printer fuse

[Fred]

Hello,

I bought a cheap Samsung laser printer and bought some refills off a well known auction site.

Apparently the printer signals that he toner is low by blowing a fuse. Seems a funny way to do things to me, but what would I know? Anyway, I was sent a couple of fuses but I've lost them! The blown fuse says "F

63mA L 250V P". I can recognise the 63 milliAmps and 250 Volts but I am unsure what the F, L, and P signify?

Which ones do I need to order?

BTW can you overfill the toner as I think mine is almost to the stopper.

It is only a black and white printer used for domestic use, in other words the occasional letter. I used to have a photo inkjet but got fed up with the nozzles drying and using cartridges exclusively for cleaning! I know it is cheaper to get photos printed by photo companies but have colour lasers dropped to low prices yet? I see there are some cheap colour lasers but are they good enough to print the occasional photo on glossy paper?

TIA

[geoff]

In message , Fred writes

63mA Fast blow

really, its not that important

[Dave Liquorice]

Just got a HP CP1515n about =A3180. Can't say I'm as pleased with it as the LJ1200 (monochrome laser) that it replaced. It works but is finickity, sometimes won't notice you've shoved a single sheet into the slot and still picks from the main tray or refuses to acknowledge that it has any paper despite having drawn the sheet in a little... It's also slower but that isn't a great issue really. I got it mainly as No.1 Daughter likes to do her home work in colour and the Epson inkjet was unreliable, low use =3D blocked jets =3D lots of cleaning =3D= 10 pages/cartridge =3D big dent in wallet and the T008 and T007 cartridges are becoming scarce.

Laser glossy paper (at least the HP stuff) isn't as glossy as inkjet glossy paper. Photo printing quality is OK but not up to the old Epson Stylus Color 890. That might be a driver thing as the Epson could also produce similar quality output is not talked to nicely. Any photo that I want a really quality print from will be sent to Photobox, as before even though the Epson could do a pretty could job.

[nightjar]

It depends how easily pleased you are by the results. Colour lasers print in four colours - black, cyan, magenta and yellow. Bottom end inkjet photo printers add two more colours light magenta and light cyan. Better inkjet photo printers add two or three more colours, which vary according to the maker.

Colin Bignell

[Dave]

Colour laser printers have dropped in price over the last few years, to about just over £100-00. The thing to look out for though, is the cost of the toner.

Don't bother using glossy paper for photos, after the paper comes out of the printer, the toner is a matt finish. They do, however, make a very good copy of £5-00, £10-00 and £20-00 notes that would pass in a dark and busy bar, but I know nothing of this.

Dave

[PCPaul]

I just helped a friend set up a Canon IP4600 inkjet and an HP Color LaserJet 2050. The idea was that he'd do top quality photo prints with the inkjet and use the laser for everything else.

When he saw the quality of the laser pictures he said he wished he hadn't bought the inkjet...

They aren't actually *that* good, but I'd say the laser pictures were about the same as you would have got from an older inkjet, say an Epson C62. The difference only really showed up in the fine detail when lots of similar colours were in use, such as leaves on bushes.

As part of it I also looked up continuous feed setups for inkjets - it's a lot cheaper than I thought - for the price of two or three full sets of cartridges you get the full kit and way more ink, after that you can top up for ridiculously small amounts of money.

The only drawbacks I can see are that you have to have the ink bottles and pipes outside the printer (but they are neatly styled) and that I haven't tried it. I have no idea how messy the whole process could be...

[The Medway Handyman]

You can't do that with a lot of modern printers, they recognise a currency note (not just UK) and refuse to print it & a message appears on screen telling you so.

[Steve Walker]

I recently scanned the V5c for my kit-car before sending the original off for a change of colour to be noted and was surprised when the blue block on the front came out as four different colours - the bottom third orange and the top two thirds divided into three vertical bands of blue, green and magenta. I don't know if this is a case of the software recognising the V5c or some sort of trick printing in the first place.

SteveW

[TheOldFellow]

I have a Xerox 6110n that I bought last year as the house printer, both SWMBO and I do a lot of posters and publications for the local village and churches. I don't do photos on it, but it's OK for photos in posters - where first impressions are all that matters. We love it, even though it means we spend more on toner than we did on ink - that's because we like the results, so do more. You use all the toner too (well almost all) and there are no jets to block, so if you don't use it for three weeks it still works.

I will never buy another inkjet printer now. The cost of a photo printed in Boots is so low, and you can edit your pics onto a USB stick first, etc, etc.. and for everything else the colour laser is king.

R.

[Peter Parry]

I've used one for about two years on an HP D7160. The whole process is fairly simple but undoubtedly has the potential for significant mess. I put the ink reservoirs in a plastic container just in case - and the black did overflow once so that was good move! Overall its been very reliable and vastly cheaper than cartridges.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

That's interesting. Is it a ML-2400 and where's the fuse situated? I've just refilled mine and would like to get rid of that flashing red LED.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Where do you buy such kits? I've got a decent Cannon inkjet printer which is simply too expensive to run using ordinary carts. I only occasionally need to print in colour. But could put it in the workshop where the extra gear wouldn't be a problem.

[The Natural Philosopher]

I discovered that my local photo processing shop now will take digital input and turn it into whatever photo size you want..on proper photgraphic media. Lovely results. WAY better than a laser printer!

[Laurence Payne]

I recently installed one on a Canon Pixma ip4500. I was dubious, but the kit was cheap (and so was a replacement printer).

It wasn't completely straightforward. The later model Canons have added some internal plastic lugs seeming specifically designed to prevent the feeding tubes being installed. Some surgery using a cutting wheel on a Dremel was required. Chips have to be transferred from a set of "official" cartridges. The printer displays an alarming series of warning messages telling you you're now on your own as far as quality and warranty are concerned.

But, rather to my surprise, it works very well indeed!

[John Weston]

If your throughput is small ("I only occasionally need to print in colour"), then converting to external ink reservoirs isn't worth it, since you'll probably get head clogging before you use up one ink tank. You'll use more ink in head cleaning cycles than printing, which is most likely happening now. Using large supply tanks, may also result in the cleaning reservoirs getting full.

Looking at colour lasers is a better route, IMO, as they're fine for colour prints of up to picture draft quality before using the likes of Snapfish for the final print where needed. Lasers don't suffer from head clogging either, but they don't like cold and damp when unpowered.

[Steve Firth]

I tend to avoid them, but if one must have an inkjet then IMO the only type to have are Kodak. Well built, inexpensive to buy (they do cost slightly more than the competition, but not a lot more) and the consumables costs are reasonable. Being Kodak the print quality for photos is excellent, and I've used them in a very demanding work context without problems.

However for day to day printers I use Xerox. There's really no substitute for proper PostScript and a printer with a built-in print server. They cost about £400 each which isn't excessive for a proper workhorse, run day in day out without a flaw and can hit 30ppm when necessary. All of the "proper" Xerox printers seem to do duplex as standard. The only headache with them is the weight - they need two people to move them.

[Peter Parry]

eBay seems to be the popular place, search for "continuous ink". I'm pretty sure I got mine from Inkjet Revolution (eBay seller "2005imports")

sellers seem to aim at different printer manufacturers.

[Dave Liquorice]

I wouldn't touch Snapfish with a barge pole. Had some prints done by them and they took over a week to come, the colours where rather too garish and the bottom edge of every print was smeared. These where the freebies you get when signing up.

Compared to Photobox who are speedy (almost next day) and good, undamged, quality you know who I use... Photobox also send you a calibration print with your first order the same image you can download from their website and view on screen to check your monitors alignment. Nothing like that from Snapfish that I am aware of.

[Geo]

I use bluetack.

[John Weston]

I've only used them when I could pick up the prints from a local Jessops and it looked like they'd been done using their in-store equipment. That's why I used the term "the likes of Snapfish" Thanks for the heads- up.