Don't throw it away! It's either the Infra Red transmitter or receiver module from an appliance or controller; TV, Hifi, Camera, automotive, whatever. Had any visitors or moved anything electronic recently?

Sooner or later, perhaps much later, it will be noticed something isn't communicating. Producing the missing part might make someone very happy by avoiding a big bill.

Dave

Russian spy bug

Disposed of any ink cartridges lately?

Martin C

No idea what the board is for, but the black blob looks a bit like COB – aka chip on board. The basic silicon chip is placed on the board and wire bonded to pads on the board. The whole thing is then covered by a blob of epoxy. It's a cheaper assembly option because the silicon chip does not need to be packaged before use.

Andrew

They are counters and whenever the cartridge is asked to squirt some ink it increments and when sufficient squirts have been made indicate the cartridge should be empty.

The ones in the Canon printers I use now appear to be quite accurate but I have had experience (admittedly long ago) where a Texas laser printer over estimated and I had to change drums, toner cartridges and excess ink catch bottles which were far from exhausted making it an expensive hobby to keep replacing them.