tbh i have a old hp printer sitting in the closet collecting dust we dont rlly need it anymore
this post was submitted on 29 Sep 2024
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Yeah I've been seeing knockoff and refilled Canon 245 cartridges for years now. Two things to worry about is:
-
Canon Firmware Updates can brick them
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Some of their branding seems like grounds for lawsuit as they intentionally design their packages to look like Canon Brand. Just search 245 ink on walmart and you'll see tens of knockoffs with white and red boxes.
It's better to just do inktank printers tbh.
So never update my firmware then, got it.
I couldn't afford a Brother, but my Canon MG3620 works phenomenally with 3rd party ink. Another thing I like is that the software is delightfully stuck in the 90s. Simple and straightforward cause it literally hasn't changed since I was a kid. Yet you still get modern features like wireless and mobile printing, as well as borderless options. Everything I need a printer/scanner combo to do, and nothing more.
Idk why anybody with a pc would even connect them to wifi tbh.
So I can keep it in a central location since there's no ~~food~~ place for it in the office, and print being able to quickly print something from my phone is convenient (like a 4x6 photo from my phone to give to a visiting family member on the spot).
FWIW you can always disable wifi if you don't need it.
Gotta have a food place for the printer.
100% essential.
that's just the Old Switcheroo with extra steps !
Glad to see that there's finally some effort to hack the shitty anti-consumer printer ink DRM.
Quite honestly, back in the 90s I thought it was essential to have a printer. Back then I used to buy a binder, and a bunch of those plastic paper holding sleeves. And I'd print out entire gamefaqs which were sometimes 300 pages.
Then ink started to get expensive. So I stopped. Then now these new printers have DRM. So I just never bought a printer since the 90s.
And I feel I'm not alone. I bet there are millions of people who would be printer customers if printer ink weren't the most artificially expensive substance on the planet.
If I could go out and buy a printer replacement ink pack for $5.00 and have it last a few months, I'd just buy them regularly. Instead I haven't paid one dime in close to 25 years. Gee, guess that financial decision paid off for them....
The solution is to just buy a cheap Brother mono laser printer.
for bonus points get a used one!
Bonus bonus points: get a free new one!
If you're extra lucky, it'll still be running on the original included demo toner cartridge.
I have a brother multifuction laser. From a thrift store. 6 years so far on a 3rd party XL toner...
I've spent more on paper than the printer+toner
You might want to look at laser printers. If you're just doing black and white documents, whatever the latest Brother printer is will do a good job, do it fast, and not screech at you about your cyan running out.
It's a few hundred bucks up front, but the toner cartridges print a ton of pages and don't dry out if you don't use them. I can't recommend it enough if you have even a passing desire to make hard copies of documents.
Agreed, I have a (pre-HP) Samsung laser printer and it works whenever I need it to. Sure, it only works via USB and only has one button and an on/off switch, but it works when needed.
it only works via USB and only has one button and an on/off switch, but it works when needed
That's ideal; the less connected it is, the less chance I'll have to shoot it
This. I have a brother color laser printer I bought years ago. Literally before COVID happened, so I've had it about 6 years. I replaced the black stock toner, haven't replaced any others yet. Thing still prints like a champ even though it'll randomly forget Wi-Fi settings.... Lol
I bought an HP* color laser before Covid too. It's starting to bitch about cyan, but holy hell I abused the shit out of it during my studies and it's still good as new.
*I know, but their enterprise grade stuff is actually decent.
The only downside is up replaces the entire toner and drum cartridge. I prefer brother since they're separate. Drum is now expensive, but I doubt I'll ever use it enough to need a new drum lol.
I went directly from a dot matrix (ImageWriter II ftw!) to a laser. Except for photo prints, I find it immensely practical to be able to print stuff at home.
Nowadays you have tank printers. They're more expensive upfront but the ink is much cheaper. It's even cheaper if you go for aftermarket ink. I have an Epson and it's great. Don't think I'll go with the cheap ink however, I just don't use it that much to justify the savings
Great news for the population segment that was dumb enough to buy an HP printer in the last 20 years, yet is smart enough to perform this operation!
so basically just the hackers to come up with this workaround :D
I have a really old one that doesn't do part pairing and is new enough to do color so it's worth holding on to. The ink expiration, refill and status is still locked and it still can still brick specific ink cartridges if detects stuff like low ink or whatever. At least non-hp cartridges aren't all-out blocked. I might have to steal all the information in the post so I can build my own whatever that is before hp sues everyone involved and purges it from the internet.
Some day I hope I'll find a way to refill the cartridges with ink and hack them to reset the ink levels.
I have a rather old office laser from like 20 years ago and it is amazing. No DRM and I buy really cheap ink cartridges. The HP site does sell my cartridge still... For over $200.
They sure do seem to really hate their customers
My HP printer is 15 years old and we are not changing it until it breaks.
We are used to refill cartridges with a ink syringe.
Dad is that you? :D
Unfortunately he bought a "modern" HP a few years back. It's a nightmare.
If you haven’t read the hackaday comments I highly recommend you do. Some really great behind the scenes experiences people are posting. Super cool.
Been looking for this sort of device for my Pantech laser.
The cartridge is good for 1,600 pages - no more, no less.
All well and good, they’re cheap, except.. the vast majority of my printing is in A5 size (roughly half-letter, or exactly half-A4).
Those half pages count just like any other page against the total, and I get shorted by the better part of 800 pages or so.
[…] inkjet throws another vague error when all you want is to just print a text document.
If that's your usecase, it's cheaper (and greener) to save as pdf.
Sometimes you need a hard copy
Sure, your situation may be different. Here and for employees, it's about once per year (printing shop) and the odd package sendt (printer in post office). Even tax application is all digital now. And still, most people have one.
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