[QUOTE=Dana-IJM;4978]In the post above, you said you were able to get the PK to work, then said you couldn’t get the PK cart to work- did you mean to write “LK” in one of those statements?
Sorry, you are correct Dana, and that was a typo. I got the PK to work and the LK still doesn’t work.
You said you reattached the Epson chips to the Epson carts to test the Epson chips, did they all work correctly?
Yes, they all worked correctly when installed in the original Epson cartridges.
Occasionally one cartridge doesn’t have a tight connection between the chip and printer’s chip sensor, which can cause all carts to read “no cart”. In my experience, this one cartridge position is often the yellow for some reason (I don’t know how the chip sensors are programmed/configured, so the Y may somehow be tied in with the other differently?).
I had that problem at the time of the initial post, but after I got the new chips from you, I was able to isolate the issue to LK and PK, and no longer got the display that showed all cartridges not being read by the printer. So the display now shows only the LK as not having a cartridge in place.
Please unlock all 9 carts, then push them all back in snugly, while watching the printer’s LCD panel. When the LCD says “cartridge door open, close door” is when it sees all the cartridge chips, and it’s ok to close the door (but, if it says “no cart” or a similar message, then it’s not time to close the door). On a rare occurrence, when one cartridge chip doesn’t have a tight connection with the chip sensor, adding a thin wedge of paper under the cart makes a good connection for consistent/good read. To do this, take a piece of regular typing paper, about 3x4", and fold it in 1/2 twice so you have a 3x1" folded strip. tape the paper wedge to the bottom of the cart, and insert the cartridge into the printer so it locks into place.
With all flush cartridges in place except LK, when I inserted the LK flush cartridge, the “close the door” message did not come up. I tried layering paper and even corrugated cardboard strips both above and below the cartridge, to no avail. Then, during one insertion, I pushed very hard directly toward the back of the printer while watching the display,and bingo–the “close the door” message came on. Problem was, no amount of anything above or below the cartridge would maintain enough pressure toward the back of the printer to keep the message displaying. So the question was how to keep the cartridge pushed further back into the printer.
As I looked more closely at the locking system, I could see that the gray tab of the latch mechanism protrudes downward into the recess in the cartridge to lock it into place. So I I could add thickness to “move the back wall of the recess in the cartridge forward”, perhaps the tab would lock in a position that kept the cartridge pushed further inward. Tried several things, but finally was able to multi-fold (in tiny folds with a width equal to the depth of the recess in the cartridge) a narrow strip of masking tape, place the folded portion down into the recess against the back wall of the recess, leaving a “tail” of sticky side tape to attach to the top of the cartridge pointing backward. After several tries for correct thickness and no protrusion above the top surface of the cartridge, BINGO…the “close door” light stayed on.
I tried to attach a picture of my “fix”, which is a classic example of “southern engineering”, but encountered difficulties with the upload. If you’d like a pic, just email me at the address below.
I removed the flush cartridge and replaced the original Epson ink cartridge, and it functions fine, so the problem appears to be with the tolerances on the refillable flush cartridge molding. On very close examination with magnification, I cannot see any abrasion or other signs of indentation on the top edge back wall of the locking recess on the cartridge, so I don’t think it has been damaged. Since I am not sure how long my “fix” is likely to work, perhaps I should just get a new LK refillable cartridge that I can use with the chips I already have. Wells was a great help getting me the new chips, and I think he has all my information and credit card number, but just in case, my email is johnbt@airmail.net, and my mailing address at my Montana studio is John Tebbetts, 405 Swayback Road, McAllister, Montana 59740. Just let me know if you think a new refillable cartridge makes sense, and I can place the order.
Thanks very much for all your help.
John