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Hey guys, I've been busy this past month. Back in December, my company was selling off old hardware to the highest bidder. I managed to obtain an HP LaserJet4 printer for the sum of $6.50. Naturally, it had problems - paper jams being the biggest issue. I even got so mad at it that I kicked the bloody thing in the side (yes, it left a small mark from the shoe). Well, in January I decided to turn this printer into what it should have been in the first place - an Athlon XP computer!

Now this wasn't going to be easy, by any means. After all, the printer isn't designed to hold computer parts, and it was just stuffed to the gills with printer parts. It took me over two hours just to dissemble the thing. See that box of parts?



Anyway, I fabricated the base for the motherboard, after I decided that only a micro-ATX board was going to fit in there. I put the DVD drive and the hard drive into the paper tray. I had an important goal here - that was to retain the outside appearance of a stock printer. In these next few pictures, you can see how I integrated the drives in the paper tray, and the motherboard in the middle. Also, I have one case fan on the side, with my custom HP logo, made with a Dremel tool.




Now I haven't finished taking the final pictures, which I am going to submit to MaximumPC for that monthly mod contest. I wnat to get some more cool shots of the lighting effects. In the display where you used to see "Ready", I've made a custom template that says, "Bigal's Computers". How appropriate, I thought. Anyway, this is my project so far. It came to life at 5 PM EST on 02-14-04, Valentine's Day. No problems except that the power LED didn't light the first time. I reversed the leads, and that was all I had to do. It's running an Athlon XP 2500+ (200 FSB at 11.0) for the 3200+ rating (2.2 GHz) on a Shuttle MN31N micro-ATX motherboard. The memory is Corsiar Extreme 3200 CAS 2.0 (256 MB X 2) for dual channel operation. Yes, the system is fast!

That's good work.

In Your Future!! Nice Work!

should rigg up a thingy so it can spit out pre printed sheets of paper... then you can show a pic on your screen... hit print... then it spits out a sheet that allready has the picture on it!

...it would be hard to make it spit out a piece of paper. Maybe I could just leave a piece of paper sitting in the top output section?

nah.. just rig up a pair of rollers to do it... thats all you need is a sheet started inthem.. then have somting to turn it on so it comes out... just one sheet... nothing fancy.
Edit: or better yet make the stock button for test page turn the motor on and have a test page allready loaded in it.

I finished the project earlier this week. I have now submitted it to that Maximum PC contest, so wish me luck! I have the machine overclocked to 2.2 GHz, using that Athlon XP 2500+ and the Thermalright SP-97 heatsink. I chose the Vantec 92mm Stealth fan for the CPU, and it runs a quiet 1700 RPM. My temps, using minimal fan intake from the side, is 34C at idle, and 39 to 41C under load. I can't argue about that!

Very nice.

Greg

Yesterday I got an e-mail confirmation from Maximum PC that my entry was received. That's a load off my mind. I guess that means I have a chance for the remaining 3-4 months that the contest will run. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Also, I just ordered a Matrix Orbital LCD panel that I will try to integrate into the printer-to-computer. It should arrive next week. I think it might fit in the paper output slot on top, but it's tough to determine this until I get it in my hands. I ordered the LCD without the 2-bay insert, but I did order 2 temperature probes and the internal USB interface. Here's a picture of the LCD (the four-line yellow text on black background display, LK204-24-USB-IY) and another one of my printer:

hey... do you still have the original VFD disply that was in it? it might be able to interface with the computer if its a certian type. if you have it let me know what it is and ill figure out if it can be done... that would be the best.. to use the stock VFD on it. get some pics of the thing and its connector.

I'm not going to connect that VFD back up to the circuit board that was originally driving it - I removed the circuit board and tons of other connectors / wires / etc. That's a big reason I decided to avoid using the VFD, and since I don't have a software package to control it, I knew it was going to be a big pain in the butt to come up with a satisfactory result. So I appreciate your ideas on the VFD, and if you are very interested in trying to use if for a project, I will be happy to send it to you (I'll pay the postage up to five bucks). I probably need to send you the circuit board too, and then you'll need to figure out the power requirements for the circuit board and.....see what I mean? You might need the old power supply and the parts that go with it too. I have the stuff, but personally, I don't think it's worth the time and effort when that Matrix Orbital LCD is much easier to install and program. hat

it depends.. if its a HD40780 its parallel interface and i can make one cable and hook it to the parallel port. i have software that can run all sorts of suff.

look for LCDsmartie. its good stuff. it can run the matrix orbital stuff too.

if you want to send it to me go ahead...

1001 surben drive
Valparaiso, IN
46383

and if i get it woking ill let you know.

I didn't throw anything out when I did the conversion, so I went through the box of parts expecting to find the VFD attached to it's circuit board. After emptying the box, I remembered that I had to cut the VFD away from the circuit board to fit my stencil in that plastic cover (with LEDs behind it), and the circuit board was still attached to the printer cover (it also supports those buttons). So I went through my small box of screws and found the VFD - along with it's cut and twisted leads. This is only a single line display, and the part number on the back is "FIP16X1MA JAPAN RH6-0031 01". I didn't take the printer cover off to check the old connector to the circuit board, but I think it looked like a serial connector, not a parallel connector.

Overall, I think this display is history. I doubt you can use it since there is no circuit board / chips to drive it. I can't take those out of the printer cover, and this VFD was cut away from the circuit board anyway. Also, it doesn't match the part number you referenced. Do you want this VFD? I could just stick it in an envelope with some packing material around it. :

..I dropped it in the mail this morning. At least you can look at it to see what I was up against. Good luck!

so all im getting is the raw VFD with out the controller board? then like you said i doubt i can do anything with it... but who knows...