quick question.

[will e]

Out of curiosity, what is the thin strip of plastic/film that is about 1/4
in by 12 in that runs through the ink cartridge carrier? This is for a HP
PhotoSmart printer. TIA

 

[Tony]

Out of curiosity, what is the thin strip of plastic/film that is about 1/4
in by 12 in that runs through the ink cartridge carrier? This is for a HP
PhotoSmart printer. TIA

Various names for it, usually encoder strip. Simplistically it is used by the
printer to tell where the carriage is at any point in time.
Tony

 

[Bill]

Out of curiosity, what is the thin strip of plastic/film that is about 1/4
in by 12 in that runs through the ink cartridge carrier? This is for a HP
PhotoSmart printer. TIA

Updated technology - older printers simply ran the print carriage full
width from side to side and back again, and laid down ink at the
appropriate time.

More recent models use that strip to track the exact location of the
printheads and can move the carriage in large or small steps as needed.
It allows the printer to reproduce the document in less time since the
heads are not wasting time moving all the way to the left/right and back
again - the heads are positioned as needed to lay the ink.

 

[Arthur Entlich]

I'm guessing that is a stepper motor marker, and that an optical device
reads the small marks on it to find positions.

Art