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How to revert HP printer’s ban on 3rd-party ink cartridges

kevin.deldycke.com

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Re: How to revert HP printer’s ban on 3rd-party ink cartridges

#221

Post by [deleted] »

jnxx wrote: post #154
Unklejoe wrote: post #141

If all you need is black and white printing, there is no need to be buying HP inkjet printers anymore. Get yourself a Mine has been going strong for like 10 years now.

Only problem with Brother on Linux seems that they do bot distribute drivers in source code but a binary-only Debian package. So, while they seem to have a good reputation for Linux support, there is still lots of room for improvement. Ah, and also on the newwer Brother printers one has to do a complicated configuration menu dance to get rid of "Toner cartridge empty" warnings, in order to do a "Toner Reset", which l…

[deleted]

Re: How to revert HP printer’s ban on 3rd-party ink cartridges

#222

Post by unbalancedevh »

tzs wrote: post #161
Unklejoe wrote: post #141

If all you need is black and white printing, there is no need to be buying HP inkjet printers anymore. Get yourself a Mine has been going strong for like 10 years now.

Even if you occasionally do need color I’d consider buying only a black-and-white printer. The major office supply chains and UPS stores offer online print services, so for the occasional color print job I just send it to one of them and pick it up the next time I’m out for lunch.

Or go to the library!

Re: How to revert HP printer’s ban on 3rd-party ink cartridges

#223

Post by legohead »

jug wrote: post #33

I thought this was illegal and why the third party cartridge market is so big. Anyway, I wouldn't recommend inkjet printers for normal home users: for plain text, I'd use a B&W laserjet printer and if I had to print in color (like broschures or food recipes with photos), I'd use a color laserjet. For quality photos, I'd send them in to a professional service: it's still pretty cheap compared to inkjet printing... I'v…

We use an inkjet because we need color. My wife is a teacher and prints often enough that the ink never dries up.

What you need if you want to print ink often is an inkjet with CISS (continuous inkjet supply system). You used to have to hack these together with third party gear (which I've done), but now the companies sell their own models. Take a look at the Epson EcoTank products. We've have one for a couple years, and it works very well. Ink is cheap and lasts a long time. And no way the printer can tell if you're using third party ink or not :)

Re: How to revert HP printer’s ban on 3rd-party ink cartridges

#224

Post by Fogest »

snarfy wrote: post #185
Unklejoe wrote: post #141

If all you need is black and white printing, there is no need to be buying HP inkjet printers anymore. Get yourself a Mine has been going strong for like 10 years now.

There is a little window on the cartridges the printer shines a light through to detect the toner. When it can see the light you get out-of-toner errors. If you mark over it with a sharpie, it will print again. I'll be the judge of when it's out of toner based on how faded the print is. As infrequently as I print this trick can make a cartridge last months longer.

Thanks for the tip, I may have to try this next time mine gets low. Do you know if this applies to most toner cartridges?

Re: How to revert HP printer’s ban on 3rd-party ink cartridges

#225

Post by tinus_hn »

floatingatoll wrote: post #155
jnxx wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only problem with Brother on Linux seems that they do bot distribute drivers in source code but a binary-only Debian package. So, while they seem to have a good reputation for Linux support, there is still lots of room for improvement. Ah, and also on the newwer Brother printers one has to do a complicated configuration menu dance to get rid of "Toner cartridge empty" warnings, in order to do a "Toner Reset", which l…

Why do you need a driver? I thought basically every 2020 printer - and CUPS - supported AirPrint.

Is there Linux support for printing to AirPrint printers though?

Re: How to revert HP printer’s ban on 3rd-party ink cartridges

#226

Post by toast0 »

dangus wrote: post #214
Unklejoe wrote: post #141

If all you need is black and white printing, there is no need to be buying HP inkjet printers anymore. Get yourself a Mine has been going strong for like 10 years now.

This is the most annoying trope. Yes, I want color printing. Why wouldn’t I want color printing? I feel like the “black and white brother laser” attitude is like buying a car with no air conditioning because you’ll save five hundred bucks off the sticker price. The reason to choose inkjet: 1. Black and white sucks 2. Color lasers are huge and don’t really save money on toner vs. ink for typical home users. My current…

For the things I print, color doesn't really matter.

Do I care about the color of the airline logo on my bording pass? Nope.

When I print driving directions, do I care about the colors? Maybe a little.

Does color matter for recipies? Not really.

I still got a color laser printer during lockdown to replace the inkjet that I can't print to with Chrome OS anymore (thanks to Google killing Cloud Print). It wasn't too much extra to support it for just in case, and color toner won't spoil by sitting like on the inkjet.

Re: How to revert HP printer’s ban on 3rd-party ink cartridges

#227

Post by tinus_hn »

SquishyPanda23 wrote: post #152
Unklejoe wrote: post #141

If all you need is black and white printing, there is no need to be buying HP inkjet printers anymore. Get yourself a Mine has been going strong for like 10 years now.

I agree, the inexpensive laser printers are amazing. But I do wonder whether this problem will continue to be specific to ink jet printers. It's easy enough to make a laser printer refuse to print with a third party cartridge. Many refrigerators do the same thing to prevent you from using third party water filters. I think this is a more general pattern than inkjet printers.

The printer in the article is a laser printer. The only thing that matters is if the manufacturer thinks customers will accept this abuse.

Re: How to revert HP printer’s ban on 3rd-party ink cartridges

#228

Post by Wistar »

snarfy wrote: post #185
Unklejoe wrote: post #141

If all you need is black and white printing, there is no need to be buying HP inkjet printers anymore. Get yourself a Mine has been going strong for like 10 years now.

There is a little window on the cartridges the printer shines a light through to detect the toner. When it can see the light you get out-of-toner errors. If you mark over it with a sharpie, it will print again. I'll be the judge of when it's out of toner based on how faded the print is. As infrequently as I print this trick can make a cartridge last months longer.

I used to use a common hole punch to make a little disc from black electrical or black gaffers tape and use that to cover the toner windows because I found that Sharpie just wasn't opaque enough in all cases, especially with my Brother color laser.

And then I discovered the paint pens my wife uses for rock painting. Now, those really work.

Re: How to revert HP printer’s ban on 3rd-party ink cartridges

#229

Post by Wistar »

Fogest wrote: post #224
snarfy wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a little window on the cartridges the printer shines a light through to detect the toner. When it can see the light you get out-of-toner errors. If you mark over it with a sharpie, it will print again. I'll be the judge of when it's out of toner based on how faded the print is. As infrequently as I print this trick can make a cartridge last months longer.

Thanks for the tip, I may have to try this next time mine gets low. Do you know if this applies to most toner cartridges?

Seems to be unique to Brother cartridges.

Re: How to revert HP printer’s ban on 3rd-party ink cartridges

#230

Post by dangus »

isogon wrote: post #216
dangus wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the most annoying trope. Yes, I want color printing. Why wouldn’t I want color printing? I feel like the “black and white brother laser” attitude is like buying a car with no air conditioning because you’ll save five hundred bucks off the sticker price. The reason to choose inkjet: 1. Black and white sucks 2. Color lasers are huge and don’t really save money on toner vs. ink for typical home users. My current…

I think it's a trope because most people really don't need color printing, so that advice is appropriate for them. I, for example, have only ever used my printer to print such things as tickets and documents which must be mailed for bureaucratic reasons. My hunch is that this describes many others too.

I think that “most people” really means “most programmer type computer nerds on hacker news.”

I think most people prefer having color. The top 8 printers on Best Buy’s website are all color and/or photo printers.

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