I have Cone Epson R3000 refillable cartridges that are to be reset by manually shorting out the contacts on the cartridge chips. This does work as designed to reset the chip and ink lvels back to 100% on the ink monitor. I have noticed that if I pull a cartridge just to check the ink levels, with or without power supplied to the printer, the cartridge resets back to 100% from some lower level. It acts like an ARC.
In my experience, the R3000 carts I have tested only reset the ink levels when the two reset contacts are touched with a pair of tweezers, but if the points are touched by the chip sensor or other metal, this could also cause the chip to reset. I just did some tests with our R3000 and set of refillable carts that have been installed (it’s resting with PiezoFlush, as we haven’t needed to use it in a while). When I turned the printer on, all the carts were reading the same level- just under 1/2 full. I removed and reinserted all the carts, then checked the ink level readings on the printer’s LCD panel. Two carts reset to full, but the others remained at the level before they were removed. I then removed the PK cart again, this time by wiggling it slightly (instead of lifting straight up, as I previously did)- apparently, during the wiggly removal of the cart caused the chip sensor (I assume?) to touch the chip reset contacts, and reset the chip- because after reinserting, the PK read full.
So, it shouldn’t happen- but apparently, can happen if the chip reset contacts touch metal when being removed/reinserted- so, keep an eye on the physical ink level to avoid running any carts empty.
I hope this helps. Best regards and happy printing~ Dana