Forensic Report: Printer
===============

| Identity of the reporting agency | MDEF |
|----------------------------------------|--------------------------------|
| Case identifier | Forensics of the Obsolescence |
| Identity of the submitter | Someone at the Fab Lab |
| Date of receipt | 16/10/2024 |
| Date of report | 18/10/2024 |
| Identity and signature of the examiner | Maithili, Carlos, David |

## Examination

:::warning
Descriptive list of items submitted for examination, including serial number, brand and model

**Serial number:** X2D2087321
**Brand:** EPSON
**Model:** C462Q
**Colour:** Black
**Made in:** PHILIPINES

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## Forensic Questions

**What does it do?**

The EPSON XP-245 is a compact home device with multiple functions - Mobile and cloud printing, scanning, copying and some additonal features like Red eye Removal and Photo Enhancement. Compatible with both USB and Wifi.

**How does it work?**


It's a digital printer that operates using a printhead, the main component of digital printers. The printhead sprays, writes, or drops controlled amounts of ink onto the paper following the defined pattern to generate the desired image.

The EPSON XP-245 has a set of three independent engines. two of them control the axis needed to print and the other one controls the scanner system. The main engine controls the printhead in the "x" axis, the secondary engine slides the paper in the "z" axis. The third engine follows the "x" axis as well independently.

The printer has three main options to receive the documents to print: USB port, WiFi and Bluetooth.

It uses the following color system: Black, Cyan, Yellow, Magenta. and

**How it's built?**


It is built up of two systems, one for scanning and one for printing. The scanning system sits on top of the print system at the bottom. The scanner consists of a motor which controls the moving light, below the glass surface.The printer is made up of two motors working perpendicular to eachother - one controls the paper system and the other controls the ink cartridges.

Apart from this, support systems like the adjustable paper sizers, the paper stack support and the paper tray at the bottom are a part of the casing system on the outside.


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The casing is made of different types of plastic, ABS (Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene) which has mechanical properties such as impact resistance, toughness, and rigidity, PS-HI (Polysterine high Impact) a hard, solid plastic used frequently in products requiring certain rigidity, whilst offering elasticity and a good capacity for absorbing impact, PPE (Polyphenylene ether) which is which is a ductile material with excellent heat resistance. Some other types include glass reinforced Polycarbonate for the scanner light and the ink depositor.

Inside of the case, it consists of severel different mechanical and electronic parts with the motherboard which controls all systems, PC Boards, sensors and motors amongst other smaller components like rollers, screws and absorbers.


**Why it failed, or it wasn't used anymore?**

The printer´s power input works, It can be turned on and is recognized by the computer when plugged via USB port/cable. when turned on it runs a simple engine check to set every moving component in the correct position. This is the only interaction posible with the machine as it was unable to be recognize by the compannys software so commanding a printing or scanning test was impossible.
For this reason the scanning system was kept intact but unusable.

By disassembling the machine it doesn´t appear to have any significant damage. All the components seem to be in place and in good state.

From this analysis the team theorizes that the cause of the failure is a software malfunction. The reason this printer was disposed may be due to the impasses included by the supplier.


## Steps taken

:::warning

1. Checking current operation status. Plug in, turn on, connect to the computer.
2. Download software. test commanding simple tasks. No connection established
3. Started dismantling. Remove main screws.
4. Removed outer casing. Remove small non screwed components such as paper trays.
5. Removed internal screws
6. Detached top section containing scanner system.
7. Dismantled top section in order to disconnect cable allowing to separate the two elements completely.
8. Second check of operation status. Same response as the first check. Same components operational.
9. Remove ink cartridges.
10. Printing mechanism analysis.
11. Dismantling of ink cartridges and printing mechanism by electronic components.
12. Detachment of metal structure supporting ink delivery system from plastic body.

Parallel research of main structural and electronic components was carried away while physical analysis was underway. Basic component clusters list and relevant data sheets were developed and documented in order to understand furthermore the machine and its brand.

:::

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## Testing
During the process of disassembling the printer, many steps were carefully chosen with the intention of maintaining and preserving the systems that configure their functions. However, it's important to mention that the group prioritized the main action of the object, a rolling motor mechanism that injects the ink, a specific part with different possibilities to be used for the next steps of the project.

Before starting, it's important to mention in our first test, we tried to connect the printer to a computer to check its usability and its different functions, which unfortunately wasn't successful. The computer identified the machine but couldn't recognize anything to communicate from software to hardware, but differently from the scanning system, the printing function appeared to be working when the machine got turned on.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ZtnwjrtWVec?si=00z6zRo6AviqX7_O" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>

At the first process steps, we unattached the case and the main parts of the body, which haven't much relations to its functionalities and couldn't affect directly the possible experimentations with the mechanisms and electronic parts. In sequence, as we dived deeper into the printer architecture, we notice that some systems as the roller paper relied on the internal structure of the case to work, but most of the the important parts were easy to manage.


After a while, we started to unmatched some cables, removed the control panel case from the printer, and started to work with the PCBs, disassembling one from another. Some tests made the printing mechanism stop working when we disconnected the Ink Code Reader inside of the cartridge and an accident with a magnet made the roller paper mechanism stop printing, so we knew that from the motherboard, one system relates to the other.

As a consequencee of our experiments with the machine, we've assembled a simple pencil to the print cartridge so the machine could draw its first draft without using an ink injector, but it's important to consider it's agressive behavior along its functionality. Then, we tried to unattached more of its structure to separate the main functionality we aimed to not depend on the whole body.

Along the process, we tested many times the same fuction to understand the consequences of our disassembling process, but in the end, we decided to take out the motherboard from the motors and the rest of the machine, so we could use different parts. This will give more flexibility to work with different components and at last more imagination to rethink the meaning of what was once the Epson printer.

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## Results

**How many motors did we find inside?**
Three motors
1. Mabuchi Motor RS385PV13215R - Made in Vietnam
Controls the paper rolling system
2. Mabuchi Motor RS885PV13215R - Made in Vietnam
Controls the ink cartridge movement

3. Small Motor J03B68D1
Controls the scanning system

**Does it contain a computer or microcontroller?**
PC Board with power source
Main PC Board
Seperate PC Boards connected to the Main Board

**Did you found any sensors?**

Rotational Sensors for paper
Sensors for ink dispensor
Sensors for cartridge ink - quantities/ volume available
Sensors for scanning


## Conclusions

:::warning
One conclusion the team has reached is that the manufacturer has developed a very closed system within this machine. The objective of this set of decisions is just an assumption but we can speculate that the reason has to do with its business model. This is not an expensive machine. It is intended to be acquired by the main public and so, not designed to be repairable but disposable. By making the printer inaccessible the company guarantees a bigger demand for the product. This might be related also to the fact that the company's main income might come from the ink cartridge sales rather than the printer itself. by limiting its reparability and centralizing as much of its production as possible the prices can be more accessible and so more customers need a continuous supply of ink.


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## Opinions
What did you learn?
- How to break a device apart and learn from the process.
- Printers are complex integrate systems, components and technology that make printers too robust to repair
- Printers have many systems inside them, including electrical, mechanical, power units and control boards.
- Ink dispensing systems are complex and interesting, consisting of tubes, pumps, sensors and motors that work together.
- Due to their complexity, devices like these contribute heavily to the E-waste generation. Its difficult to replace parts or repair. It would be interesting to imagine alternative ways of assembly for consumer devices to make it maintenance friendly.

## Images