understanding the bubblejet circuitry

Thanks for responding.

Have you come across anything on the web that discusses how an inkjet cartridge interprets signals from the computer to produce output

Probably not, since Canon and the other outfits that put out cartridges don't want you or anyone else to know how they work - If you did, you would't have to pay their exortionate prices for a new cartridge - You'd just refill/reset your own for a 10th of the price.

In other words, good luck finding anything out about these chips without doing your own tinkering to learn it. Anything you get from "official" sources is VERY likely to be either flat-out bogus, or deliberately flawed, since giving away the "secrets" of one of their prime cash cows isn't likley to be something they're willing to do.

Perhaps you could contact these folks:

There's nothing to stop you on Canon cartridges and OBTW, Chip Resetters are commonly available (for those brands that DO "chip" theirs). . .

Canon cartridges are NOT "chipped". http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:BI34lcNEIEYJ:

In fact, Canon's is the best corporate policy on cartridges. Why anyone would piss away good money on a bottom-of-the-line inkjet (even Canon's) when Canon Photo series printers are available I'll never know.[1]

The **Canon Photo series** has the best concept for ink: a seperately-replaceable reservoir for each color. . . [1]Yeah, I know. Most folks are clueless on printers and consumables.

Thanks for the links

Some people may be clueless, but to say that most are needs some empirical evidence.

::Most folks are clueless on printers and consumables.

Will market data do?

The vast majority of folks buy the printer with the lowest initial cost they can find.

They then end up paying (way too much) for a new multi-color cartridge when their blue is at 3% (not even zero yet, and it quits) and the red and yellow are still at over 30%.

Printers with multi-color cartridge are a scam to sell consumables and folks who buy them are unsophisticated consumers.

OTOH, a Canon Photo Series' initial cost is returned in short order.

I don't know.

I can't verify any of the above?

Regarding market data. I don't know how it was collected, how honest the respondents were, whether they understood the questions, whether the questions meant the same to each responder, whether the samples were representative of the printer buying population, how good the studies were and the methods of analysis, or anything else.

Boy, ain't that the truth. I got a BJ-230 (11" carriage, black only) off e-bay for $30.00. The cartridges are about $25.00 apiece. I also have a BJC-210, but haven't bought a color cartridge in years, I do so little color printing. The BJC-210 was $99.00 on special at the store - at the time, $99.00 was a very very good price for a color inkjet. But hey, after 10 years, it still works!

Cheers! Rich

Yeah, I have a BJ-200ex, at least 10 years old and still going strong. It uses BC-02 cartridges, cheap, good volume, and most important of all, very easy to refill at home. I can get 5 or 6 refills out of it before the nozzles get so worn the print gets splotchy. The too large nozzles waste ink too.

When the Lexmark Z25 I use for color prints runs dry I'll throw it out and get something cheaper in up-keep, a new cartridge set is over half the purchase price. ATM I have my eye on the Epson C-65.

Last week I got real lucky. A friend of mine handed me a non-working LaserJet III as he already has a newer model and wouldn't bother sending the boat-anchor for repair. I got the scanned 400+ page service manual off some russian site and determined the problem was in the fuser unit. Turns out it uses the same engine as the Lasermaster I bought for junk some time ago, it needs an external interface card that's gone missing so I couldn't do much with it. Swapping the fuser fixed the error messages, then spent a couple of hours cleaning it up, it had toner spilled all over the insides. Still prints with some faint smudging but some further cleaning and tweaking should fix that. Will be real handy now that my wife's college work (psychology) picks up speed and she'll be doing ever more write-ups. The ~$5 for the Lasermaster were really worth it.

- YD.

It's great to see people using their initiative and saving money on equipment they don't need..

Best wiahes

Sp.