Brother Magic! Print Black without color cartridges.

[BOYNTONSTU]

I am now able to print using my Brother MFC -465CN and my MFC-240C with any and all color cartridges removed from the printer!

Just BLACK!

This has always been my dream, to carry on with a color cartridge empty or removed.

I might make a Youtube video to demonstrate.

When I tried it, I almost could not believe my eyes.

Wow!

 

[websnail]

Interesting... Normally printers have a self-preservation requirement to have ink in all carts to avoid burning out nozzles.

 

[PeterBJ]

Even if it is possible to print without all cartridges in place, I think it might ruin the print head and should be avoided.

AFAIK the Brother printer uses a piezoelectric print head like Epson and might not need the cooling from ink, but Epson printers are sensitive to air bubbles in the print head. These bubbles are hard to get rid of. Maybe the same applies to Brother printers?

 

[BOYNTONSTU]

Interesting... Normally printers have a self-preservation requirement to have ink in all carts to avoid burning out nozzles.

If that is the case how could a clogged nozzle head section be cleared after being energized numerous times without ink?

In any event, turning a clogged color Brother into a Black/Yellow printer is useful.

It is a big relief to be able to print with empty or missing colors cartridges.

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

o.k., what's the intention of all that - just to print black for the rest of the printer liefetime, or to bridge a short period on the weekend until new cartridges are purchased ? The cartridges for these models are without chips, so you can cheat the ink empty sensor easily by blocking the lever in the cartridge, and the printer will not recognize an ink empty condition. When you insert new cartridges again you need to run quite a lot of cleaning cycles, or you need to start an initial ink charging cycle which is accessible via the maintenance menu

 

[BOYNTONSTU]

o.k., what's the intention of all that - just to print black for the rest of the printer liefetime, or to bridge a short period on the weekend until new cartridges are purchased ? The cartridges for these models are without chips, so you can cheat the ink empty sensor easily by blocking the lever in the cartridge, and the printer will not recognize an ink empty condition. When you insert new cartridges again you need to run quite a lot of cleaning cycles, or you need to start an initial ink charging cycle which is accessible via the maintenance menu

I can use the method both ways.

The neat thing is that it works without cartridges in the printer.

Not cheating the cartridge, cheating the printer electronics with a 3 minute hack.

 

[The Hat]

Wouldn’t it be just as easy to use a mono laser for all you black prints and not bother with hacking the Brother printer at all..?

 

[Smile]

Wouldn’t it be just as easy to use a mono laser for all you black prints and not bother with hacking the Brother printer at all..?

The higher end brothers print as fast as a laser, and it's cheaper to run them then a laser. Cheaper is third party ink is used. Unless you have a allot of toner and replacement drums, blades etc. for a laser.

 

[Smile]

Brothers have also a neat feature, at least mine does. That allows to print photos with BK ink and CMY . This means rich black, not like Canon, EPSON, HP tri color printers where they mix CMY for black. This is available when selecting "Inkjet Paper" in printer driver.

 

[BOYNTONSTU]

Wouldn’t it be just as easy to use a mono laser for all you black prints and not bother with hacking the Brother printer at all..?

I have a Brother inkjet printer equipped with humongeous outside cartridges. One filling can print many thousands of pages.

The color nozzles got clogged.

Is it easier to throw away the inkjet and buy a laser, or spend 3 minutes to hack it?

If I ever get the cyan and magenta heads unblocked, I would have full color functionality without undoing the hack.

BTW (This huge volume of ink capacity is worrisome to me for fear of waste ink overflow. I wish that I knew of a hack like for Epsons that can fit a Brother with an external waste ink container, "Printer Potty")