Common Knowledge

There are a fair few people you could learn from when doing what I’m doing. Every somewhat aware person you talk to at Basics about paper sizes could drop you come perspective changing information. I’ve had plenty of these little gems given to me. Yet there was a fatale flaw in the way I saw this knowledge. I always took it as fact, despite the source. I often assumed that someone in a Basics or Staples store must know everything about office supplies. That is just one example, but it applies abroad. I failed to take the information at face value, to understand that their words were not the ‘be all and end all’. For me, I was acting as someone would if they were informed lava was hot. I’ve never encountered the stuff, but I’ll take their work for it.

Still, my mechanic is far more experienced with people selling a product than myself. His one quotation sticks with me. “When talking to someone on any specific topic, assume you’re the smarter one until they prove you wrong.” This could have saved me a fair bit of money since I started this project in September.

I had a reminder of how this is true just today. You see, I had bought $300 worth of toner for my SAMSUNG printer. As I have mentioned time and time again, his printer is designed to keep me paying through the nose, and for the last month, I was terrified I had wasted $300 on toner I wouldn’t be able to use! It took me an eternity to get the proper pieces and cords to get my newest printer up and running. It’s a Minolta, one built in 2002, which is the Stone Age when considering printers. This was its blessing, believe it or not. It was build a while ago, meaning it isn’t as obsesser proof (me) as the SAMSUNG. It has no programming or chip that tells the printer to stop working after a specific number of pages. A cartridge can be refilled at will as many times as I damn well please with no resistance from the printer. In fact, there is a handy little cap on the top of each cartridge that is designed solely for someone so inclined. There was just one problem with this little wonder (really big wonder, actually).

Each printer is built to take a very personal mix of toner. When getting toner for a printer, you always get the personal mix the company insists it needs. Oh, and guess what else. Lava’s hot! My new printer was already low on toner, so it ran out rather quickly. So what did I do? I figured I would took up what mix it would need, and see if I could get a few bottles, practically tripping over the toner I already had on my way to the computer. I have only ever heard that you have to use the right mix of toner for your printer. I have never so much as heard someone suggest otherwise. It then occurred to me. What are the odds those people have tried? I emptied a bottle of SAMSUNG toner into my Minolta cartridge, clipped the thing in place, and ordered it to print. It worked wonderfully, and has continued to do so all day.

As always, assume you’re the smarter. This is only my experience with the lava known as toner. For all I know, my printer will explode the next time I try using it, but I doubt it. I think it’s more likely that my new desktop background it correct. “Toner is toner is toner is toner.” This is an exciting prospect for me, seeing as I know places where they have cartridges on sale for dirt cheap, simply because no one has the model the toner is meant for. I’ll buy as many as I need and cannibalize them for their toner. If you were thinking of doing the same, I would recommend a re-store like ‘Habitat for Humanity’. They have all kinds of stuff from what I hear. If you check one out and there’s nothing there, odds are I beat you to the punch.

Forgive the jest. At the moment, I’m at no shortage of toner, but I almost look forward to getting more. It’s been a long time coming, but I finally have the capacity to simply print without the hindrance of buying the proper brand or paying over $100 for a new cartridge every time. It’s so relieving. Turns out this lava is on par with an awesome back rub.

Victory

To think, I thought I was waking up to a regular morning. I should have learned by now that my life involves no such mornings. I was discussing the issue I was having with SAMSUNG cartridge chips, and how they refused to work, with my mechanic. It’s in situations like this that I feel the need to force my mechanic to take an IQ test. I swear the man’s a genius. He brought up a very valid point.

You see, for the printer to know a cartridge has been used, it runs a short warm-up scan before being prepared to print. He pointed out that without this scan, the printer would have no idea the cartridge was used. Without the scan, my printer would work for once. It was something, but I had no idea how in hell we were going to stop the scan all together, and I also believed that the warm-up was important for other functions in the printer, making it a necessity. My mechanic suggested that we allow the scan to happen with a working chip, then change the cartridge to a used one, without it re-scanning. This way, the printer should believe it was working with a new chip, and do its work as required. The logic was sound, but the printer rescanned every time the ‘front tray’ (the opening that allows you to switch cartridges) was opened. When closed, it began re-scanning. This didn’t let us change the cartridges after scanning without it re-scanning. It was at this point that, believe it or not, I had a stellar idea.

I went to my printer and made sure it was off. I opened it and put in my only working chip (and new cartridges that cost $100). Instead of closing the tray, I located its sensor. A sensor is the point inside the tray that is held down then the door is closed. Simply put, it’s the thingy that tells the printer when the tray is closed. Instead of closing the door so the printer could be turned on and warmed up, I took a screwdriver and stuck it in the sensor, holding it down. As far as the printer would know, the tray was closed. Turning on my printer, the scan began. It read the cartridge and determined that It was a valid one. Once it was ready to print, I freely removed the cartridge and stuck in a used and refilled one. Seeing as the printer believed the door wasn’t opened, it also believed it was still working with the new cartridge. Then, with a great deal of satisfaction, I ordered it to print, and print it did. This means, whenever a scan commences, I only have to stick in my working chip, then without using it to print, I switch the cartridges and have at it!

The only note of caution is that you need a working chip for this to work. As long as you don’t actually print with it, theoretically, you should be able to keep this up forever! Perhaps SAMSUNG has another trick up its sleeve somewhere, and this isn’t my final challenge, but as my mechanic often says, “It’s all mechanical. At the simplest level, it’s just a series of small parts either moving or not. We just have to find the right part.” Wouldn’t you know it, the proper part was one of the easiest ones to get at. If you are dealing with a different problem when using your printer, or any other piece of technology, just keep in mind, you are smarter that it. The reason I won this victory was only because it doesn’t realize it’s main tray is open. Now my costs are cut in half, and Metcalfe Family Publishing is back in action.

VICTORY!!!

…Wrong!!!

Wouldn’t you know it, SAMSUNG’s magic struck again. Granted, I was able to print with chipless cartridges. It was a cool trick to have learned, but the printer was ready for it. I believe I have finally figured out how it works. Here is a small summery. Each chip has its own identity, which in itself is ludicrous, but it gets better. The printer reads the chip and keeps track of each one individually. That means its memory is capable of keeping track of copious identities. It can thus stop printing, with or without the chip. So as I was printing along, thinking I had outsmarted the thing, ‘Toner Exhausted’ eventually scared my eyes.

This was three to four weeks ago, and trust me, I was sick of printers. I would have to spend another one hundred dollars on another cartridge. I put this off however, having more than enough books printed to deal with. Though all this time, I didn’t so much as look at the stupid chips. I did my best to focus on the brighter sides of life, and was doing okay. I managed to find other things to work on, and have begun an exciting new project that I will touch on in a different post.

In the last few days, I have been working with a potential solution to my problems, a solution that literally called me up one night, and came knocking on my front door the following morning.

I had discussed my problems with an older cousin of mine about three months ago, and he had some suggestions. He was helpful at the time, and gave me a new direction to go in for a while. When, as usual, I hit a wall, and began trying other ideas. Interestingly enough however, he was the one calling me that particular evening. What amazing luck! His company had received a donation of two printers from the RCMP. As far as I know, they had been used to print counterfeit bills, and now had little purpose. My cousin was asked to “get these printers out of the way” and he called me almost immediately afterwards. After checking their model numbers and capacity, I found that one (an HP) didn’t print on both sides, so it wasn’t much good to me. The other one however, a titanic Minolta, was one of the most beautiful things I had seen in a while. I sent him an e-mail, outlining my assessment. I woke the following morning to find my cousin had made the long trip, and delivered the beauty. I looked it over in awe. Let me share the big jaw droppers.

It could take pages four times the size as my other printers. It took half the energy than my SAMSUNG to run. Its memory looked quite small. Finally, my personal favourite, I was made in 2002, a time before toner cartridge chips! Not only were these cartridges easily replaced, but they were easily reusable. On top of each was a little cap, ready to accept toner. I was ecstatic, and looked forward to trying it. If it could pump out counterfeit bills, it could certainly print books. I went to plug it in, when I found something rather aggravating. The connection cable was missing! This was a mission that needed doing.

Its greatest gift was also its greatest curse. Being made in 2002, it was not equipped with a USB cable port. It used something called a ‘parallel cable’, something I had never dealt with before. I later found out that it look a special kind, something called ‘mini-centronic cable end’. It took time, but I was able to have a local computer genius order an adapter for me. Now I wait, to see if all my problems are solved…or rather replaced. Every new piece of equipment is it’s own journey.

I was sitting in my office when my mechanic came in. We talked about this new printer a bit, discussed what I was doing on my computer, and a few other things, as we often do. “Let me see those damned chips again,” he said, “It’s time to destroy the pieces of crap.” By “destroy” I knew he went: begin trying things that could very well render the chip useless. He must have had a few ideas that had been too dangerous to attempt. Now however, it would be a pointless loss. Still I hoped his new ideas involved a hammer. I handed him a chip and he pulled out some sand paper. Ruthlessly, he used it to scratch one of the sensors on the chip until its golden surface was silver (the one labelled DATA). Handing it back to me, he said, “Try that.” Laughing, I decided to humour him.

…It worked.

Long Time No Type

It has been a very long time since I last reported anything on behalf of Metcalfe Family Publishing. There has been a glaring and aggravating reason why. In short, nothing has been happening! I do recall mentioning a small problem I was having with SAMSUNG technology, as I usually am. The situation got tricky, then it got lengthy. I will see how well I could summarize this.

To start, know that each new toner cartridge comes with a chip, which for the longest time I was convinced didn’t do anything. This little assumption came from me being able to use a starter cartridge that has no chip at all. So that led me to believe that the problem was mechanical. There was something, I thought, inside each cartridge that was telling my printer it was empty. It wasn’t empty of course, because I was pumping it full of toner myself. Still my printer refused to work, constantly flashing ‘toner exhausted’ on its tiny view screen.

So, in this mindset, a licensed mechanic, a licensed electrician, and myself dedicated much of our time into taking a cartridge apart, learning its secrets, and putting it back together. The first day was probably the hardest physically. We must have taken that thing apart twenty times. It took so long. Every time we think we changed something, the contraption had to be re-assembled and tested in the printer. No luck on our first day. Sure enough, we tackled it again, and again, and again. It was starting to wear on my nerves. I had waited an eternity for my toner shipment to come in, and on the eave of being able to print again, I ran into the curse known as: toner exhaustion. After all these trifles, I finally caved. I needed a new cartridge, and a new chip. (Keep in mind, it was the chip I actually needed. I had plenty of working cartridges, and there was only $10 worth of toner in a new one. I have $300 worth sitting in a box behind me. I was paying $96 for a bloody chip!)

Anyway, I have come to the following conclusion about the system’s workings. Each chip is able to read how many pages have been printed with it. After one and a half refills, the chip stops the printer from using it. The printer has it’s own memory, that keeps track of how many pages have been printed using chipless cartridges, and only allows for the equivalent of one cartridge being refilled the same number of times with an unused chip. That means my printer will no longer accept chipless cartridges, because I’ve ‘used all the credit’ so to speak. This led me to an idea. If the printer was keeping track of all chipless cartridges, then all I needed to do was somehow reset my printers memory, then maybe it would accept chipless cartridges again! This turned out to be a disappointment. I looked through the manual, I opened up the printer and looked for the memory chip (too complicated to be messing with), I even called SAMSUNG worldwide, and talked to some young woman looking at the same guide as myself. Nothing worked. It is very hard for me to believe that SAMSUNG designers created this printer with ludicrous people like myself in mind. They managed to make it obsessor proof.

My attention was turned back to the cursed chips. My electrician and mechanic took a new working chip and an old crap chip. They took all kind of weird machines and testers to both chips, trying to find out why one worked, and the other refused. No dice. They read out exactly the same.

Though, after having sat in my office for hours, starring loathingly at my printer, trying to use mind power to somehow force it out my window and have it fall the three-story drop, I think I finally figured out how it was stopping me. I think I know how the printer somehow knows that the cartridge has been used, despite the fact the chips act no different. The answer was so simple…Magic. SAMSUNG has some elderly witch in a sweatshop somewhere, enchanting chip after chip as they pass by, ensuring that the efforts of any mere mortal couldn’t possibly crack the problem. That’s my running theory anyway.

My only remaining option is to find where I can get those chips for far less that $96. For now however, I am printing again, and will hopefully be in my first bookstore by Monday! Hell, I should put all my money into bushcraft lessons and start living in the forest early…why wait?

SAMSUNG

I’ve run into some frustrating times when it comes to this printer model. As is true for the entire process of creating your own books, it’s a learning curve. Even though I understand this, it’s simply aggravating to think I had the printer beaten when I really didn’t. Allow be to describe my previous system. I had two toner cartridges, both I had emptied. Now these toner cartridges some with a chip that allows them to connect with the printer. This damned chip tells the printer how many pages it’s allowed to print. One of the cartridges mind you (the cartridge that came with the printer in the first place, called the “Starter cartridge”) doesn’t have a chip. Anyway, I use the starter cartridge until the printer says “Toner empty: Replace toner”. So, I bought the second one and ran it until I was given the same message. I found out however (being pleasantly surprised as well as angered) that if I simply click print again, it would continue printing. I was able to get an extra two copies out of each cartridge. So, this machine will insist that you get a new toner cartridge, despite there is still a few hundred pages worth still in the one it claims in empty. The lesson I learned being: The chips really don’t seem to have all that much power over anything. You click print, and it’ll continue until your pages come out faded. Defiantly keep an eye on what you’re printing once it claims to be empty. If you don’t catch it the moment it starts fading, you’ll waste paper. The other lesson was the annoying one. SAMSUNG designed their machine to cut out earlier than needed. I know this could be for safety reasons when it comes to wasting paper, but read on. It gets better.

The first time I contacted by toner-refilling people, they said that SAMSUNG couldn’t be refilled because of those chips. I told them that they continued to print if I ordered it to. As an experiment for both my toner buddies and myself, they refilled it for free and let me give it a try. I put the cartridge back into the printer and waited for it to ‘warm up’. Once it was ready it flashed the following warning: “Toner empty: Replace toner”. Wouldn’t you know it, I click print and my books come shooting out. It’s a bloody miracle! Despite the fact the cartridge was full, the machine still wanted me to replace it. Those chips weren’t designed to inform you when the cartridge was empty. They were designed so those cartridges could only give you 2,500 pages worth. SAMSUNG doesn’t want those things refilled. This way you keep buying. Now keep in mind all of this information is coming from my bias, and was not passed into me from a SAMSUNG professional. So as you should with all opinions, take my words with plenty of salt. But don’t discount me yet. There’s more!

First you need a bit of back information. There are two types of SAMSUNG toner cartridge for my specific model. There is the small and the large. The small costs $89 and gives 2,500 pages worth of toner. The large is $139 and gives 5,000 pages worth. Note that the physical difference between the small and large cartridges is almost non-existent. Quite literally, there is an open space in the ‘smalls’ where a second toner tube could be added. Then whamo!, you have a large one. This is where the back store ends. Now back to the bias.

No matter where you shop, and I mean no matter where (unless you were standing in the SAMSUNG manufacturing plant), you will not be able to find the large toner cartridges for sale. I checked Basic, Holst, and Staples. They only carry the small ones. The larger ones can only be gotten if you order them in. Instantly I think of marketing advantages and it comes to me pretty easily what SAMSUNG’s up to. By making the larger toner cartridges very difficult to get, they are increasing the amount of people buying the smaller ones. If you buy a smaller one, you will be needing toner far sooner, and you will have paid much more than needed. Let’s do some math again. In order to get 5,000 pages worth of toner using small cartridges, you will need to buy two of them, which is $178. This is what I (and I’m sure many others) were forced to do. Where as if we had the option of buying a single large one, you could get 5,000 pages worth for $139. So, let’s assume we’re SAMSUNG for a second, and we look at our statistical gains. What do you know, we make more money if we only have the smaller cartridges in stores, and have the large ones on order.

Now if the last bunch of information wasn’t enough to convince you that they are doing this all on purpose, then let me show you a real humdinger. I brought my small cartridge into my toner re-fillers and asked if they could simply slip in another toner tube and make it a large cartridge. I require a visual aid to explain why they couldn’t.



You see those depressions in the plastic right beneath where it says ‘SAMSUNG’ and above where all those little safety symbols are? Those are called trenches. What SAMSUNG has done is make those trenches so that the space below it is filled (meaning nothing else came be put there). Can you guess what that space was used for? That’s right. It was for the extra toner tube. SAMSUNG made those trenches so that these cartridges couldn’t be upgraded, and therefore, re-filled for dirt-cheap.

Now I’m not trying to sound cynical, but I’ve been working with this stuff for a while, dealing with it’s bull%$#@ for two months now. Maybe in my mind I’m trying to find a reason to hate SAMSUNG, but regardless, these descriptions of their technology are true. I only typing it up to be informative. But guess what! It’s not over!

As I’ve explained before, I have been re-filling my own toner cartridges because it’s considerable cheaper. With two home, refilled cartridges, I began printing. Usually I could get 15 copies out of each. When the first cartridge reached it’s tenth copy, it stopped. Instead of saying, “Toner empty: Replace toner”, It switched to “Toner exhausted”. I tried clicking print again as I always do, but it just wouldn’t do it. Not that the pages I was printing hadn’t started to fade yet, so I know there is still toner in there. (This is the cartridge without a chip). Now as far as I can tell, there is no identifying electronic material on that cartridge, so how in all hell could my printer recognize it and reject it (After it had been working through two different re-fills already)? Someone I know and trust said that if the cartridge were re-filled again, he believes it will continue printing. I have no idea how, but I’m willing to give it a shot. Immediately after this, I put in the other cartridge and started printing. The books started fading after only ten!!! It should have lasted for much longer. I was later informed that if a green drum within the cartridge is exposed to light for too long, it wares out. This drum is mean to create a negative charge and catch the toner during the printing process (or some crap like that). I had it sitting out for days on end without knowing this. Because of this, my toner was going to a spot in the cartridge for waste toner (note on waste toner at the end of article).

So, I can easily replace the drum, but first I have to buy it (along with more toner). As for my cartridge that has suddenly stopped working because it was designed to get me buying replacements (or so I believe) I have still not found a way around it. Like mentioned, it’s a learning curve, and one I intend to graph (math joke…sorry). One thing I can promise you, I’m not buying another toner cartridge unless it’s my absolute last option (mainly because I have no money!)

Waste Toner: There is a little compartment in each cartridge where all the waste toner is stored. You know what the difference between toner and waste toner? Nothing! Not that I’ve been able to determine anyway. It simply wasn’t used, and the cartridge had to store the particles it didn’t catch and use. So, when you open a toner cartridge, do it above something that is clean and ready to catch falling toner (it more or less pores out). I’m more than confident that it can be re-used. If you would sooner play it safe, wait a week and let me try.

Printers

As I mentioned earlier, I use a SAMSUNG duplex lazar printer. It’s a love-hate relationship at the moment. First I will offer back-story to explain. When I first started printing books, I simply used my BROTHER MFC-240C ink printer without duplex. That’s right, I couldn’t double-side anything I printed, so I had to do it manually. I would put in a page (cut to the proper size), have it print, then flip it and print again. I would then move on to another sheet. It was painful, taking just under an hour for a single book. Not only wasn’t it cost or time efficient, it was tedious.

So, back to my SAMSUNG. I love it purely because it is a dramatic improvement over my first printer. Now that they both sit next to each other on my desk, I have to love my SAMSUNG. It doubt-sides all my pages, doesn’t need the paper cut before printing, and can do a book in seven minutes while I’m doing something else completely! Unfortunately, I rushed into buying it, only because I couldn’t handle my BROTHER anymore. If I had really done my homework beforehand, I could have made a far smarter decision. As before, I will paint a picture of benefits. My SAMSUNG cartridges are $89 and that gives me 2,500 pages worth of toner. This, I thought, was an unbeatable number at the time, having only had the pleasure of my BROTHER’s inadequacy. I found out later, from my toner-refilling people, that there was a significantly better option. If I had gotten a LEXMARK (for a bit more money than the SAMSUNG) I could be using their magnificent toner cartridges. They cost $150 dollars, and yield 21,000 pages worth of toner. I’ve done some rough math, and that’s twice the price for ten times the toner!

I however, have my money invested in my SAMSUNG, and returning it simply isn’t an option anymore. I will work with the machine as long as I must to break even, then maybe I’ll consider advancement. It isn’t a colour printer, which is a feature I don’t need. However, if you are doing graphic novels, maybe it would be worth the extra hundred dollars.

Bottom line, consider your needs, and look through every model you can find. It is a matter of spending an hour or two on the Staples website.

P.S. When they say three days delivery…they really mean eight.