Homebrew PCBs

It sounds nefarious.
Anyone selling refurbished $30 cartidges refilled with MICR Check toner 
has a niche market for check counterfeiting and is just looking to be 
busted.
Nobody who prints magnetic ink checks shops on EBAY for their toner source.


On 10/29/2016 09:00 AM, lbattraw@... [Homebrew_PCBs] wrote:
>
> Unfortunately the cartridges are "branded" with the date when you put 
> it into the printer, and after a year it will self-destruct no matter 
> how much toner is in the cartridge.  A really horrible, rotten thing 
> to do, and a very real risk for a printer that's only used 
> occasionally to make PCBs.  --And no, there are no hacks to disable or 
> reset the chip in the cartridge which might otherwise make this an 
> amazing printer instead of a scam to force you to buy cartridges every 
> year, more like renting a printer than owning one.  It's very annoying 
> since laser printers are not victim to having ink dry out and toner 
> could conceivably remain viable for years, depending on the 
> environment/humidity.  I keep hoping someone will figure something out 
> but as of yet nobody seems to have found a way to reset the page 
> counter and prevent the carts from expiring.  I've noticed that the 
> prices for the printer are a bit higher than the $25 many peop le have 
> reported, they go for close to $40 these days on Amazon and $35 on 
> Newegg.  I figure it might be to persuade people not to buy another 
> printer every time it runs out of toner since you can get a 1,000 page 
> cart for $29.99 (Newegg).
>
>
> There is only one seller on eBay that is selling toner (70g) and reset 
> chip combos (Which seems suspicious, however they are in the US and 
> have a high rating).  The combo is far more expensive ($65) than the 
> 1600 page cart ($47.49 at Newegg) or 1000 page cart ($29.99 at 
> Newegg).  It is labeled as being "MICR" (Toner used to print checks), 
> and repeat that several times like it was really important.  In the 
> description it says "Make sure You are buying " MICR (Megnetic) Check 
> Toner."  Strange.  The same vendor also sells refurbished PB-210S 
> ("economy" size, 1000 pages) for $94 with the reset chip 
> installed/programmed, refurbished PB-211 (1600 pages) carts with the 
> reset ch ip for $125, and a new printer+a starter toner cart with MICR 
> toner for $108 (I guess they replaced the standard toner in a cart 
> with MICR toner).  Odd how the printer/starter combo costs less than 
> the 1600 page cart...
> I've asked the seller several questions so I'll report back if I hear 
> anything.  There is zero info in the auction about how many pages 70g 
> will print, what the page limit for the chip is, how to install the 
> chip (Not even a picture of it), and whether the chip will expire 
> after a year like the OEM cartridges.
> ...
> I just got a message from the seller, telling me this for the 
> toner+chip combo:
>
> "are you going to print MICR ?
>
> this chip is for 1,000 pages for MICR"
>
> Nothing else, I will update the thread when I hear more.
>
> -Larry
>
>