3800 not recognising carts after refilling…Re-Posting

I posted this at the weekend in the Discussions Forum, guessing now that was the wrong place so re-posting it here in Product and Technical Support. Would appreciate and answers ASAP, the printer will still not recognise the cartridges after many attempts at resetting. Thanks!! So here’s the post again……

I have just topped up the carts on my 3800, the large 220ml (?) “older” carts….I did this with the carts in place, did not take them out. But now the printer reports that no carts are in place, asks me to reinstall carts. Done this several times, still same response. Once or twice the printer info’ display has shown all carts in place, but empty. Then it goes back to saying that there’s no carts in the printer.
Any clues as to what’s going on here?

2nd posting…

A follow up to yesterday’s posting. I have a few original Epson Cart’s so I replaced the Cone cart’s with them and the printer recognised them and showed the available levels in the Epson cart’s, while the Cone cart’s slots although they were installed, showed up as not installed. So it appears that the printer doesn’t “see” the Cone cart’s now. Also oddly the Epson printer utility on the Mac reports a “Communication Error” with the 3800 now, so I cannot check it out from the computer…Maybe that’s because it’s not seeing any installed cart’s? I don’t know.

[QUOTE=petermullett;4043]I posted this at the weekend in the Discussions Forum, guessing now that was the wrong place so re-posting it here in Product and Technical Support. Would appreciate and answers ASAP, the printer will still not recognise the cartridges after many attempts at resetting. Thanks!! So here’s the post again……

I have just topped up the carts on my 3800, the large 220ml (?) “older” carts….I did this with the carts in place, did not take them out. But now the printer reports that no carts are in place, asks me to reinstall carts. Done this several times, still same response. Once or twice the printer info’ display has shown all carts in place, but empty. Then it goes back to saying that there’s no carts in the printer.
Any clues as to what’s going on here?

2nd posting…

A follow up to yesterday’s posting. I have a few original Epson Cart’s so I replaced the Cone cart’s with them and the printer recognised them and showed the available levels in the Epson cart’s, while the Cone cart’s slots although they were installed, showed up as not installed. So it appears that the printer doesn’t “see” the Cone cart’s now. Also oddly the Epson printer utility on the Mac reports a “Communication Error” with the 3800 now, so I cannot check it out from the computer…Maybe that’s because it’s not seeing any installed cart’s? I don’t know.[/QUOTE]

Tuesday AM…Ok, another update!
After trying to reset the 3800 again number of times yesterday evening I experimented with taking off the tape “tabs” from the 4th contact on the chips on the large cart’s, same with the Maintenance Tank. Low and behold all the carts were then recognised and showed as Full, (as they are). The Maintenance Tank though, (a new unused one), showed up as Full and the printer told me to replace it. I reset the Maintenance Tank as per instructions and now that shows a few percent used. Everything functions, test prints are fine, but the carts and now the Maintenance Tank are still without the recommended taped off contact on the chips….will this be a problem down the road?
Also I had to de-install / reinstall the Epson 3800 drivers because although I got the printer the recognise the carts and tank the Mac / printer software reported “no communication” with the 3800. After a clean re-install that was resolved.
I am still puzzled why this happened and how, and concerned at running the carts without the covered contact on the chips as recommended in the Cone installation manual. Can you shed any light on all of this please, what do you think?

I will change these older, larger, carts for the newer type ASAP too. That “key” that closes the ink compartment door contacts is funky at best. Sometimes it’s vibrated loose during printing and bought everything to a halt mid print job. Even during this recent round of trying to get the printer to function it was hit and miss as to whether it would work ok. Although I like the larger carts it would be good to be done with that little trouble maker!

Thanks,
PM

Hi PM~

Sorry for not responding sooner, we were closed on Monday, and I was out of the office yesterday.

I’m glad you were able to get your printer to accept the refillable cartridges again, but having tape over the 4th contact on the 7 cartridges with Epson chips, and the maintenance tank chip is necessary for the reset function to work. If tape wasn’t correctly in place, chips weren’t secured correctly, or carts weren’t installed snugly to have a good connection between chips and sensors, this could cause an error with all carts.

Please let me know if you have further questions, how things go after reapplying tape to the chip contacts, or if there’s anything else we can help you with.
Best regards~ Dana

[QUOTE=Dana-IJM;4048]Hi PM~

Sorry for not responding sooner, we were closed on Monday, and I was out of the office yesterday.

I’m glad you were able to get your printer to accept the refillable cartridges again, but having tape over the 4th contact on the 7 cartridges with Epson chips, and the maintenance tank chip is necessary for the reset function to work. If tape wasn’t correctly in place, chips weren’t secured correctly, or carts weren’t installed snugly to have a good connection between chips and sensors, this could cause an error with all carts.

Please let me know if you have further questions, how things go after reapplying tape to the chip contacts, or if there’s anything else we can help you with.
Best regards~ Dana[/QUOTE]

Hello Dana, thanks for the reply, and of course I do understand that the holiday on Monday got in the way of an earlier response……No worries. If something is going to go wrong with anything that one needs help on it’s more than likely to be just before a weekend and / or a holiday! Murphy again…

Anyway, I replaced the tape tabs over the chip contacts this morning and it took three reinstall attempts to have the printer show that all the cart’s and the maintenance tank were installed. There’s something still squirly there. I examined and reset the chips on the carts too, they all seemed to be fine and correctly set. When I initially re-topped up the tanks last Friday I never removed the tanks at all, just poured in more ink but immediately afterwards the 3800 reported no carts installed, so I can’t see that the problem would have been with the chips not making good contact because they never moved. Prior to re-topping up everything’s been going extremely well. So, it’s a mystery I guess. Right now it seems ok, fingers crossed it will complete the print job I have to do this week without further problems.

I am checking to see if Taos Photographic in Toulouse, ( my closest town about 125kms away ), has the newer 3800 carts in stock and more ConeColour inks. If so I will update the carts from the older. larger, ones to the newer small carts that allow the use of the ink compartment door. It will be good to be able to dump that compartment door key, it’s always given trouble falling out at odd times and stopping the print jobs.
Do I need to get more Epson cart chips? I see that the new carts come with chips installed on them unlike the older carts.
What about syringes? I see you supply just one with the new carts, shouldn’t it be one syringe per colour / ink?
And will the newer Cone Colour inks play nicely with the older inks that may still be in the printer’s system when I change over cart and ink types?

If Taos doesn’t have stock I will order directly from yourselves.

Thanks again,
cheers,

Peter

Hi Peter~

I’m glad your printer is working with the refill carts again, and I’m not sure what caused the issue, but hope it continues working for you.

When switching from the previous model large refillable carts to the new 80ml refill carts for the 3800/3880 printer, you already have seven Epson chips that you can use on the new carts, so will only need the other two Epson chips (that are large control chips on the large model carts).
We include 8 filling syringes with blunt needles with a set of 3800/3880 refillable carts.
Yes, ConeColor Pro inks should work well with the ConeColor inks currently in your printer, though I see you last purchased the inks and carts in 2010, so be aware that your printer should have dampers replaced soon. Have you been regularly agitating cartridges and manually cleaning your printer following our cleaning procedures? All these things are important for keeping your printer clean, in good working condition, and lasting a long time.

Best regards and happy printing~ Dana :slight_smile:

[QUOTE=Dana-IJM;4066]Hi Peter~

I’m glad your printer is working with the refill carts again, and I’m not sure what caused the issue, but hope it continues working for you.

When switching from the previous model large refillable carts to the new 80ml refill carts for the 3800/3880 printer, you already have seven Epson chips that you can use on the new carts, so will only need the other two Epson chips (that are large control chips on the large model carts).
We include 8 filling syringes with blunt needles with a set of 3800/3880 refillable carts.
Yes, ConeColor Pro inks should work well with the ConeColor inks currently in your printer, though I see you last purchased the inks and carts in 2010, so be aware that your printer should have dampers replaced soon. Have you been regularly agitating cartridges and manually cleaning your printer following our cleaning procedures? All these things are important for keeping your printer clean, in good working condition, and lasting a long time.

Best regards and happy printing~ Dana :)[/QUOTE]

Thanks Dana,

yes, everything seems to be going well again right now so I will just continue with this printer and the ink / carts set while the going is still good. I have been storing the older inks well I think, and agitating the cartridges on a regular basis. So far, ( touch wood ), despite some long periods of not using the 3800 and despite the age of the inks I suffer very few print head clogs and have never had to resort to a power cleaning. Just a regular nozzle check and clean seems to do the trick after the printer has not been used for a month or so which is often the case when I return to the US for work.

However I will be getting a 3880 sometime later this year and then I plan to replace the 3800’s dampers and have the lines and head cleaned and checked. If all that goes well I will run Piezography B&W ink sets on the 3800 and ConeColor on the 3880.

One thing I didn’t understand from your reply was about the Epson chips. When I change to the 80ml refill carts I use the chips I installed on the older larger carts, right? But then there are two of those larger carts that have the larger control chips installed, I think they came with the refillable carts when I bought them. Do those chips go to the newer 80ml carts too, or are the 80ml carts supplied with them already installed?
Do you sell replacement chips too?

Cheers,
Peter

Hi Peter~

Excellent, I’m glad you’ve been having good results with your 3800 over the years.

You can use the seven Epson chips that are currently on the large 3800 refill carts when you switch to the new 80ml refill carts, but NOT the two large control chips (those are specific to the large cartridge model, and can not be used on the new 80ml carts), so you will need Epson chips for those two positions. Note, the 3800 and 3880 use all the same chips EXCEPT the M/VM and LM/VLM, so you will need to use 3800 M/LM chips with the 3800 printer, and 3880 VM/VLM chips with the new 3880 printer. The 80ml carts come with reset chips attached, but you must place an Epson chip underneath- for more information on how the 80ml carts work, please read the cartridge instructions, which you can download from the instruction tab on any of the 3800/3880 refill cartridge product pages on our website.

We sell sets of Epson 3800/3880 chips when we have them (I believe we recently received a few more sets), though I don’t see them listed on our website, you can contact our sales department to check on availability and to order.

Best regards and happy printing~ Dana :slight_smile:

[QUOTE=Dana-IJM;4078]Hi Peter~

Excellent, I’m glad you’ve been having good results with your 3800 over the years.

You can use the seven Epson chips that are currently on the large 3800 refill carts when you switch to the new 80ml refill carts, but NOT the two large control chips (those are specific to the large cartridge model, and can not be used on the new 80ml carts), so you will need Epson chips for those two positions. Note, the 3800 and 3880 use all the same chips EXCEPT the M/VM and LM/VLM, so you will need to use 3800 M/LM chips with the 3800 printer, and 3880 VM/VLM chips with the new 3880 printer. The 80ml carts come with reset chips attached, but you must place an Epson chip underneath- for more information on how the 80ml carts work, please read the cartridge instructions, which you can download from the instruction tab on any of the 3800/3880 refill cartridge product pages on our website.

We sell sets of Epson 3800/3880 chips when we have them (I believe we recently received a few more sets), though I don’t see them listed on our website, you can contact our sales department to check on availability and to order.

Best regards and happy printing~ Dana :)[/QUOTE]

Hi Dana,
I will be ordering a 3880 around the end of the month when hopefully I will have more time to spend back in my studio with printing and set-up, and after reading your last reply I think what I will do is have the new 3880 as the B&W Piezography printer and keep the 3800 going as it is with Cone Colour inks. I haven’t heard back from Taos in Toulouse so it looks as though I will simply order the new cart’s and Piezography ink set from you when I know the new 3880 is on its way. I will see if you’ve a spare set of chips at that time too so I can keep the 3880’s carts complete as back-ups.
Again, thanks for the help,
cheers,
Peter

[QUOTE=petermullett;4086]Hi Dana,
… I think what I will do is have the new 3880 as the B&W Piezography printer and keep the 3800 going as it is with Cone Colour inks…[/QUOTE]

I just got a new 3880 and trying to get into the pizeo ink routine now.

In the instructions, it’s recommended you do the first charge and test with the Epson ink (i.e. Nozzle check and head alignment.). What I discovered is that “Yellow” ink is very hard to flush once you do the conversion. It will stain your whites seemingly forever. I may have wasted 25% of the piezo ink in power flushes and the new maintenance tank is about full too trying to get rid of the yellow ink. I did a cleaning of the pads under the print head (The capping station?) and the yellow seems to linger on that white gauze where the colors and black disappear easily.

Might be best to replace just the Epson yellow tank on the initial charge of the new printer with the piezo shade that goes there instead. In short, keep that yellow ink away from the printer! Might save you a lot of expensive flushes to get rid of the yellow otherwise. Trust me, it lingers seemingly forever!

Aside from all the power flushes, I also made an image with just Yellow and sent it to the printer to print as a normal RGB print out of Photoshop to flush that single line. Took a lot of them too before it got rid of the yellow stain.

Mack

Hi Mack~

It’s hard to say what is ultimately best, but we feel testing a printer with OEM inks to make sure it works well/correctly before installing any third-party ink/cart is important to have a known starting point. We have certainly experienced and received reports of brand new printers not working correctly, so if this is determined with OEM inks, it’s clearly a printer issue, but if third party inks/carts are installed that adds other factors.

The best way to purge an individual channel is by using the QTR Calibration Mode, which you can find instructions for here: http://www.inkjetmall.com/tech/content.php?144-Print-Ink-Separation-Image-thru-QTR-Calibration-Mode (refer to the second procedure, near the bottom of this page for purging an individual channel).

Best regards~ Dana :slight_smile:

Hi Peter~

Sounds good, and you are very welcome (that’s what we’re here for!).

Please keep me posted, and let me know if you have further questions, or there’s anything else I can help you with.

Best regards~ Dana :slight_smile:

Hello,
I’ve just filled my first cone colors cartridge and my 3800 printer keeps saying error cartridge, change the cartridge. The red dot is on. I guess there’s something wrong with the chip. Is there something I can do or should I resend the cartridge back. (It’s brand new). Many thanks for your help.
Xavier

Hi Xavier~

Did you use the chip from your Epson cartridge on the refill cartridge, under the reset chip?

The plastic base of every 3800/3880 reset chip should have three small plastic tabs around the side that hold it onto the cartridge. If any of these tabs are broken or bent inward, the chip will not stay secured to the cartridge, therefore not have a good connection with the Epson chip underneath, which will cause an error. Also, on the back of every reset chip, there should be three metal pins that stick out and touch the Epson chip- the three pins should be equal length for proper contact with the Epson chip. Please check the plastic base to make sure there are three plastic tabs, and if they are all in place, gently bend them outward slightly to ensure they catch and hold onto the cartridge. Also check to make sure the three metal pins are present and equal length. On the front of the chips, please check the gold contacts to make sure nothing is on the contacts that would interfere with the printer’s ability to read it- if you see anything on the gold contacts, gently clean them with either an alcohol pad or pencil eraser. After checking all these things, push the reset chips back onto their corresponding cartridges and make sure they are pushed all the way onto the cart for a good connection with the Epson chip, then reinsert the cartridges into your printer and see how the printer responds.

Please let me know your results, if you have questions, or theres anything else I can help you with.
Best regards~ Dana

Good morning Dana,

The cartriges I use are the ones provided with a chip already.
I’ll follow your instructions this evening and keep you posted.
thanks for your help

yes, the cartridges come with reset chips attached, but you need to put an Epson chip underneath the reset chip, as per our instructions.

Sorry Dana, shame on me.

Did adding the Epson chip solve your problem?

Yes, it did. No error message anymore, many thanks. And all due apologies for not reading the instructions.
Enjoy your week end.

Glad to hear your problem is resolved.

Best regards and happy printing~ Dana :slight_smile: