It’s a well-known secret that inkjet ink is being kept at artificially high prices, which is why many opt to forego ‘genuine’ manufacturer cartridges and get third-party ones instead. Many of these third-party ones are so-called re-manufactured ones, where a third-party refills an empty OEM cartridge. This is increasingly being done due to digital rights management (DRM) reasons, with tracking chips added to each cartridge. These chip prohibit e.g. the manual refilling of empty cartridges with a syringe, but with the right tweak or attack can be bypassed, with [Jay Summet] showing off an interesting HP cartridge DRM bypass using a physical man-in-the-middle-attack.
This bypass takes the form of a flex PCB with contacts on both sides which align with those on the cartridge and those of the printer. What looks like a single IC in a QFN package is located on the cartridge side, with space for it created inside an apparently milled indentation in the cartridge’s plastic. This allows is to fit flush between the cartridge and HP inkjet printer, intercepting traffic and presumably telling the printer some sweet lies so that you can go on with that print job rather than dash out to the store to get some more overpriced Genuine HP-approved cartridges.
Not that HP isn’t aware or not ticked off about this, mind. Recently they threatened to brick HP printers that use third-party cartridges if detected, amidst vague handwaving about ‘hackers’ and ‘viruses’ and ‘protecting the users’ with their Dynamic Security DRM system. As the many lawsuits regarding this DRM system trickle their way through the legal system, it might be worth it to keep a monochrome laser printer standing by just in case the (HP) inkjet throws another vague error when all you want is to just print a text document.
I personally use a Brother inkjet printer. My current one is just over a year old and on about 20,000 prints the previous one lasted 5 years before the yellow started playing up. I pay the equivalent of about $20 for a liter of each black, cyan, magenta and yellow which lasts at least a year or more. Great printers
So it seems I’m the only one using the cheapest HP ink jet printer and paying the extortion .. I mean, the price of catridges.
Last week my printer obviously got some updates and refused to work with a replacement catridge with the chip that is mentioned in the article. It does work – when you take the catridge out, unplug it from the wall, plug it back, turn it on, and put catridge back on, it takes around 20 seconds for firmware to recognize it as unsupported. So I put all of my printing in the pool, and do this, and it prints and complains after it finishes printing.
Will buy a new original catridge next, I need a printer at home to print around 20 pages a month., half of it in color. Paying 40 euro per year is OK for me.
What is your opinion on “ink tank” inkjet printers? They seem to solve the expensive ink issue. An official bottle of ink is much cheaper than a cartridge, and there’s nothing stopping you from using third party ink which is even cheaper. And they last much longer too. However, I never used them so I don’t know the caveats
I use hp printers with 3 months free instant ink, taken 2 printers back so far. So I spent £58 on the last printer, I’m on £11.99 a month ink and 9 months free ink. £49 ahead at the moment. I’ve also got three boxs of instant ink delivered sitting on the shelf. (These are the ones they send out when you put your set-up cartridges in).
What’s keeping someone from using a similar design to 3d print their own printer, using those cartridges?
Should research before I post.
https://hackaday.com/2020/06/13/no-need-for-speed-with-this-arduino-based-inkjet-printer/
DO NOT, I REPEAT, DO NOT USE HEWLETT PACKARD INSTANT INK. This is a massive rip off. We subscribed after buying a HP Printer (which by the way we will never ever do again, we’ve had Brother and Epsom before and this one is by far the least user friendly). After a few months, clocking up approximately £80 we realised we hadn’t been sent any ink and hadn’t finished the original ink that came with the printer. I removed the cartridges and could tell that they both had over half of their ink still remaining. We promptly cancelled our subscription. Shortly after the E0 error code appeared on our now disabled printer – “unsuitable ink cartridges fitted” or words to that effect. Realising what had happened I went straight on Amazon and bout 2 new genuine HP cartridges for £22. The printer resumed normal business. The two original cartridges, still over half full, rendered useless had to be disposed of. I say again, DO NOT SUBSCRIBE TO HEWLETT PACKARDS INSTANT INK SCAM….YES…SCAM!
Epson ecotank they use inkbottles