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Re: Stylewriter original
Roger Johnstone wrote:
At work we recently replaced our old Minolta laser printer. For about
the price of two toner catridges for the old printer we bought a new
Brother printer. It's much, much faster, has an Ethernet connection, and
duplex printing. As is common now it came with a half-filled toner
cartridge rated for about 3500 pages. After a few months the printer
stopped printing with a 'toner empty' error light. The printer had
probably only done about 2000 pages and had never shown the slightest
hint of a reduction in print quality, although the low toner light had
occasionally turned on for a second when the printer started.
Assuming that the toner detection system must be faulty I removed and
examined the cartridge. At each end of it is a small clear window. It
seems that the printer checks the toner level by shining a light through
the cartridge. If the light is detected at the other end it decides that
the cartridge is empty and stops printing. I placed a small peice of
black tape across one of the windows and the toner cartridge has done at
least another 1000 pages and is still printing perfectly.
Who would design a printer that stops instantly when it thinks the toner
is low instead of just giving a warning? Someone who doesn't want a
repeat customer.
Or just someone who doesn't want a *clever* repeat customer!
Fortunately (for them) that leaves a very large majority of the
market who are delighted that the printer tells them unambiguously
when to insert another $80 cartridge instead of degrading in print
quality over dozens of pages, ruining its last print job. ;-)
(BTW, the printer should always correctly complete the print job
that was printing when "out of toner" was detected--for example,
by disabling itself only after it has been idle for some time.)
Since it is difficult to use "the last drop" of toner or ink without
risking bad printing, it is standard operating procedure to detect the
"empty" condition when there is still some margin of correct operation.
(Though more than 25% waste seems a bit excessive!)
I'll bet you could put black tape over either the emitter or the sensor
and never have to modify another cartridge again. ;-)
-michael
NadaNet networking for Apple II computers!
Home page: http://members.aol.com/MJMahon/
"The wastebasket is our most important design
tool--and it's seriously underused."