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SILICON SILIC CHIP www.siliconchip.com.au Publisher/Editor Nicholas Vinen Technical Editor John Clarke – B.E.(Elec.) Technical Staff Bao Smith – B.Sc. Tim Blythman – B.E., B.Sc. Advertising Enquiries (02) 9939 3295 adverts<at>siliconchip.com.au Regular Contributors Allan Linton-Smith Dave Thompson David Maddison – B.App.Sc. (Hons 1), PhD, Grad.Dip.Entr.Innov. Geoff Graham Associate Professor Graham Parslow Dr Hugo Holden – B.H.B, MB.ChB., FRANZCO Ian Batty – M.Ed. Phil Prosser – B.Sc., B.E.(Elec.) Cartoonist Louis Decrevel loueee.com Founding Editor (retired) Leo Simpson – B.Bus., FAICD Silicon Chip is published 12 times a year by Silicon Chip Publications Pty Ltd. ACN 626 922 870. ABN 20 880 526 923. All material is copyright ©. No part of this publication may be reproduced without the written consent of the publisher. Subscription rates (Australia only) 6 issues (6 months): $70 12 issues (1 year): $130 24 issues (2 years): $245 Online subscription (Worldwide) 6 issues (6 months): $52.50 12 issues (1 year): $100 24 issues (2 years): $190 For overseas rates, see our website or email silicon<at>siliconchip.com.au * recommended & maximum price only Editorial office: Unit 1 (up ramp), 234 Harbord Rd, Brookvale, NSW 2100. Postal address: PO Box 194, Matraville, NSW 2036. Phone: (02) 9939 3295. ISSN: 1030-2662 Printing and Distribution: 24-26 Lilian Fowler Pl, Marrickville 2204 2 Silicon Chip Editorial Viewpoint Printer ink costs more than gold! Many printer companies have been milking their customers for years. Did you realise that many printers, especially ink jets, are sold below their cost? The goal is to lock you into buying their overpriced ink, making you spend more (a lot more) in the long run. I bet if this was made clear to prospective buyers, they would be a lot less interested in those ‘cheap’ printers. If you open up a $30+ printer cartridge for an entrylevel printer, you might find a few millilitres of ink, if that. If you calculate the cost per weight, it’s more than gold! This has given rise to a large third-party ink industry. Third-party cartridges can be a fraction of the cost of the ‘official’ ones and, in my experience, work just as well – at least for day-to-day tasks like printing letters, invoices, bills, contracts etc. But the printer companies do everything they can to make it impossible for you to use those cartridges. For years now, they have been incorporating encryption chips in their cartridges to prevent third parties from making compatible devices. It hasn’t really worked, but they certainly have tried. This is one of the reasons that if you have a printer, and it works, you should never ‘upgrade’ its firmware. Most firmware ‘upgrades’ for printers are actually just attempts to block your use of third-party ink, and it should be your choice which ink you use in the printer you paid for. I have ignored the “please upgrade the firmware” messages on our printers for years now and have thankfully had no problem using third-party ink. Until recently, for our home printer, I was paying $8 for a full set of four CMYK cartridges, including delivery! The price has now gone up to about $12, but it’s still a great deal compared to – I kid you not – $150 for the printer brand equivalent. What a ripoff! Who would even consider paying that much? You’d have to be desperate! That’s for a set of cartridges that would last you maybe a couple of months of modest usage. If you do a lot of printing and want to use an ink jet, you’re better off buying one of the ink tank printers. They cost more up-front, of course, but the ink lasts a really long time (years), there’s no ink ‘DRM’ and even the genuine ink is not that expensive. So they are a good option, although I hear that they are not without their problems. Apparently, Brother laser printers are a good choice, especially if you don’t need colour. Thermal label printers aren’t much better, except the ‘DRM’ isn’t on the ink (because there is none), it’s on the paper. Older label printers are actually worth a lot of money on the second-hand market (and are hard to find!) because you can use any paper you want, and again, the third-party paper is a fraction the cost of the paper you get from the original brand. I sincerely hope our label printers don’t pack it in because I would refuse to pay the extortionate prices that those companies charge for their labels. Sure, the quality of the originals is a little better than the third-party ones, but when you’re using them as shipping labels, who cares? We pay $60 for 8 rolls of 220 labels for our printer, which works out to 3.4¢ per label – that seems reasonable. The original brand labels have an RRP of $60 for a single roll of 220, or over 27¢ per label. Again, who would pay that? That’s a higher cost per unit than the packaging we put the stickers on! I might pay double the price for genuine labels, but eight times as much? Forget it! We have two interesting Vintage articles this month. Next issue, we’ll be back to the usual Vintage Radio. by Nicholas Vinen Australia's electronics magazine siliconchip.com.au