R3000 doesn't show correct ink levels on 2 carts, but prints fine

InkjetMall Customer Support Printer Maintenance & Cartridges
1

Just returned to printing after nearly a month away. Started with a nozzle check - fine. Took out the LLK Cone ink to compare the ink level with the display. It was obviously nowhere near full, but not empty enough for the printer to warn of low ink levels. Replaced it, but display now shows it as full! Same thing happened to the LK cart after I’d given it a little shake to stir up the pigment after the holiday. The printer seems to be printing fine, and all the colors are coming through on the tests for the nozzles, so there’s no obvious blockage. In desperation, I did try shorting the LLK cart (only), but that made no difference. Neither did a full head clean. I bought the carts and the printer last January and have had no problems until now. I am a light user.

Any suggestions?

2

Hi Chris~

The R3000 chips are designed to reset when the two reset points are touched with a piece of metal, so I am curious if the points touched the chip sensor while removing/reinserting, and that caused the chips to reset (?). I will do some testing with our R3000 tomorrow, and am working with the cartridge manufacturer to determine why the chips seemed to automatically reset themselves when the carts were removed to check the ink levels. I have a few questions to better understand what happened, in order to help me figure out how what happened.

  1. Did you remove and agitate all nine carts, or just these two?
  2. What was the ink level showing for the LK and LLK cartridge ink levels before removing them from the printer?
  3. Was the printer on or off when the carts were removed and reinstalled?

Since the LK and LLK cartridges now read full, I recommend you refill them with ink so the physical ink level matches what the chip reads. Also, as per our instructions, after the printer sat unused with ink for a month- you should remove and agitate all the cartridges before doing more cleaning cycles, etc… then do several cleaning cycles or an initial fill to purge settled ink from the internal ink lines, and get correct density in-suspension ink from the shaken carts to the print head. All pigment inks settle when left sitting, which is why all Epson carts say to shake before use, and use (or replace) within 6 months. We say to shake before use, then regularly agitate to maintain suspension for consistent output results. It’s also to prevent thicker settled ink from getting drawn into the ink lines, as this could cause dampers to get filled up with particles at a faster rate, and need to be replaced sooner than normal.

How do your test prints look? Is your problem that the two carts reset automatically/prematurely, or are you having other issues with the cartridges/chips or print output?

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

3

[QUOTE=Dana-IJM;2095]Hi Chris~

The R3000 chips are designed to reset when the two reset points are touched with a piece of metal, so I am curious if the points touched the chip sensor while removing/reinserting, and that caused the chips to reset (?). I will do some testing with our R3000 tomorrow, and am working with the cartridge manufacturer to determine why the chips seemed to automatically reset themselves when the carts were removed to check the ink levels. I have a few questions to better understand what happened, in order to help me figure out how what happened.

  1. Did you remove and agitate all nine carts, or just these two?
  2. What was the ink level showing for the LK and LLK cartridge ink levels before removing them from the printer?
  3. Was the printer on or off when the carts were removed and reinstalled?

Since the LK and LLK cartridges now read full, I recommend you refill them with ink so the physical ink level matches what the chip reads. Also, as per our instructions, after the printer sat unused with ink for a month- you should remove and agitate all the cartridges before doing more cleaning cycles, etc… then do several cleaning cycles or an initial fill to purge settled ink from the internal ink lines, and get correct density in-suspension ink from the shaken carts to the print head. All pigment inks settle when left sitting, which is why all Epson carts say to shake before use, and use (or replace) within 6 months. We say to shake before use, then regularly agitate to maintain suspension for consistent output results. It’s also to prevent thicker settled ink from getting drawn into the ink lines, as this could cause dampers to get filled up with particles at a faster rate, and need to be replaced sooner than normal.

How do your test prints look? Is your problem that the two carts reset automatically/prematurely, or are you having other issues with the cartridges/chips or print output?

Please let me know so I can help you sort this out.
Best regards~ Dana :)[/QUOTE]

Hi Dana,

I think I agitated both when the machine was on. I don’t remember the exact ink levels, but they were more than half empty, & no warnings had appeared about low ink levels. The LLK cart problem appeared first because it was the only one I’d taken out at that stage. The LK one was much later when I read about the need to agitate and then did it to all the carts. The other carts are fine.

I printed several A3 plus photos after the LLK issue and they appear fine, unless I’m not noticing a subtle deficiency. I haven’t done any more since the LK started reading full a bit later on in the day.

The nozzle check pattern print out seem fine, though the LLK is quite faint compared to the others, but maybe that’s just how it is.

Could it be a battery issue?

Thanks

4

Just did another two nozzle check printouts. The yellow and the LLK lines are present, but very faint…

5

The LLK and Y should be the lightest inks on the nozzle check, but doing a test print (especially an image that you printed previously, to compare before and after results) is the best way to see if your output is normal or not. I suspect you’ll still want to do a few cleaning cycles since the printer sat for a month, and the ink in both carts and internal lines has settled.

~Dana

6

[QUOTE=Dana-IJM;2104]The LLK and Y should be the lightest inks on the nozzle check, but doing a test print (especially an image that you printed previously, to compare before and after results) is the best way to see if your output is normal or not. I suspect you’ll still want to do a few cleaning cycles since the printer sat for a month, and the ink in both carts and internal lines has settled.

~Dana[/QUOTE]

Okay, I did another cleaning cycle and printed out an A3 plus of a previous color print, with no difference in quality at all.

But here’s the thing: I’ve now done about 7 of this size print since the LLK cart started reading full, and the level shows no signs of going down - it still looks full on the ink level display. And this morning I took out the PK cart to agitate, and that also seems to go to reading almost full when in fact, it looks half used up. By the way, I’m still using the original Epson carts for MK, Y, VM and C alongside the Cones.

7

[QUOTE=chris f;2106]Okay, I did another cleaning cycle and printed out an A3 plus of a previous color print, with no difference in quality at all.

But here’s the thing: I’ve now done about 7 of this size print since the LLK cart started reading full, and the level shows no signs of going down - it still looks full on the ink level display. And this morning I took out the PK cart to agitate, and that also seems to go to reading almost full when in fact, it looks half used up. By the way, I’m still using the original Epson carts for MK, Y, VM and C alongside the Cones.[/QUOTE]

Oh, and just to add another twist to this: a couple of hours after this last post, I took out the LK and put it back in, and now it’s not recognised by the printer. This is an added issue…

8

And a few hours later… Just solved this latest issue by changing the battery, but this hasn’t remedied the original issue of incorrect ink level display.

Sorry this looks like a conversation with myself - that’s down to the big time difference between yourselves and me here in New Zealand.

9

I stay up late! No use talking to yourself!

I think that there is a very strong possibility that the two (battery and reset) are related. The supply of R3000 which were shipped to New Zealand in January are very likely a year old. The batteries will all soon need replacement and there is a very high probability that the reset on their own is due to malfunction / battery.

Can you top them all off with ink, freshen up the batteries, reset the chips - and let us know if everything returns to normal? These chips most definitely are not “auto-reset”.

The batteries incidentally are always “on” even if not installed in the printer. So they drain… We advise to change out annually or as needed.

10

[QUOTE=jon;2111]I stay up late! No use talking to yourself!

I think that there is a very strong possibility that the two (battery and reset) are related. The supply of R3000 which were shipped to New Zealand in January are very likely a year old. The batteries will all soon need replacement and there is a very high probability that the reset on their own is due to malfunction / battery.

Can you top them all off with ink, freshen up the batteries, reset the chips - and let us know if everything returns to normal? These chips most definitely are not “auto-reset”.

The batteries incidentally are always “on” even if not installed in the printer. So they drain… We advise to change out annually or as needed.[/QUOTE]

Hi Dana,

First of all, a big ‘thank you’ for your prompt replies. Even at this distance it’s nice to feel that there’s somone on your case and following through! Great customer service.

About changing that battery - it didn’t get a correct ink level reading again for me. But I didn’t top up the ink & try re setting it first, so I’ll do as you suggest. It’ll take a day or so to get the time to do this now.

Does your observation about the age of the carts when I got them new mean that I won’t be able to get as much use out of them than if they were newly made?

Are there any ‘auto-reset’ chips, or were you just emphasizing the need to short them prior to re installing?

Many thanks.

11

oops! I’m Jon - not Dana. That was Dana earlier.

Just so you understand - there is no connection whatsoever between an EPSON intellichip or 3rd party chip and the ACTUAL contents of the cart. If you take an EPSON cart that is full and drain out the ink, the chip remains full. If you take an empty cart and fill it 1/4 way and reset the chip the chip reads 100% full. The chip is independent of the actual volume of ink and is figured by the EPSON Status Monitor by the amount of drops printed and used during cleaning, then this amount is subtracted from the 100% full. So the chips can only be reset to 100% and that is why you want to top off the cart and reset the chip at that same time. This is the same with Epson chips or our chips.

The carts themselves will last the life of the printer. The chips probably 2-3 years unless you short them. THe batteries no more than 12 months. We sell replacement chips with batteries in them, but the best thing to do is buy the batteries at a drug store.

There are auto-reset chips for desktop printers only. It is critical for you to use these carts as designed (filling full and resetting the chip), or you will risk running out of ink and introducing air to your printer. That will require a Windows only utility to repair.

12

[QUOTE=chris f;2112]Hi Dana,

First of all, a big ‘thank you’ for your prompt replies. Even at this distance it’s nice to feel that there’s somone on your case and following through! Great customer service.

About changing that battery - it didn’t get a correct ink level reading again for me. But I didn’t top up the ink & try re setting it first, so I’ll do as you suggest. It’ll take a day or so to get the time to do this now.

Does your observation about the age of the carts when I got them new mean that I won’t be able to get as much use out of them than if they were newly made?

Are there any ‘auto-reset’ chips, or were you just emphasizing the need to short them prior to re installing?

Many thanks.[/QUOTE]

Okay, I’ve done as requested for all the Cone carts. I’ve four Epson ones still going that will need replacing soon.
All the done carts are recognised and reading full now they’ve been reset. I just have to see that the ink level displays go down with usage.

The discarded batteries measured weak (under 1.5 volts), as did some of the NEW cheap battery replacements I bought! So there’s a lesson there…

Let’s hope this was the solution.

By the way, are the chips interchangeable between cartridges?

Thanks again.

13

Ok, keep me posted. You should use the correct chip specific to the color position cartridge for best results.

Best regards~ Dana :slight_smile:

14

[QUOTE=chris f;2112]Hi Dana,

First of all, a big ‘thank you’ for your prompt replies. Even at this distance it’s nice to feel that there’s somone on your case and following through! Great customer service.

About changing that battery - it didn’t get a correct ink level reading again for me. But I didn’t top up the ink & try re setting it first, so I’ll do as you suggest. It’ll take a day or so to get the time to do this now.

Does your observation about the age of the carts when I got them new mean that I won’t be able to get as much use out of them than if they were newly made?

Are there any ‘auto-reset’ chips, or were you just emphasizing the need to short them prior to re installing?

Many thanks.[/QUOTE]

All done, except for the remaining Epson carts. Every Cone cart has been recognized and ink levels read full. I Had some dramas with non recognition messages - due to four cheap Chinese replacement batteries that were under voltage, so I suggest people replace the Everyready ones with a good brand or they may think that this particular solution doesn’t work!

I hope this is the end of this problem. It just remains to be seen that the displayed ink levels actually change as they get used up.

15

Oops! Sorry for repeating my earlier post.

Regards,

Chris

16

[QUOTE=chris f;2112]Hi Dana,

First of all, a big ‘thank you’ for your prompt replies. Even at this distance it’s nice to feel that there’s somone on your case and following through! Great customer service.

About changing that battery - it didn’t get a correct ink level reading again for me. But I didn’t top up the ink & try re setting it first, so I’ll do as you suggest. It’ll take a day or so to get the time to do this now.

Does your observation about the age of the carts when I got them new mean that I won’t be able to get as much use out of them than if they were newly made?

Are there any ‘auto-reset’ chips, or were you just emphasizing the need to short them prior to re installing?

Many thanks.[/QUOTE]

All solved by changing batteries. The ink display is now changing instead of staying on full.