EPSON TM-C600/TM-C610

Powder and inkjet printing
ezrec
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Joined: Sat Aug 15, 2015 1:31 pm

EPSON TM-C600/TM-C610

Post by ezrec »

Ok, I liked the Ithaca POSJet 1500...

But I am loving the EPSON TM-C600/TM-C610.

It's cheap in the US - grocery stores are literally throwing them away...

http://www.evillabs.net/index.php/EPSON_TM-C600

They print VERY fast for a label printer:

'https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yA1hWPqfqIE

Prints in 300 DPI color....
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And, best of all:
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OOOOOH YEAH! An arch completely clear of mechanical movements! The printhead is FLUSH with the top of the hatch area, right next to the paper handling roller.

On the face of it, this seems to be a much better starting point than the Ithaca POSJet.

Now to get the slicer code written (EPSON ESCP/2 is pretty well documented, so hopefully this won't be a dead end!)
ezrec
Posts: 112
Joined: Sat Aug 15, 2015 1:31 pm

Re: EPSON TM-C600/TM-C610

Post by ezrec »

And... I just realized that I can't do full color 3D printing with a CYM printer.

Black = CYM = 100% binder
Red = YM = 66% binder
Green = CY = 66% binder
Blue = MY = 66% binder
Write = nothing = 0% binder

So, can't print White. Or any pale colors.

Damn.

I guess it'll have just be a really damn fast mono printer.

And with 4 droplet sizes per jet (off, small, med, larger) and 3 jets per pixel (CYM) I have 0..9 levels of saturation, with the following possible combinations to make each level:

0% : 1
11%: 3
22%: 6
33%: 10
44%: 12
56%: 12
67%: 10
78%: 6
89%: 3
100% 1

That's just single pass saturation. Not sure if the TM-C610 supports multipass printing.
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dragonator
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Re: EPSON TM-C600/TM-C610

Post by dragonator »

That is wicked fast. Can it handle water based inks? In my knowledge not all piezo inkjets can handle conductive fluids. If it can, it is an amazing find. The flush head should make it a breeze to convert it into a powder printer. You said that they are easy to come by in the US? I cannot find them here in the Netherlands.

You could replace black with a clear binder and use the inks to make 'black'. This way your black will be more brown'ish (very dark brown'ish) but you can get clear binder for the lighter colors. This is considering you have some control over the printheads. If you do not, then I am out of ideas. Then I fear that parts will either not be black or not be white (the first seems better to me)
ezrec
Posts: 112
Joined: Sat Aug 15, 2015 1:31 pm

Re: EPSON TM-C600/TM-C610

Post by ezrec »

Ah, but that's the problem I'm alluding to in the previous message: this is a CMY printer, not a CMYK printer.

No black.

And EPSON printheads a take water based inks nicely. I ran distilled water and food coloring in a XP-320 machine, and it printed fine (oddly colored, but just fine)
ezrec
Posts: 112
Joined: Sat Aug 15, 2015 1:31 pm

Re: EPSON TM-C600/TM-C610

Post by ezrec »

The European model is numbered TM-C610, but is otherwise identical
ezrec
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Re: EPSON TM-C600/TM-C610

Post by ezrec »

I've got my head wrapped around this beast, and can now control the 3 ink heads - in both 180DPI and 360DPI (MicroWeave), and the form cutting solenoid.

Control integrated into my https://github.com/ezrec/BrundleFab-software generalized powderbed printing slicer.

Now just to get another one from e-bay for spares, and start developing the mechanical motion.
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dragonator
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Re: EPSON TM-C600/TM-C610

Post by dragonator »

I did some looking up, but in Europe I cannot find them.

That looks really great! All of the inkjet is already there for a powder printer. All you need now is a powder handling system and you have a piezo inkjet powder printer. Are the inks easy to swap out or are there difficult cartridges that need to be flushed. Can't wait to see what you can make of this.
ezrec
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Re: EPSON TM-C600/TM-C610

Post by ezrec »

The ink tanks are easy to swap out - but there is some sort of serial EEPROM going on.

The ink tank doubles as the ink waste area - no 'big foam pad' in this printer to go bad with sputtered ink.

I have some spare ink tanks, so as soon as I burn through this one, I'll compare the EEPROMs and see where the serial number is.

Then it's just a matter of programming up some uniques whenever it says its 'full'.
phillewis
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Re: EPSON TM-C600/TM-C610

Post by phillewis »

Please can you tell me what drivers you used to get this printer working?

cheers
ezrec
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Re: EPSON TM-C600/TM-C610

Post by ezrec »

I used the drivers from:

https://download.epson-biz.com/modules/ ... t=2&pid=14

Just force it to use the C610 drivers on the C600, and it works fine.

For my powderbed printer software driver, I've integrated the escape code generation in:

https://github.com/ezrec/BrundleFab-software

See fab/tmc600.py for the details.
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