On Sunday 19 January 2003 03:33, Pradnyesh Sawant wrote:

i wud first of all like 2 tell u that i'm new 2 linux & have just started using it full time. so i request u all 2 plz forgive my so many questions in the past few mails. i don't want 2 give the impression, that i'm a good 4 nothing guy with no work 2 do other than ask questions.

v r vry sure that u r nded vry good 4 sumthing, so dont wrry.

but i feel that the questions that i ask are of very trivial nature & will help me a lot in getting a strong foothold of my newly discovered OS.

my doubt is that i have an epson 480 color stylus printer & i don't know how 2 change its cartridge.

U r indeed very perceptive about the trivial nature of ur questions. This is very complex and requires a thorough understanding of the RTAI kernel, device drivers, assembly, Plastics, motors, robotics etc. But i will try to xplain briefly.

1) load the rtai kernel (http://www.aero.polimi.it/~rtai/) 2) RTFM 3) Purchase three stepper motors, 12 bd139, 3 bd140 transistors, one max232, one 8051, assorted resistors and capacitors, one 12mhz crystal. 4) RT all the above FMs 5) Purchase one steel rod 30cm long, gears, plastic discs, rubber rings. Ask for the manuals. and RTFM. 6) rig up the parts in 3 to create a 3 axis stepper motor driver. 7) rig up parts in 5 to create a moving arm 8) connect rig of 6 with rig of 7. connect to serial port of pc. 9) write driver to operate resultant of eight 10) test and run.

Voila u have a linux based automatic printer catridge changer. U may provide a gui interface to manually change the catridge and setup various options like change catridge , dont change catridge, operate with empty catridge etc. A Windows based design might be a very good idea as the users are a little hardware challenged.

thanx 4 all the help!

U r welcome.

rgds jtdsouza@softhome.net