The Nikon Small World in Motion competition, which only recently ended, was troubled by the prize winner being AI generated (3 points, 24 days ago) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49934521
With all of the DRM nonsense around printers and authorized print cartridges, I'm kind of shocked the cartridge doesn't also have something that prevents printing if not in an authorized printer.
Not being part of a printer have anything to do with why the print looks bad? Like the thing he created to get the print head to spray ink isn't the same drivers and that's just a PoC to make the project possible? If this is just an extension cable from an actual printer, the quality looks janky to what I'd expect from modern ink jets.
There's been controllers for all sorts of common cartridges for a long time, a lot of low end UV printers all use a specific Epson cartridge that they run their own plumbing and electronics for. The end result of the device looks almost hand made a lot of the time, it's an XY plotter with a gigantic expensive print head on the end. https://www.amazon.com/mew/dp/B0FF93HB2Whttps://www.ebay.com/itm/397039456738
Not sure if that's bubble jet or inkjet, but I think inkjets are very very cool!
For a deep dive of inkjets, there's a conference that posts talks: https://youtube.com/@theijc
And, a shallower dive of the complexities of inks is the great "engineerguy": https://youtu.be/-DckWNwE7R4
No discussion, but this is from the Nikon Small World competition (4 points, yesterday) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50234796
The Nikon Small World in Motion competition, which only recently ended, was troubled by the prize winner being AI generated (3 points, 24 days ago) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49934521
Fascinating images. The article linked by the parent has some info https://arstechnica.com/science/2026/10/meet-the-2026-winner...
His website is https://www.macrofying.com/ which is mostly links to the usual image/video sharing sites.
With all of the DRM nonsense around printers and authorized print cartridges, I'm kind of shocked the cartridge doesn't also have something that prevents printing if not in an authorized printer.
Not being part of a printer have anything to do with why the print looks bad? Like the thing he created to get the print head to spray ink isn't the same drivers and that's just a PoC to make the project possible? If this is just an extension cable from an actual printer, the quality looks janky to what I'd expect from modern ink jets.
There's been controllers for all sorts of common cartridges for a long time, a lot of low end UV printers all use a specific Epson cartridge that they run their own plumbing and electronics for. The end result of the device looks almost hand made a lot of the time, it's an XY plotter with a gigantic expensive print head on the end. https://www.amazon.com/mew/dp/B0FF93HB2W https://www.ebay.com/itm/397039456738
Incredible research. Now I'd love to hear your thoughts through your sense of touch instead of sight.
You can hear sight?
AI slop picture i swear. Inkjet heads essentially boils ink to jet (see?) it out of tiny nozzels. Never drips like that.
Yes i didn't bother reading the caption.
No, that is "bubble jet". Inkjets are proper resonant squirts, usually piezo driven.
And, for that reason, inkjets work with a much wider variety of liquids.
If you scroll down a bit, you can see more realistic looking videos.