Refill UV Printer Ink Cartridges Like It’s The Late 90s

The Eufymake E1 is a recently-released prosumer UV printer that can print high-resolution color images onto pretty much anything. It also uses proprietary ink cartridges (which integrate a magnetic…

Hackaday
Customers Allege HP Blocked Third Party Ink, Then Raised Ink Prices

The complaint alleges HP is engaging in an unfair monopoly.

PetaPixel
What sort of demon has invaded the mines at #HP now? Even more dastardly plans to walk into the ecosystem for the rest of your life!
https://www.theverge.com/2023/5/25/23736811/hp-plus-printer-ink-drm-firmware-update-cant-cancel
The margins on three in one printers must be so low that they were struggling financially or something like that #printer #InkCartridge #DRM
HP has found an exciting new way to DRM your printer!

HP’s latest inkjet scheme is hiding in plain sight. If you accept the free ink, HP will own your printer for life.

The Verge

Canon Temporarily Abandons Smart Ink Cartridges

An unexpected side effect of the global semiconductor shortage came to light this week -- Japanese printer manufacturer Canon announced they are temporarily going to provide consumable ink and toner cartridges without microchips. Furthermore, they provided instructions for consumers on how to bypass the printer's logic, allowing it to function even when it incorrectly thinks the ink or toner is low. Included in the announcement (German), the company stated what most people already knew:

There is no negative impact on print quality when using consumables without electronic components.

It's well known that many printer companies make their profit on the consumable cartridges rather than the printers themselves. And most printers require consumers to only use factory original cartridges, a policy enforced by embedded security ICs. Use a third-party ink cartridge and your printer will likely refuse to print. There are legitimate concerns about poor quality inks damaging the print heads. But with reports like this 2003 one from the BBC noting that 17% to 38% additional good quality pages can be printed after the consumable is declared "empty", and that the price per milliliter of inks is seven times the cost of vintage champagne, one can reasonably conclude that these DRM-protected consumables are more about on ensuring profits than protecting the hardware.

For now, this announcement applies to German customers, and covers the Canon imageRunner family of multi-function printers (the complete list is in the company announcement above).

#news #peripheralshacks #canon #consumables #drm #inkcartridge #printers #tonercartridge

Canon Temporarily Abandons Smart Ink Cartridges

An unexpected side effect of the global semiconductor shortage came to light this week — Japanese printer manufacturer Canon announced they are temporarily going to provide consumable ink and…

Hackaday