3 ms·
From an engineering point of view, it's much cheaper to calculate to when 0.01% of cartridges will have run out of ink based on print history vs accurately meas
by russdill 9y ago
From an engineering point of view, it's much cheaper to calculate to when 0.01% of cartridges will have run out of ink based on print history vs accurately measuring ink inside the cartridge.
Of course that means that 99.99% of cartridges will be discarded with remaining ink, some of them with a rather significant quantity of ink. And it gives the opportunity to tune this number so cartridges are bought earlier. Although it's up to the manufacturer just how much ink is included, so the usefulness of this tactic is somewhat limited.
I remember what is was like when you'd print a 50 page document only to discover around page 24 you'd start seeing white streaks...and more streaks, and by page 50 you'd have nearly blank pages. Having the printer stop and let you put in a new cartridge when ink is low is a helpful feature.
However, the lockout of third party or even refilled cartridges is just egregious.
- jstanley 9y ago> Having the printer stop and let you put in a new cartridge when ink is low is a helpful feature. Only if it also comes with a "I know it might be streaky, but print it anyway because I own this machine and I'm in charge here" feature.
- titzer 9y agoIf I were designing my own printer and wanted to both fully utilize ink cartridges (maximize efficiency) and also be able to print absolutely perfect pages when necessary, it'd be a simple solution: two cartridges. One that is potentially "low" and is used for printing low quality stuff, and one that is guaranteed to be full and is used for printing high quality stuff. Presumably, the "low" cartridge would run out first, and then you just move the existing "high" slot one down and put a new cartridge in the "high" slot. If instead the "high" one ran low first, then replace it with a new one and queue the old one to be the next "low" one when the existing "low" one ran out. Or something. :)
- russdill 9y agoClose, just have an internal tank that contains ink for printing that is refilled by attaching cartridges. When the cartridge that refills the tank is empty, it's time to swap it.
- dom0 9y agoDelete cartridge, fill in paint directly, and voila we are talking about a high throughput ink printer. These don't have, or at least didn't use to, cartridges, they draw ink from tanks and wet an ink sponge with it.
- pavel_lishin 9y ago> One that is potentially "low" and is used for printing low quality stuff, and one that is guaranteed to be full and is used for printing high quality stuff. It's a good idea, but you do realize that realistically, people would just swap the two out, and in a few weeks or months would just have two near-empty cartridges? I used to have a truck with two gas tanks, and a switch that would let me toggle which one I used. I would usually be pretty diligent at refilling every time I had to switch over, but there were several occasions when I found myself with both tanks dry.