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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 people 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 chip 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

Homebrew PCBs

Re: [Homebrew_PCBs] Re: Pantum 2500 hack to direct print toner

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