

Certain Hp? Expensive cartridges but new print heads with every cart. Epson ecotank? Cheap ink but non replaceable printheads. High-end printers? Insanely priced printheads and ink.

The only way out is laser.

[-] LWD@lemm.ee 4 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)
[-] Treczoks@lemmy.world 6 points 10 months ago

But have a close look at the model you are buying. We recently noticed that the relatively cheap Epson Ecotank we bought for our daughter is a bit difficult to maintain. You simply have no access to the printheads.

[-] jelloeater85@lemmy.world 1 points 10 months ago

2170 crowd represent!!!

Those things run forever and cost nothing to run.

[-] pearsaltchocolatebar@discuss.online 1 points 10 months ago

I think I've only bought 3x toner cartridges, and one of those got lost because I shook the old one and it just kept working for a year or two.

[-] checkforupdates@lemmy.world 13 points 10 months ago

They’re about as bad. But a new set of ink cartridges and they immediately go “empty” within two months even if you’re not using them. Switch to a laser jet.

[-] chemicalwonka@discuss.tchncs.de 10 points 10 months ago

Brother is just a little less greed than HP, nothing more

this post was submitted on 19 Jan 2024
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