Slate has published an article about one of my favorite topics – how to hack your printer. This fascination of mine started a few years ago, when during the middle of exams, my printer decided to stop printing because it was “low on toner.” Up until that point the pages were fine – crisp and black – so I decided to do some research. As reported in the article, many printers come with ink-level monitors, little lasers or light beams that monitor remaining ink supplies. My printer, it turns out, is particularly draconian, refusing to print if it senses low toner. I’ll make that decision, thank you!
The hack for my Brother HL-5150 is quite simple. The printer shoots a light beam through the laser cartridge. If the printer can’t see through the beam, it assumes everything is OK. With a little tape or a sharpie, I can cover the window on the toner and fake my printer out. Recently, I decided to “permanently” fix my printer by covering the onboard LED with electrical tape. For the exact location, you’ll need to click through to the Flickr picture and see my note.
I’ve found that this hack gives me anywhere from 300-500 extra pages of good-quality printing after the printer has declared itself “dead.” You’ll know you need to swap toner when the pages start graying out – i.e., when everyone else in the world decides to install new toner. It’s infuriating to imagine how much Brother has padded its bottom line with this stupid feature, so it feels great to fight back.
Fred Stutzman is a doctoral student, researcher and teaching fellow at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's School of Information and Library Science. He studies how people use social media.
