Printer Ink Karma

If you haven't guessed, I am a *BIG* fan of D.I.Y. I've been repairing minor and major appliances, lawn mowers, cars, stereos, motherboards, ... just about anything and everything that comes with a sticker that says "No User Serviceable Parts Inside." And my success ratio is pretty darn good. I usually can get the car back together after major surgery and have only 2 or 3 screws left over. Just kidding.

One of the big money saving DIY efforts of our generation is refilling ink cartridges. Overall, one full refill of all 5 tanks on my Canon MP600 saves about $50. Since there are two such printers in the house, that means that $hundreds have been saved over the years. There is one tool that makes this possible: the German-made Canon cartridge chip resetter. I got one when they first came out and it cost me a fortune: $68. But the ink savings have well justified it.

Today I went to refill a cyan cartridge. I always(?) reset the chip first, as it is less messy to use the resetter on an empty cartridge than a full one. This time, the unit was DEAD. No lights, no activity. I first suspected a bad cartridge. Nope, a yellow cartridge didn't work on it either. Next I guessed that after 2 years maybe the lithium battery had gone dead. So I popped it open and tested the voltage. Still good. Just for kicks I replaced the battery anyway. Still no go.

I poked around the PC board, looking for short circuits, dirt, bad connections, anything. Nothing. Basic DVM tests showed power going to the microcontroller and that it seemed to be otherwise mechanically and electrically sound. Finally after 30 minutes of playing with the thing, I gave up.

So... back onto Ebay I go, and the current day cost on a similar unit is $17.30. I go ahead and buy it. I kid you not, TEN seconds after I pressed the "Confirm Payment" button I had a thought: What about the "hit it when it don't work" philosophy? Nah, it's such a tiny circuit board with almost nothing on it. It'll never work. Twenty seconds after I had pressed the "Confirm Payment" button, and I dropped the unit on my desk from a height of about 5 inches. Klunk! it went.

And guess what! IT WORKS again!

Is this a fluke, or are the gods of Consumer Electronics karma frowning on me today?

I sense that Murphy is smirking at me from the next room.