Hi,
Had what I thought was a clogging issue with the Cyan channel on my 2880 printer. I’ve changed three cartridges over from epson to Cone. I haven’t been using my printer much since my initial use, and when I’ve run nozzle checks, the three cone cartridges were the ones that needed cleaning to come back. At one point, the cyan cartridge stopped printing out altogether, with flushes having no effect. Finally I checked the cartridge to find it was actually empty, although the levels on the monitor were at about 2/3, so I had no reason to suspect the cartridge was empty. Refillling and a couple of flushes later and everything was fine.
There was nothing that covered this in the documentation that came with the ink. The auto reset apparently worked as the level returned to full after the initial fill, but the gauge does not reflect the actual levels.
Any help?
THis usually happens as a result of the print head coming into contact with the ink pad in the capping station. If the ink pad is not clean - or is grungy from years of use - or can not drain well due to clogging in the ink lines - a refillable cartridge can empty quickly. The Epson cartridges have a tiny patented micro channel that winds back and forth across the top of the cart and is hidden under the label. The OEM cart is more resistant to dirty capping stations. However, the refillable carts have a hole for the vent and capillary action from the head coming into contact with a dirty capping station can pull the ink out of the cartridge.
I’m curious why this would affect only 1 channel, and not all cartridges, or at least side-by-side cartridges?
Also, when I had my R2880, I did notice that the cartridges sometimes seemed to reset by themselves if I removed, then replaced them. This also happens sometimes on my R3000, and caused me to think I had lots of VM left when, in fact, it was empty and drained.
We had a few customers describe this over the summer and it did seem to affect or favor only a few positions. You could post a picture of your capping station if you like. Use a flashlight to illuminate it or a flash photo. I can let you know if its grungy. It should be cleaned every 6-12 months - wiper blade too…
Both the R2880 and R3000 cartridges will reset only when the Status Monitor reports it empty. If you remove it and put it back in, it will reset regardless of whether you put ink in it or not.
The resetting of the R3000 cartridges depends on which chip you have. I have the old style battery chip. Mostly, it will only reset when I short the two terminals on the chip as shown. However, a couple of my cartridges reset from 1/2 full to full just by removing and replacing the cartridge. The R2880 that I had also had battery style chips, but required the resetting tool. For some reason, they sometimes reset just by removing and replacing them, even if not empty. This doesn’t bother me much, except that I have to watch the level if I remove the cartridge to shake the ink. If it resets to full, I will have to fill the cartridge.
I don’t know what kind of chip dmm108 has. I will assume then, that he has the auto-reset chip.
Jon,
I’m the original poster. Regardless of how fast the ink drains, I expect that the ink monitor would reflect the level in the cartridge. Whether or not I have a juicy pad is a different issue. Why did my monitor show a level of over half full when it was empty? What is the fix?
We need to cover a few basics, please answer the following:
How old is this printer?
How well have you maintained the cleanliness of the capping station?
And how long did it sit with pigment inks installed without use before switching over to Cone carts?
Have you tried cleaning the capping station as Jon recommended?
You can test the channel on the head by using your OEM cartridge if there is any ink left in it to determine if it is in fact a head failure issue or a cartridge failure.
If the cartridge drained out into the capping station, it could have been because your capping station is dirty and created a continuous suction of ink through the head, essentially draining the cart into the waste pad. In this case, the printer wouldn’t have monitored this ink loose because it’s not part of any normal function, such as head cleans or start ups. The chip read sensor automatically detects ink levels based on programming that is determined by how much ink each normal operation function uses in these printers. The ink levels are not monitored manually within the cartridge, so if the cartridges drains out in a short period of time, due to a bad/leaky cartridge OR a capping station being dirty and creating a suction of ink continuously into the waste pad, then the chip read sensor has no way of determining this.
We need to cover a few basics, please answer the following:
How old is this printer?
How well have you maintained the cleanliness of the capping station?
And how long did it sit with pigment inks installed without use before switching over to Cone carts?
Have you tried cleaning the capping station as Jon recommended?[/QUOTE]
printer is probably around 3 years old. I have done no maintenance on the capping station, but I have had no problems with it and it was in use and working properly at the point I switched three of the carts over to Cone inks. I just read Jon’s recommendations today, as for some reason even though I signed up for instant emails to notify me of posts to my thread, I received none, so I finally just went on this site to find the replies. I will follow the instructions on cleaning the capping station. Even though the 2880 printer is not mentioned in the linked article, I’m assuming it applies.
I have neither a head failure or a cartridge failure, I am able to print without issue once I realized that the cartridge, which showed ink, actually had none. It’s not really clear if the ink from that cartridge bled out or not. I understand now the point that the chips don’t monitor the contents of the cartridge, but only estimate what is used. From what, exactly? What kind of algorithm is used to estimate ink usage? How are the Cone cartridge chips different from the OEM cartridges, which seem to do a pretty consistent job of monitoring the ink, in my experience?
Almost all cartridges and printers (besides some Canons and HPs), use an open-loop ink tracking system. That is, the printer keeps track of how much ink it ejects from the cartridge, and deducts that from the chip’s internal counter. There is no system to actually measure the actual ink in the cartridge on refillable carts, and none on most OEM carts. Since the ink wicked out of the head without the printer knowing, it did not update the chip, and thus your reading was wrong. As was stated elsewhere, refillable carts are much more prone to wicking than OEM, so even if your printer works fine with Epson carts, you may have problems related to dirty systems with refillables. It’s unfortunate but true.
(Some Epson carts have an air sensor inside that detects when ink is depleted and will lock the cartridge at that point. Canon uses an optical crystal to see if there is ink in a liquid reservoir, but then goes into open-loop for the remaining ink in the sponge. On liquid-filled HP carts, the printer detects when the pump can no longer pull any ink out, but is open-loop until then.)
Oops…wrote the above without throughly reading your above post. Sorry for repeating some stuff.
only estimate what is used. From what, exactly? What kind of algorithm is used to estimate ink usage? How are the Cone cartridge chips different from the OEM cartridges, which seem to do a pretty consistent job of monitoring the ink, in my experience?
From my experience with the R2880 refillables, they are quite accurate when printing without problems. It’s only if you didn’t completely fill the cart, or have leaks, that you run into problems. I assume both OEM and refills use a similar starting counter value, which is then modified by the printer whenever it knowingly uses ink (it knows how many picoliters each drop ejected is, and it knows approximately how much ink is used in a cleaning cycle). The cart itself is pretty dumb; only storing a value which is modified by the printer.
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