I just bought an Arduino mainly to reset the chips on my toner cartridge (which is telling my printer that it's out of toner when it has plenty left). I found a webpage that tells how to do it if you are using a Discovery kit.
How would I customize this so I can do it on an Arduino? I'm totally new to the Arduino and don't have much electronics experience, so very basic step-by-step instructions would be greatly appreciated if anyone would be so kind. Thanks, much!
Delta_G:
This is going to take some time to learn and you're going to be making a lot of projects in the learning process that don't have jack to do with toner cartridges. Finally after some time you'll know a bit more and you'll know what you need to do with your toner cartridges.
Although harsh sounding, this does actually meet your request of
I'm totally new to the Arduino and don't have much electronics experience, so very basic step-by-step instructions would be greatly appreciated if anyone would be so kind.
One of the first steps is gaining a familiarity with the structure of a program (sketch, in Arduino parlance) and the syntax of C++ instructions so you can ask meaningful questions when things don't go right. There are EXTENSIVE resources at this site and in the IDE to start you on your way.
People have all sorts of motives for starting to learn Arduino.
Anyway, once you get past the basics, look at the I2C scanner program for finding the address of the EEPROM chip on the toner cartridge.
Buy an Epson printer with ink tanks that can be refilled from a bottle. No chips to reset and the genuine Epson ink is very cheap compared to the ink in the cartridges with chips.
the printer heads will clog with dried up ink if you don't use it often enough. I MUCH prefer laser printers. (For inkjets, you can get the kind where the printer head is built into the cartridge, if the cartridges are refillable and don't have a chip that prevents them from being re-used. Otherwise, with a set of cartridges costing as much as a new printer... Grr.)
westfw:
the printer heads will clog with dried up ink if you don't use it often enough. I MUCH prefer laser printers.
That's a separate debate.
Yes the Epson nozzles can clog and I definitely don't use my printer as often as I should - even though I paid extra for the ink tank printer specifically so that I would not hold back due to the high price of ink
Putting a piece of damp tissue (folded kitchen towel) under the print nozzles for a hour or two seems to be a cheap and effective solution.