Bad PK chip R3000?

InkjetMall Customer Support Printer Maintenance & Cartridges
1

Hi Dana,

Question, I purchased a set of your refillable carts for the R3000. I just found my PK cart empty even though it was reading full. After thinking about it for a moment I relized it never showed any usage after I first filled and placed it in the R3000. Have I done somehing wrong or do I just have a defective cartridge?

regards,

John

2

Hi John~

I’ve never heard of the R3000 chips working correctly as far as recognition and printing, but not tracking ink levels. Have you removed and reinserted the cartridge since originally filling and installing it? I ask because occasionally (and I’m not quite sure why), these chips automatically reset themselves, which seems to happen sometimes when carts are removed and reinserted (though chips are not intentionally reset).
If not, have you done enough printing so any of your other carts are nearly empty- or did they all still have plenty of ink when the PK was empty (which would only make sense if you were printing large areas of black to use that cart faster than the others). Is the PK cartridge leaking ink from anywhere?

Please let me know and I can help figure out if your experience is normal or not, and sort this out for you.
Best regards~ Dana :slight_smile:

3

Hi Dana,

I have been replaceing the cartridges as the Epson cartridges run out. So I can’t compare usage at this point. I may have pulled it to shake it however, I vaguely remember it not moving off of being full. I just did not take notice of it. Unfortunatley it sucked air into the PK feed line and print head channel and I had to reprime it once again with the small formatt cleaning kit and a small amount of the PiezoFlush and run a few cleaning cycles to get up and running again. At the moment I replaced it with and Epson cartridge and it seems to be working correctly. I have to order ink before I can refill the offending cartridge. If it doese the same thing again i.e. it does not show the ink level going down with usage will you replace it under Warranty?

Regards,

John

4

John,

it is possible that the chip has some function (we did not design it), that when it is near empty it will auto-reset when removed from the printer and put back in. It would appear at this point that there is some level at which it does that. The important thing is to take notice of the Epson Status Monitor and how it thinks your carts are filled. If you know a cart is not full - but you see the status monitor reset it to full after removing it to shake - then you must remove it and fill it to 100% full with ink.

Most of our customers are using them until the printer reads empty and then refilling and resetting. So this is not something that comes up very often. The times it has come up are documented on this tech forum and its very rare in comparison to the amount of users on this product.

We do believe in shaking ink carts (especially if the printer is not used often). But refillable carts with these chips need to be monitored.

If the chip does not function - let us know and we will replace it.

Can you please tell us how you reprimed this position without the syringe? WE have been instructing to reintialize the printer. What was your procedure?

Thanks,

Jon

5

Hi Jon,

Could you refrence the other post/posts in regard to the R 3000 cartridges you mentioned in your reply. About priming tne PK channel I did use the small formatt cleaning kit I purchased from inkjet mall. I used a couple of ml of the PiezoFlush to clear the air from the PK ink line and head. I then ran if I recall correctly 3 maybe 4 cleaning cycles to get a complete correct nozzel check on the PK channel. This was done using a new Epson PK cart not the inket mall cart. I have not refilled the inkjetmall cart yet. ( I need to order PK ink ) I will do so using the vacum method as it is 99% empty and I understand it needs to be done in this manner to properly prime the cartridge. I think this is what you where asking in your reply to me correct?

I know you do not yet recommend the small formatt cleaning kit for the R3000. However, in my case I previously had a PK channel that would not clear from a vacum lock/air due to running out of PK ink with the OEM epson cart. I tried eveything recommended by Epson which is just run head cleaning cycles and watch you cartridges drain down to empty and still have a clogged print head awsome!!! I called Epson corporate and they basically said it’s out of warrenty have a nice day. So for the cost of the cleaning kit and some PiezoFlush I figured I would give it a try as I had nothing to lose and it worked. If it actually did any damage to the printer I don’t know however, what I do know is I had a printer that did not work and Epson basically told me you can buy a new one or have it repaired at the cost of a new printer. Great choice!

Regards,

John

6

[QUOTE=5063;3011]Hi Jon,

Could you refrence the other post/posts in regard to the R 3000 cartridges you mentioned in your reply.[/QUOTE]

Here is one:
http://www.inkjetmall.com/tech/showthread.php?478-My-VM-is-not-printing-on-my-R3000

you will need to search on r3000

7

Hi Jon,

Thanks for the link.

regards.
John

8

O.K. just did a visual check on all my carts in the R3000. The Carts are resetting to 100% full on there own when you place them back into the printer. Except the Epson PK cart I have in the machine at the moment. You need to let people know that the ink carts are resetting themselves without doing anything. If they do a weekly or biweekly agitation to keep the ink in suspension and don’t notice this is happening you are going to have a lot of unhappy folks with air bound ink feed lines. Maybe a service bulletin to all the folks using these cart would be a good thing to do.

regards,

John

9

Hi John~

I will update the R3000 instructions to make people aware the chips occasionally reset themselves (I still haven’t figured out exactly how/why, and the manufacturer is just as puzzled as I am), to help avoid accidental/un-noticed reset that could lead to carts emptying and air getting drawn into the lines.

Best~ Dana

10

Hi Dana,

I now have some carts that reset themselves some that don’t when I pull them to shake to keep the ink in suspension. I’m not really happy about this and beleive these carts to be defective. They are not operating as described. It is very problematic to keep and accurate handle on ink usage when you are in the middle of a job.

Regards,

John

11

Hi John~

I am working with the cartridge manufacturer again to try figuring out why this is happening (and how to resolve it).
Do you know the ink level readings of carts prior to pulling them out to shake- which reset and which didn’t?
I’m curious if low ink limits are prompting the auto reset when carts are removed/reinserted (which some chips are designed to do).

Please let me know so I can help sort this out for you.
Best regards~ Dana

12

I have seen the R3000 Cone refillable cartridges auto-reset at any level from 10 - 90%.

My guess is varied battery voltage levels. I’m in the process of changing all cartridge batteries which I have tested to make sure they have the max voltage under load and will report back after running for a month or so.

13

Thanks for the additional information FussyBob, I will include this in my next report to the cartridge manufacturer, and would appreciate if you could please keep me posted on your results moving forward.
When we originally reported this issue to the cartridge manufacturer, they suspected chip battery age, and I tested by installing new batteries (though didn’t check their voltage levels first), but still occasionally auto reset.