Light Black Cartridge for 7890

InkjetMall Customer Support Printer Maintenance & Cartridges
1

Distress Call:
Every new IM cartridge with Selenium set is read by new 7890 except Light Black. Tried wiggling, re-inserting, re-setting chip, etc. to no avail.
Ordered replacement cartridge and chip. When they arrived I had to transfer ink from original cartridge to new one.
Again, 7890 does not recognize cartridge.
Decided in desperation to insert sample Light Black that came with 7890 to see if the problem is the machine or the cartridge.
Reads instantly.
Decided to try transferring ink from the second IM cartridge to the Epson Light Black cartridge, seeing as that one works. Yes, I know there will be a mixing of the IM ink and the Epson ink. I’m so fed up I have been forced to this.
Had to use bleed opening on Epson seeing that they have no capability for refilling, big surprise. 5ml at a time.
All the ink is in, but now it spills out of the bleed opening and I don’t know how to stop it. Fortunately I have not spilled anything into the printer.
I have even thought of simply using the Epson Light Black with the rest of the IM Selenium ink set, but know that would probably result in darker prints. Epson Light Black is probably darker than Selenium #7.
Anyone listening?

2

The Epson 7890 cartridges are not refillable - so even while this seemed possible, they are designed to more or less self-destruct when you attempt it. Further, the chips can not be reset as far as we know. It is odd that a replacement chip did not correct the situation.

Epson Light Black is equivalent to Shade 4 - so any ink that you have put into that cartridge should not be used with Piezography. There will be no way to profile it and it will result in a very dark reversal in your highlights.

Walker will be back tomorrow and should come up with some idea for you to make the cart/chip work…

3

Thank you Jon for your quick reply. I had a feeling that Epson wouldn’t make it so easy for you to reuse their cartridges. What would happen if I found a way to use the Epson chip instead of the IM one?

4

My understanding is that the Epson chip actually includes a small wire that the user will break when they try and refill their cartridge. It’s booby-trapped!

5

The x890 and x900 350ml carts can be a pain. I’m working on documentation for how to raise the chip level slightly above it’s current position to make firm-er contact with the sensor on the printer. This in combination with an actual chip reset (sometimes they need to be reset before putting them into the printer for first time or if they mess up) this fixes read-issues. Generally once a cartridge reads well one-time, the problems don’t crop up again on that chip/cartridge.

In the mean-time, we’ll need to get you out some replacements. I’m PMing you.

best,
-Walker

6

Thank you Walker. Yes, I have thought about finding a way to slightly raise the cartridge in case the lack of a firm contact is what’s really the problem. I look forward to hearing from you!
Richard