Hewlett-packard Development Company, L.p.

Hewlett-packard Development, L.p.

E Lewis Barton

Antonio Monclus

Lluis Hierro

Macia Sole

Charles R Headrick

A spittoon for servicing an inkjet printhead is provided, where the spittoon includes a bottom and one or more walls. At least one wall of the spittoon has an inwardly extending lip. The walls of the spittoon, taken in combination with the bottom of the spittoon, define a waste ink reservoir. The presence of at least one lip on the spittoon walls helps retain the waste ink when the spittoon is moved or tilted, minimizing ink spills.

Spill resistant spittoon for printer service stations

An apparatus and method of use opposes a short circuit failure mode in a printer having a printhead controller circuit driving an address bus connected to two or more printheads. A failure protection circuit associates one resistor group with each address line within the address bus that extends into at least two printheads. In particular, one address line resistor is placed in series between the address lead extending from a head driver IC within the printhead controller circuit and each printhead into which the address line extends. Where an address line shorts, the associated address line resistor protects the head driver IC from the short, allowing it to control the voltage potential of that address line in any printhead that has not failed. The user is then able to identify and replace the non-functioning printhead.

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Corvallis, OR, United States of America

E Lewis Barton