3880 flush cartridges not recognized after perfect functioning

Hi Dana,
I purchased a set of 3880 carts last year that I filled with Pflush and used perfectly to store a 3880 over the winter of 2013-14 in a secondary summer studio location. In early June, I removed the flush set of cartridges, recharged the printer with ink and used it over the summer. Preparing to leave the studio again, I reinserted the previously perfectly functioning flush cartridges and got “carts not recognized” error message. Have done the following:
Multiple rechecks of position of epson chips beneath the reset chip
Recognized different lengths of pins on reset chips that contact the epson chips and cleaned and worked the springs on the pins until all appeared equal length
Checked and cleaned all surfaces on chip resetter that printer pins should contact
Read and tried wedging folded paper and even thin cardboard both beneath cartridge and beneath the cartridge release lever until all carts were firmly angled to encourage pin contact with the printer

Removed all carts multiple times, rebooted printer multiple times, and continue to get the same message. All carts are shown on the display as not recognized, even the ones that did not have any variation in pin length or loose fit.

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated. Also, is there any known issue with the pin springs on the reset chip, and if so, any workarounds. How many insert/remove repetitions is it reasonable to expect from a set of these cartridges and reset chips? Thanks in advance.

Do you have the OEM carts? So you can “plug n play” to pinpoint which chip is faulty? Install one at a time to verify operation for each position until you can determine which chip(s) is faulty.

Just as every other chip on any other cartridge, they can short out for various reasons, the life expectancy can be hard to predict. They were working previously, so I suspect it’s a shorted out chip and not related to the pins not making contact.

You purchased these carts within this past year, if you can pinpoint which chip is faulty we will send you a replacement(s).

Kelly

Thanks Kelly. It will be a while until I can get back to the other studio, but I will retry the plug and play suggestion. I tried it before, but I’m not sure if I only had a single cart plugged in at a time, because I was consistently getting the error message that no carts whatever were in the printer.

Hi Kelly- I have returned to the Montana studio and after inserting the new set of chips for the flush cartridges, still got the error message with all cartridges not being read. I then went through the entire set one by one, removing the chips from the flush cartridges and reinserting them into the original ink cartridges and testing one at a time. I have isolated the issue to the LK and PK cartridges. After multiple removals, chip checking, assuring contact in the printer (which is not an issue with the manufacturers ink cartridges), I finally was able to get the PK flush cartridge to work, but I am not confident that it will work if I remove it again. Despite doing everything that is described on your website plus some additional Southern engineering attempts, the PK flush cartridge will not function wither with the new chip I just got from you with the chipset, or the old chip which had previously worked fine.

Are there other factors with the flush cartridge itself, other than the chips, that may be causing this issue? Any further suggestions are greatly appreciated.

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?
You said you reattached the Epson chips to the Epson carts to test the Epson chips, did they all work correctly?

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?).

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.

Please let me know.
Thanks~ Dana

[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

Thanks for your detailed response John. I’m glad to hear your “southern engineering” did the trick to get the cartridge positioned correctly in the printer for a good connection between the cartridge chip and printer’s chip sensor. For information on how to attach a photo to this forum, please read this document: http://www.inkjetmall.com/tech/content.php?152-How-to-attach-images-to-this-forum

Your solution may continue working, but it’s hard to say, and so a new cartridge may be a better long-term solution. Yes, I see Wells processed your chip order in August, so if you received them fine, then the information we have is correct (unless you’ve moved since then).

Please let me know if you have further questions, or there’s anything else I can help you with.
Best regards~ Dana :slight_smile: