[rescue] Phaser ink

[Mr Ian Primus]

--- On Tue, 8/19/08, Curious George <jorge234q at yahoo.com> wrote:
 Solid things, like MapQuest maps
> sometimes
> > come out looking odd if you fold them in half and they
> get
> > really hot though.
> 
> Is there any (visible) ink transfer as a result?

No. Not to the car, and not between pages. The ink will cause the prints to stick, but it won't transfer, and they peel right apart. Only in rare cases do you get ink transfer, and it only really happens when you fold a sheet with a solid image on it, and then leave it in a hot environment. Then the print can smear and come off, sticking to the other side of the fold.

> > And it's fun to watch them duplex!
> 
> Do they need a separate duplexer for this?  I know my LJ4M+
> did -- and *it* is amusing to watch.

No. The printer has all the hardware it needs to duplex. The controller board needs the proper ID chip to tell it that it's a "D" model. On the 850, you can simply add a bunch of ram (PC100). If you install 128mb or more, I think, and it will believe it's the DX, which can duplex. When the printer duplexes, it feeds the paper out allmost all the way, stops, reverses, and feeds it back in, and prints to the other side.

If you find a junked 850, save it, the logic board can be swapped into your printer, and it will run a bit faster, render faster, and it won't waste as much ink at startup. Also, it's easy to upgrade an 850 to duplex. The only difference between the duplexing 840 and the non-duplexing 840 is a single chip, an 8 legged PROM (serial EEPROM, I think).

> Wouldn't you end up with *more* "sticky"
> problems on the
> phaser if you printed double sided?  I only use mine for
> "finished presentations" and, so, have always
> found single sided
> to be almost preferable (move to next sheet instead of flip
> to backside of sheet, etc.).  But, it would be nice to
> print
> an archive copy of these things double-sided just to cut
> down on the size of the stack of paper!

Sorta - that's where I've seen the 'sticky' problem, is on manuals printed (double sided) and three-ring bound. There isn't any ink transfer, it's just a bit of a clicking as you turn the pages, and they unstick. Also, it has to be seriously heated to do this. I only brought it up because it was a difference between inks, not because it was really an actual problem with the format.

Since the black ink is free on the older Phasers, I print a lot of large manuals on them. Double sided, of course. 

-Ian