Sorry Jerry, but this thread gets funnier with each e-mail. Let's say, for arguments sake, everything you guys said about the Epson printer and it's cartridges is true, and the government is going to crack down on electronic waste materials. It sounds like an anomaly to me. I can't imagine our government allowing millions of Americans to possible end up with full or partially full ink cartridges that can't be used or discarded, on the off chance they can or will produce near-commercial quality printed images from their home. From where I'm sitting, an empty cartridge contains much less waste than one with ink still in it. But that may be due to my warped sense of understanding.
In addition to that, you mention the cost of tossing a sheet of high-quality paper. My brother once sent me a birthday card he made on his computer. He said he had to do it about a dozen times before it came out right. The thing is, he's not an exception to the rule. There's millions of us just like him. Hell! Even a pro has a difficult time getting everything set up right for success on the first try. How many novices are going to spend $10.00 or more on a homemade Christmas card when they could buy one for less than half the price? Now for the good part. What happens to all those sheets of paper (any quality), filled with ink, that ain't quite right? Do we just toss them in the garbage pail, or take them to some collection site for proper disposal? You can answer that question yourself. The way I look at it is, "It's a world gone mad." Tony Jerry Yeager wrote: > Well hmm, it is going to get more complicated in a short while I > suspect**, but not for these reasons. > > Nowadays, we use the ink jets to produce high resolution photos that > rival those the commercial photography shops produce (I am not trying > to step on anyone's toes here with these statements). Since the paper > and the ink is expensive, it is not really the same as throwing out a > half-printed page of text that costs about a nickel to toss; these > pages cost many dollars or more to throw out. So you want to know > before starting a job, if it will finish and finish correctly. Hence > the printer needs to be able to tell you what it is up to. Thus the > smart chip in the printer cartridge. > > The ink-jets have what are called smart chips in them to talk to the > computer drivers and tell them various things about how the printer is > doing. The printers by themselves are very in-expensive. Selling the > cartridges are the way the printer companies make money (HP, Epson, > all of them are in this. Those smart chips detect when the cartridge > has been refilled and will refuse to work, so the user has to buy new > ones. A few complete refills and you have paid for a new printer. Really. > > Jerry > > ** It is going to get tricky soon due to environmental regulations > that are working to reduce electronic "waste" materials, such as > ink-jet cartridges. In Europe, it is (or soon will be) illegal to have > the smart chips disallow refills. That type of regulation may soon be > in California, then spread here. > > > On Wednesday, January 1, 2003, at 10:24 PM, Tony LaFemina wrote: > >> Sorry I took so long to respond to this Jerry, but the more you guys >> tell me about Epson printers, the more baffling it gets. I don't know >> why anyone would be concerned about when the printer runs out of ink. >> The worst that could happen is a few sheets of paper have to be >> thrown out if the ink is used up before a run is completed. (At least >> that's what I'm thinking). But, I have a sneaking suspicion there's >> more to it than that. >> >> The thing that bothers me is, if what you say is true, then their >> system for determining fluid levels is probably based on time rather >> than actually measuring fluid levels. If that's the case, they'd do >> better to eliminate the system and reduce the price of their printers. >> >> Tony >> >> Jerry Yeager wrote: >> >>> You can take the cartridges out prematurely, but you generally want >>> to avoid doing that. Epson uses the electromechanical approach to >>> squeezing the ink out. So each time the cartridges are replaced the >>> new ones have to be electrostatic-ally charged. This wastes ink. In >>> addition, with the old versions of OS-X, printer communications >>> were, shall we say a bit tenuous, so sometimes the printer would not >>> report remaining ink levels correctly (this tended to be true with >>> most ink-jet printers), which sometimes would make an old, used >>> cartridge look full when it was on its last legs. >>> >>> Jerry >>> >>> p.s. If you were using this for photos, check into the 2200. It is >>> really good. >>> >>> On Saturday, December 28, 2002, at 09:44 PM, Tony LaFemina wrote: >>> >>>> Bill Rising wrote: >>>> >>>>> On 12/28/2002 1:09, Tony LaFemina wrote >>>>> >>>>> [snip...] >>>>> >>>>>> Have you tried replacing the cartridges? >>>>>> >>>>> >>>>> I've wanted to avoid that, because epson makes all sorts of dire >>>>> warnings stating that taking a cartridge out makes it unusable >>>>> forever (even if it is still pretty full, as the ones in my >>>>> printer are). So... this'll be the very last step, after I've >>>>> tried everything else. >>>>> >>>>> Bill >>>>> >>>>> >>>> Thanks for that bit of information Bill. I've only had 2 H-P >>>> printers, and am not used to that kind of stupidity. Are you >>>> allowed to at least wiggle them to maybe try to reseat them? I'm >>>> not familiar with Epson's setup, but couldn't there be a condition >>>> where the cartridges aren't seated properly? It sounds like these >>>> guys went out of their way to come up with that one. >>>> >>>> I wish you the best. >>>> >>>> -- >>>> Tony LaFemina >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> >> >> -- Tony LaFemina Major in Layout & Design Techniques Minor in Software Fundamentals http://hometown.aol.com/visitmacland/index.html mailto:remacs at optonline.net | The next meeting of the Louisville Computer Society will | be January 28. The LCS Web page is <http://www.kymac.org>.
