[PLUG-TALK] Fixing color laser printer with leaf blower

Keith Lofstrom keithl at kl-ic.com
Tue Aug 31 23:09:18 UTC 2010


I don't like leaf blowers in general (rakes work better), but
they are a cheap source of compressed air, especially if you
get them for $10 at a garage sale.  

My HP2605 color laser printer was moved to our new house with
the toner cartridges in it.  Bad idea.  After the move, the
colors were somewhat misaligned, and stayed that way after
calibration.  There was some telltail red toner spilled on
some of the gears.  Perhaps some got into the optical paths
used for calibration.

So, I removed the toner cartridges and paper drawer, then
took the plastic skins off, and blasted the guts of the
laser printer with the leaf blower from all sides.  

  ( Note, this can generate static electricity.  Since
  laser printers make a lot of high voltage and ozone,
  I assume the electronics is protected against static)

After reassembly (remember to connect the flat display cable
from the top shell) it calibrated, and works fine, all colors
properly lined up.

So, leaf blowers have some small redeeming value, at least
the electric ones, if NOT used to wake up the neighbors and
blow crap from your lawn to theirs on sunday morning.  And if
spending $10 at a local garage sale keeps some other neighbor
from buying the damned thing, it also helps you sleep in.

Keith

-- 
Keith Lofstrom          keithl at keithl.com         Voice (503)-520-1993
KLIC --- Keith Lofstrom Integrated Circuits --- "Your Ideas in Silicon"
Design Contracting in Bipolar and CMOS - Analog, Digital, and Scan ICs



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