OneGuyFromBarlick

I once mentioned choice of a new printer suitable for Ubuntu and printing black only. My HP Inkjet is proving to be a problem, refusing to recognise even a new HP cartridge. Please could you give me your latest advice on a new printer and I will buy it. I have no objections to laser printing. I don't necessarily want the cheapest, I am interested in reliability and longevity of the cartridge. Time for a change!!

I suggest you ask Pluggy about Ubuntu compatibility first. Otherwise you might spend time choosing a printer and then find it's not compatible. I can't help because we haven't bought a printer for many years now and our Brother HL-2030 laser is out of production. Having said that, it still works fine and only needed a printer file downloaded for it to work with Ubuntu. This is our third HL-2030. We had one each when running our home business and now one between us. I can't recall any problem other than a drum starting to give a black line on the paper when the machine was older but any laser printer could do that.

Yes, I would concur that you need to come from the angle of your chosen platform. From a laser (LED) printer point of view I like the Brother stable as they tend to use separate toners and drums so are the cheapest to run. I used them exclusively when I was in charge of procurement of hardware in the schools I was Network Manager in.

I currently have a Brother DCP7055 which can also scan and copy, not sure of it's Linux capabilities though, USB connected on Windows 7 and it just downloaded all the native drivers for it when first plugged in. Most laser will ship with a low yield starter toner so be prepared to replace that fairly fairly soon into its duty cycle. Drums tend to yield 20,000 pages, toners 3,000 to 5,000. Shipping toners generally can't be refilled without a faff but subsequent Brother toner units generally have a plug on the end of the cartridge to make filling easy if you want to go down that route, you can refill most toners for about £12.00, replace completely for around £27.00 depending on model, a bit of homework to chase down exactly what you want from your printer will be beneficial.

If you're buying a printer for linux, HP all the way. Most of the major makes will work, but stay well away from Dell & Lexmark.Brother can be a bit of a lottery for drivers. You can't really go wrong with HP. You might need to update hplip (HP linux drivers for all their printers) if its a new model. If you want just monochrome I'd go for laser.

This one is a colour scanner and Mono Laser : http://www.dabs.com/products/hp-laserje ... -9Y7N.html . Its not a recommendation, I don't have personal experience of it. The last printer I bought I would recommend is now obsolete. I don't own a printer now, I get stuff printed at my wife's work and throw them money for the odd times I need paper output.

Thanks for that lads. The HP looks attractive and if nobody comes up with a better alternative Ill go with that....

Look for compatible toner replacements, the HP original is £44.00 for a 1500 page yield. That's half the price of the printer. Or look on Urefilltoner to see if they do a toner bottle for it and how easy it is to refill.

Edit;

Just had a quick look and you can refill it £15.00 for the starter kit which will give you instructions and all you need to gain entry to the cartridge. Subsequent toner bottles £9.95 for 1500 pages. More info here: Urefiltoner - HP M125a

Thanks for that Ian, very useful. I've bookmarked it. I shall have a rethink nut will probably order it tomorrow morning. I shall be sending for Pluggy to install it for me.... Usual rates of course....
One supplementary question, I note that they don't supply the USB cable with the printer. Strange.... Is it a special? Should I order one with the printer?

I wouldn't think the USB cable is special. Your old one will almost certainly work. If not I'll have one that will work. Its pretty much standard not to supply a cable.

Stanley, let us know how you get on with the new printer. If it's good we might buy one too because the Brother is getting old and it doesn't have the copy and scan features. We have an old, basic photocopier but it's on it's last legs. The cream plastic case is now light brown!

Not supplying a lead is throw back to the old days of printer supply and a ploy of the manufacturers to save money citing the different interface connectors that may be required on the computer end of the cable, RS232, RS423, Centronics, whatever. Now with USB all that is irrelevant but they still save the few bob on supplying the cable. It will almost certainly be a bog standard USB A to B.

Thanks Ian, I'll have a shufti.......

I ordered the printer yesterday. Will let you all know how it performs when Pluggy has installed it properly.
Did you know that when you enlarge print on the order section that it stops some of the functions on the screen? It took me twenty minutes to get an order in. Roll on the window cleaning!

Printer dispatched.... What's the point of giving you a tracking number but then when you go to the designated page telling you it can't be tracked? Ah well......

If its Dabs you're dealing with, you'll usually get the tracking number when its ready for despatch, but it won't track until UPS (or whoever) have picked it up and scanned it into their system.

The nice man from Dabs turned up this morning with the printer. I rang Pluggy and he has just sailed off into the sun after installing it for me. Good job I sent for him because he had to do things with the FM3 I wouldn't even contemplate like downloading and installing the latest software for the printer, scanner and copying. We've tested all the functions and yes it scans in colour but prints Gray scale. The reproduction is very good, high res and clean print and B&W pic reproduction. The good news for Tiz is it's quiet, fast and sensible. I noticed it put itself on standby.... As you can see from the pic it has a small footprint and is tidy. In short I'm delighted with it. Thanks to Pluggy for getting me up and running, such a great asset! By the way, you were all right, the USB was bog standard.....

The printer part of it worked straight off in Ubuntu, but it needed an upgrade to the aforementioned hplip to get the scanner going.

Same functions as my Brother which has a slightly smaller footprint having an integral 250 sheet paper bin rather than the front tray on the HP.
When you installed the drum/toner, is it an all in one integrated unit? If this is the case and you opt to refill the cartridge you should get 3 to 4 refills of toner for the life of the drum providing you take care of the OPC unit when refilling. If you use the supplier I put the link in for (URefill), the starter kit for the cartridge will tell you how many times you can expect to refill before you will need a new unit. Some cartridges employ a mechanical gearing arrangement to "time out" the toner bin, if its one of these you will get the necessary replacement reset gearing along with the replacement toner. If not it will be a simple drill and pour operation. The starter kits supply the necessary boring tool to gain entry to the cartridge and the info on where to put the hole and all the notes relevant to each cartridge.

Integrated drum in cartridge. Stanley isn't expecting to do a lot of printing, he says the starter cartridge might outlive him. Its a delightfully quiet machine in operation and produces a good monochrome copy of a colour original which isn't the Brothers strong point if reviews are to be believed. It started life in 2013 and after market cartridges are easy to come by, I'm not a fan of refilling toner cartridges, toner is filthy stuff that gets everywhere. If I wanted a printer, I'd seriously consider ii.

It's quite a painless process if you follow the instructions. URefill toner bottles come with proper spouts to fit the hole in the cartridge, it helps if you give the bottle a good shake to agitate before fitting the spout. I generally do mine in a black bin liner on the kitchen table, never had any accidents, mind you I must have filled hundreds over the years in school. Saved a fortune to spend on other niceties into the bargain.

I'll bother about refilling when we get there.... I bookmarked that link Ian, thanks.
This morning has been upset! First the small matter of gas and leccy readings with torch and magnifying glass (why oh why is the BG web page lacking in contrast!!!!!) Then IPS running at less than 1mps..... Usual checks and no joy so switch the router off, brew up and restart. Thank God that cured that one. I shall go for a relaxing walk....

Tiz, I think you'll like this printer, if anything goes wrong I'll let you know but so far so good, in fact excellent! I am pleased..... (and glad I shouted for Himself.....)

Thanks for the advice Stanley!

`BBC Micro Bit computer's final design revealed'
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-33409311

I had occasion to do a bog standard printing job yesterday. I found I could select 'draft' so that will help the toner cartridge life.... Such a pleasure compared with how my old printer was, The machine was off but warmed up very quickly and did exactly what it was told with no delay. Such a difference! I'm pleased I made the change......

Tiz, I needed a copy of a till receipt. I just switched the machine on and scanned it... dead simple and quick.
I needed this because I may be one of the Co-ops customers charged twice on Tuesday......

I wasn't sure where to post this question but decided that this topic was my best bet.
I like to have a look at Flightradar24 and was following a plane when I noticed that it's reported altitude was varying by a couple of hundred feet as it passed overhead. Is the altitude given a height above sea level or above ground? I have tried to find the answer with no luck though common sense tells me it must be above ground!

According to this Wiki, Altimeters work on various principles the majority on barometric pressure which is referenced above sea level. Skydivers use wrist mounted versions of the same, cant see how they factor in the ground terrain though which I would think is of prime importance for an aircraft or a skydiver!

Alitimeter Wiki

Radar based Altimeters use ground following techniques.