OT-Neopost Postage Meter Inkjet Cartridges

An old dodge for HP printers was they are not "monitoring the ink supply" as much as running a per-page countdown timer on the cartridge. And in the case of the postage meter printers, they put a

6-month expiry on as well as a count to empty. This is allegedly so they don't have "printing problems" with old dried out cartridges, but in practice it's planned obsolescence and a great way to drive consumables sales.

The old dodge for using refilled cartridges with the HP printers was to have a bunch of old cartridges around, since the cartridge serial number memory was kept in a simple First In First Out buffer. If you tried swapping between two cartridges, it would remember that far back and insist both were "empty".

But if you cycled a magic number of separate "full" (unknown serial number) cartridges through (IIRC either 3 or 6) you would flush cartridge #1's serial out of the buffer. Then you refill cartridge #1, stick it back in, the printer thinks that serial number is a new cartridge, and you're good to go.

If you kept the old cartridges for the meter you might try this... Myself, I gave up inkjets for laser long ago. Slightly higher up-front investment, outweighed by the far lower per-page cost.

But you do have to compare between lasers now also, some of the lower-end units are way out of line on the cartridge prices (and are shipped with half-empty "starter" toner cartridges) to try to get back in the "make more money selling the consumables" pricing model.

Licking? I thought Self Stick Stamps was the next big thing... ;-P They make semi-automatic dispensers for self-stick coil postage stamps, Google on "Stamp EZ".

Or buy the old-style mucilage coil stamps and find an old Postaffix stamp dispenser - in one quick push it squirts two drops of water onto the envelope from a little water tank, advances a stamp from the roll, cuts it off, and stomps it down on the envelope. We used to fire off weekly 1,000 piece postcard mailings with them all the time - Kerchunk, Kerchunk, Kerchunk...

We looked into postage meters a few times - and using a Small Business budget model we always went back to the Postaffix. Unless you churn enough postage through the machine every month where you are actually running the ink cartridges dry, and you or an employee are spending half the day just handling the mailing duties, it simply isn't worth the meter leasing and consumables costs.

You don't think the gummint folks that worked out the deal to bypass those 'fair trade' rules were in cahoots with P-B and Neopost, getting favors and kickbacks, now do you? ^_^

Hell, look at the California Insurance Commissioner, who is supposed to act as a consumer watchdog - half the time, the guy worked as an insurance industry executive before he gets elected, and goes back into the insurance industry after he leaves office. Now whose side do you think he's REALLY on?

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I got a "low ink"

HP's revenue enhancement features. Here is one refiller's hack.

Kevin Gallimore

How about something like:

I got really fed-up with the postage meter rip-off years ago, we lick stamps! I refuse to pay even the lower fees from places like "Stamps.com" even though it's a better deal than a meter. You might scan some stamps and just print as many as you need.

At about one cartridge every 8 months or so, It'll take me quite a while to accumulate three old ones to try and with my luck it'll need six or more.

Yes, we have five laser printers in the office, all Samsungs using the same toner cartridge. I do refill those cartridges, I can usually do that to them twice before the drums start to give out, about the time they're ready to run out of the last refill.

I bought a tool for about ten bucks which is just a little soldering iron with something that looks like a 3/8" copper sweat pipe cap mounted where the soldering bit would be. The hot edge of the cap melts a neat round hole through the plastic wall of the cartridges without producing any plastic chips to foul thing up. I think it costs me about $3-$4 per refill, buying toner on the web.

I was just setting myself up for telling the story about the time the Ruskys came out with a series of postage stamps with Josef Stalin's image on them. There were numerous complaints about the stamps not sticking to envelopes and upon investigation the Russian postal authorities discovered the reason.....People were spitting on the wrong side of the stamps.

Prolly correct, but the two lovely ladies who do most of the mail stamping in our little company have been with us a long time and are used to using a postage meter with its calculating scale and not having to fiddle with stamps and secure them from pilferage.

I'm certain if I tried to shift us back to stamps It'd be received as well as my bringing them some bulky sweaters in the winter and turning the thermostat down to 50 F. I'd further convince them that Jack Benny had nothing on me.

Plus, we need postage amounts above 39 cents on quite a bit of our mail which runs over the weight or size that will go for 39 cents.

We refill our meter with about $200 of postage a month, and I'd guess that'd equate to about 400 impressions a month, or 20 per work day. I've got a feeling that if we used "real stamps" there'd be some money wasted through sticking more postage value than required on a fair amount of stuff.

Last comment on mailing....I recently discovered that the USPS regs require more than 39 cents postage on an envelope if it's square rather than rectangular. Makes sense when you figure that automatic handling equipment would have a pretty hard time properly orienting a square.

Jeff (Still raining cats and dogs here. I just came in from outside where I stepped in a poodle.)

If you try to copy and reuse postage, be prepared to get a very unwanted visit from the Postal Inspection Service.

Those Stamps.com fancy barcodes are a serial number and check codes for that particular 'stamp', just like the serial number and 'check features' on a twenty dollar bill are a way to verify authenticity and trace it. And they do track them - the high speed scanners on the sorters make it easy.

And just like the Secret Service and counterfeit Twenties, if they see the same stamp serial number come through more than once they will be VERY interested in tracking it to the source.

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Just kidding. I asked a cousin/mail-person if the PO raised rates to cover storage costs and she got all pissy and said: "How else can you send a letter from New York to California for just a penny a day?"

I figured you were. ;-)

But I thought I'd better clarify it for those out there who can't think for themselves - there are a few induhviduals that hear stuff like that and think "Gee, what a great idea!"

Actually, the postal rate increase is to fund their secret spamhaus works in Russia and China. The way they figure it, if they can make E-mail totally unusable by filling our In-boxes with offers for fake pills, Canadian Pharmacies, offshore gambling & bookmaking, sex, and enlargement products, people will give up and start mailing paper letters again. And so far it's working....

(Is this how rumors get started?) ;-)

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