I knew i kept all those bits of old printers for a reason
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VR2xQlWpDxo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VR2xQlWpDxo
It looks like Rev-Ed decided not to splurge and buy the "automatic labeling unit" as described in the phot.This has been discussed here before. The machine is almost identical in principle to the Data I/O machines used to program every single PICAXE chip. However the Data I/O machines take 4 tubes at a time and program between 200-300 parts an hour (depending on memory capacity)!
http://www.rev-ed.co.uk/docs/promaster3000.pdf
Is it just me, or you guys also find this kind of stuff really hot?
Make your minds up; Is it hot or cool or both or just plain awesome?
(To me, it's very neat and congrats to the maker... but awesome? Nah. I am not in awe.)
C'mon guys this is seriously hot .Ooooo you REALY need to get out more!
I am sure that Dataio would be very interested in correcting the majorActually we do have the labelling units. However the labels are extremely troublesome to use, regularly jamming the machine. You also need specially manufactured labels which would add on average over 30% to the cost of every chip, they are very expensive.
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Dippy,Myc,
I don't know the answer, but here's food for thought:-
1. The Promaster 3000 is discontinued.... ever wondered why?
2. The "30% to the cost of every chip" is probably referring to 'production cost' and not retail cost.
3. There are quite a lot of Promaster 'issues' on their website support section including faulty label placement.
So, if the labels are pricey and the machine is unreliable then that must make Rev-Ed wonder if it is worth the hassle.
I'm sure if you can get someone to apply 700 labels per hour every hour without mistake for £10 per hour then Rev Ed may take them on. I'm only joking.
Therefore, the challenge; to make a reliable printer/labeller that can print and place 500 labels per hour AND provide on-site support within 2 hours. All at a reasonable per piece price. Then you can flog it to Rev-Ed and the rest of the world. Good luck.
Hippy,I find it very difficult to believe that Rev-Ed has only one unit, which would limit their chip programming to a max of 700 an hour.
700 per hour, 6 hours per day, 240 days per year = one million
They'd have to be shipping more than 5,000 units per day to require another machine.
If you build it with Mecanno, Lego, gaffer (duct) tape, shoot a video for U-Tube and stick it on Instructables you'll get the kudos of "Hot", "Cool", and "Cosmic". I recommend fading RGB LED's to make it look more impressive, and big hand-shaped bat to plonk labels onWe could quite easily build another full machine from scratch from our spares box!
Or commandeer the local Job Centre queue and put them to work with PICmicro programmers built from PICAXE's. With Job Trial that's three week's worth of labour at no chargeAt the end of the day if all our machines failed we would simply use one of the dozens of sub-contractors who can program chips
ROTFL !!!PS. Had to edit. IE7 still drops chars and I don't think anyone would believe I had a Rabbi called Nesbit.