I had one concern after the information on the Ricoh AP 2610. Somone had told me that sometimes these inexpensive laser printers use a counter in the toner cartridge, so that when it is advertised that the cartridge is good for some number of copies, when that number of copies has been printed, that's all, folks. The price point of the toner cartridge for the Ricoh caused me to be concerned that this might be true with this unit, and I sent an email to the local sales rep asking about it; I was informed that there are volume sensors in the cartridge, rather than a counter, so that if one was printing documents with less density than the standard, one could presumably get more copies than the 20k advertised. He answered my followup question before I got a chance to ask; the density upon which 20k copies is based is 5 percent toner coverage. If, as I suspect, typical music has a lesser density than the standard text page, thus, the number of copies per toner cartridge is significantly increased: if toner coverage of a sheet of music is 2.5 percent, for example, the cartridge should last for about 40k copies.
Just looking at the toner cartridge, I don't see a contact point for an electronic sensor, but maybe I'm missing something. Perhaps there is a way the main unit can detect with the toner cartridge is coming up light. The user manual mentions a message about "Toner is getting low", which is consistent with the idea of a "remaining toner volume" sensor. There may be a "stir stick" device inside the cartridge, and possibly the printer can measure the physical resistance. As the toner volume drops, there would be less resistance on the mechanism.
Speaking of toner, the AP2910 comes with very explicit warnings NOT to shake the cartridge. I've owned 3 laser printers before (2 HPs and an Oki) and they all recommended shaking (at least significant rocking) to get the toner spread evenly inside the cartridge .
Well, my first 50 copies printed beautifully, but then one side of the page became very faint. I spoke to the support desk. They said it was OK to tip the cartridge with some force left and right, but to not shake the cartridge vigorously. This corrected my problem. Apparently the toner became really packed during storage and/or shipment.
I see where a new cartridge is about $200 on discount. This is high, but not really outrageous. I was spending about $80 for my HP cartridges, and I think the Ricoh has at least twice as much toner. Plus the Ricoh is 13" wide instead of 8.5", so it does cost more to make. The real pisser is that I could get replacement toner for the HP, but nobody makes aftermarket toner for the Ricoh.
That's the news from here. CP
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