- Joined
- Dec 17, 2013
- Messages
- 2
Many people like me are very annoyed at the way Kodak have falsely marketed their so called cheap ink printers. The main complaints are how quickly the ink seems to get 'low' and the fact that a so-called 'low colour' cartridge locks out even black document printing.
Most printer manufacturers' cartridges have a small chip that estimates ink levels and warns or blocks usage when the level is 'dangerously' low. Of course this level is heavily judged in favour of the manufacturer so that when you dispose of a 'low' cartridge that your printer will no longer allow, you are throwing out a lot of good ink also. Kodak say you will damage your printhead and cause blockage by allowing ink to run out but many of us users are already close to throwing the printer away through frustration and also printhead blockage is fairly easily rectified with cheap cleaning product you can buy on ebay.
Some of these makers' chips can be reset with a chip resetter you buy on ebay. Not so with the Kodak ones. However I think there may be a fix for this. Here is my experiment:
I'm guessing that since the chip is easily removed and has no connection with the ink reservoir other than proximity, it just contains a unique serial number. Your printer reads it and after counting several sheets of printing guess-timates the cartridge is almost empty and that it's time to milk you for some more cash. Some people even think that it takes the amount of time a cartridge has been sitting in the printer even if it never prints anything into account. It gives the low warning and then the empty warning after a few more copies. (The colour cartridge contains a 5th chamber called 'glossy' that is used even when black printing is done so you're advancing the counter on that cartridge also) and it too has a chip.
After your printer's CPU has noted a 'spent' cart it will never let that cartridge print again, even though it contains plenty of ink. Take a new chip (you can buy them) and stick it in that little pocket on the side of the cartridge (you need to bend a tab slightly to get it in/out) and the cart will go on printing for a while, if you're lucky it might even keep going till you notice it running out.
But what if you and I take our 'dead' chips (or cartridges even) and swap them? Now our printers see unique IDs again and think the cartridge is new. Hopefully they aren't in touch with some huge Kodak database of used carts and so don't have access to other started cartridge IDs.
If this idea works then Kodak users simply start a club for swapping chips by post and can print till our ink is out, or even use our own refillable inks.
SO IF ANYONE OUT THERE WANTS TO TRY AND DO A CHIP SWAP OUT PLEASE PM ME. I'M IN LONDON AND I NEED CHIPS FROM BLACK 10b AND COLOUR 10c CARTS THAT YOU WERE GOING TO THROW OUT OR RECYCLE. IF THEY HAVE BEEN CONDEMNED BY YOUR PRINTER BUT WORK IN MINE WE COULD SAVE A LOT OF MONEY.
EVEN JUST ONE WILL WORK FOR THIS EXPERIMENT.
Thank You
Lincoln999
Most printer manufacturers' cartridges have a small chip that estimates ink levels and warns or blocks usage when the level is 'dangerously' low. Of course this level is heavily judged in favour of the manufacturer so that when you dispose of a 'low' cartridge that your printer will no longer allow, you are throwing out a lot of good ink also. Kodak say you will damage your printhead and cause blockage by allowing ink to run out but many of us users are already close to throwing the printer away through frustration and also printhead blockage is fairly easily rectified with cheap cleaning product you can buy on ebay.
Some of these makers' chips can be reset with a chip resetter you buy on ebay. Not so with the Kodak ones. However I think there may be a fix for this. Here is my experiment:
I'm guessing that since the chip is easily removed and has no connection with the ink reservoir other than proximity, it just contains a unique serial number. Your printer reads it and after counting several sheets of printing guess-timates the cartridge is almost empty and that it's time to milk you for some more cash. Some people even think that it takes the amount of time a cartridge has been sitting in the printer even if it never prints anything into account. It gives the low warning and then the empty warning after a few more copies. (The colour cartridge contains a 5th chamber called 'glossy' that is used even when black printing is done so you're advancing the counter on that cartridge also) and it too has a chip.
After your printer's CPU has noted a 'spent' cart it will never let that cartridge print again, even though it contains plenty of ink. Take a new chip (you can buy them) and stick it in that little pocket on the side of the cartridge (you need to bend a tab slightly to get it in/out) and the cart will go on printing for a while, if you're lucky it might even keep going till you notice it running out.
But what if you and I take our 'dead' chips (or cartridges even) and swap them? Now our printers see unique IDs again and think the cartridge is new. Hopefully they aren't in touch with some huge Kodak database of used carts and so don't have access to other started cartridge IDs.
If this idea works then Kodak users simply start a club for swapping chips by post and can print till our ink is out, or even use our own refillable inks.
SO IF ANYONE OUT THERE WANTS TO TRY AND DO A CHIP SWAP OUT PLEASE PM ME. I'M IN LONDON AND I NEED CHIPS FROM BLACK 10b AND COLOUR 10c CARTS THAT YOU WERE GOING TO THROW OUT OR RECYCLE. IF THEY HAVE BEEN CONDEMNED BY YOUR PRINTER BUT WORK IN MINE WE COULD SAVE A LOT OF MONEY.
EVEN JUST ONE WILL WORK FOR THIS EXPERIMENT.
Thank You
Lincoln999