the cartridge carrier 14 is unmodified from its original equipment it has in its right hand section an electronic connection section 36 and on its left side an ink connection section 38 the electronic connection section 36 has a plurality of receptacles 40 a 40 g for receiving the right hand side of a conventional ink cartridge each of the receptacles 40 a 40 g in the electronic connection section 36 carries a plurality of contacts 42 on the inside thereof in the embodiment shown seven receptacles 40 a 40 g are shown conventionally this cartridge carrier would normally carry seven conventional inkjet cartridges the right hand portions of which would fit in the electrical connection side and the left hand portions would fit in the ink connection side each cartridge would have a right hand side having contacts thereon that would make electrical contact with the contacts 42 on the carrier to provide information to the inkjet printer while the remainder of the conventional cartridge would contain an integral ink reservoir that would fit over the respective ink couplings 34 a 34 g in the modified version in accordance with applicant 39 s invention the conventional cartridges are modified by removing the integral ink reservoir and leaving only an electronic connection side as the modified cartridges 30 a 30 g these modified cartridges 30 a 30 g contain the original electronics which among other things communicate to the inkjet printer when the integral reservoir is empty or full the modified cartridges 30 a 30 g may when modified have their internal setting indicating that the cartridge is empty these cartridges can be reset with commercially available hardware for example a cartridge.