The really large revolution in this world was Gutenberg, who manufactured the tool that produced the greatest social revolution of the time. The King James Bible. We are surveyors. We produce PLATS, which are also the legal representation, of property lines, and many folks do not read legal descriptions very well, and I like PICTURES very well. In fact, I am quite interested in Matt Johnstons recently unveiled software package, that can take a written description, and at an improved rate, produce a PICTURE from a pile of words. I like to think of these as "Large WORD PROBLEMS".
Well, this brings us to today. Cheap printers are available. In fact, Mfrs will GIVE you a printer, if you will buy their INK, in their cartridge, to print with. So, ultimately, you wind up spending some $ 100 a month in ink, in some paradigms.
So, I'm interested in these contraptions.
About 1.5 to 2 yrs ago, I was shopping for a printer. I read up on it, and all. And, when necessity struck, I bought a Brother MFC-J6545DW. It has LARGE printer TANKS, and a pretty conservative use of this ink. And, Prices for the ink was reasonable. Some $60.00, and with shipping, around $65.00. The advertisement was "Comes with your first year supply of ink". I bought one of these printers.
Well, Last week, it ran out of ink. Being a conservative person, I had bought extra ink, shortly after buying the printer. So, that when it ran out, I'd have NO CRISIS. I'm happy.
Well, BLACK quit first. No surprise. So, I open the package of ink, and my first surprise was NO BLACK CARTRIDGE! It was the 3 colors. Cyan, Magenta, and Yellow. but NO BLACK!
So, I need it fast, and drive to Hot Springs, to buy the ink. And, I discover:
1.) It came with HUGE ink tanks. but, the ink tanks for sale are NOT the huge tanks, like those the printer came with. They are MUCH SMALLER.
So, I shopped for a printer, and bought one that had fairly inexpensive ink, that lasted well.
Here is what it came with:
Here are the cartridges that I found while pricing the ink:
So, the ink cartridges it came with cost around $200-250.
and the ones offered, for sale, (MUCH smaller, capacity) cost around $ 100 for all 4 cartridges.
Thats not all.
IF you REFILL your original cartridges, well, they have CHIPS in them, and once emptied, the chip HAS to be reset, before it runs out of ink, or somehow it apparently registers to the printer that this cartridge is EMPTY. If you refill it, but after it has run out, then it TRIGGERS the printer in some way that it won't register that it has ink, and it WON'T PRINT if it cannot register that it has ink.
IF you buy aftermarket ink,(that don't have new chips, programed to give the right signal) I am not sure how to make these work.
Well, back to my story, I have 3 color cartridges, which will soon need to be installed. While in Hot Springs, I bought ONE black cartridge like the second pic above. It was over $40.00, and it contains maybe 1/3 the ink of the ones it came with.
Printer manufacturers are making some fine printers. The ink is cheap. But, a cartridge, costs more than the ink. And, are trying to make a profit. So, they are hi-jacking our ability to "Just buy ink". With all kinds of contraptions, chips, etc, to BLOCK any of us from refilling.
I think I will go ahead and keep reading. I bought the printer. It's mine. And, I am FREE to trash it, replace it, or figure out how to make it work. It's the AMERICAN way.
But, what about my surveys? Do I like MULTIPLE Real Estate transactions, to happen, with JUST one survey plat? There are some similarities. It's got me to thinking.
Back to the ink, I have 4 new MINI cartridges, that cost about $ 110.00. I am ok for a month or two. But, I will have to figure out this equation.
Such it is.
BTW, this printer will SCAN 11x17, print 11x17, and Letter, and Legal sizes. It has good software in it, where you can scan to a thumb drive, and it will combine all the scans into one file. It will make PDF's and JPG'S etc. Also, the MRF has discontinued this printer. I'd guess it is because some HACKER has figured out how to by pass the EXCLUSIVE ink, and it can somehow use aftermarket ink. HMMM
Here is a NEW printer like mine:
I'd guess I paid around 300 for mine. We will be fussing with ink and printers for many more years, I'd guess.
Nate
