R3000 PK amd Y carts malfunctioning

Arphan 2016-12-22 17:44:14 UTC #1

Have had great experience with your system - until now - on my Epson R3000.

Simultaneously, both these carts (PK & Y) indicated empty or almost empty. When I went to refill, both had (1/3 Photo Black) (and 1/2 Yellow) ink left. I topped them off, reinstalled, and the indicators did not change. I removed all carts, powered down for 10 minutes, powered up again, reinstalled carts, no change. These are the non-battery chips.

Because the PK indicated empty, the printer would not let me switch to glossy paper at all. I was able to print from the yellow with the MK cart selected. The yellow soon "ran out" even though it is full. The printer would not let me proceed without replacing the yellow cart. The IJM yellow cart still shows up as empty even after taking it out and replacing it.

I'm in a holiday crunch, so I went and bought Epson replacement carts, and they work fine, so the printer is able to see a good cart in these slots.

Please let me know if there's more I can do to get these going again. Also with the Epson replacements in service, are the IJM carts at risk while out of the printer?

Does this mean that my other carts are going to die soon?

walkerblackwell 2016-12-23 18:20:28 UTC #2

No chip has a sensor that "knows" how much ink is in the cart.
The R3000 carts must be printed until they reset in the printer. Taking the cart out does not reset it. If they are blinking, this just indicates that it is about to reset.
After a cart has reset (always during a print), you take the cart out, refill, and place back in. It will then read full.
All of this is in the instruction set that came with the carts.
There is a warning on the product page (http://shop.inkjetmall.com/ReUsable-Cart-Kit-with-Syringes-R3000-Set-9.html) that talks about this PK/MK switch issue.

best,
Walker

Arphan 2016-12-24 00:06:26 UTC #3

Wow, Walter. Your service in the past has been great. This is disappointing, to say the least.

In reply to your points:

I know - I've been reading copiously on the forum.
The two carts both registered empty. Your instructions say: "Keep track of the ink level and do not allow cartridges to run dry.
Shake ink bottles to ensure pigment is in suspension a few minutes before filling or refilling carts (to let froth settle)."
It doesn't say to do it only after the cart resets. If fact, your instructions go on to say:
"The newer style chip is programmed to automatically reset
when the cartridge reads empty in the printer, is removed, refilled with ink,
and reinstalled. Upon reinserting the cartridge, the ink level will be reset to full. This style chips can NOT be manually reset. "
That happens to be exactly the procedure I followed.
There was no way that the PK cart would ever reset because I could not switch to it, since the system saw it as empty and the R3000 will not allow the switch. I did keep running the refilled yellow cart, which soon came up as empty (no further printing allowed until I replaced it with the Epson cart.) It did not reset.
Please quote the instructions that I ignored, because as far as I can tell, I did what I was supposed to do.
These warnings on the product page are not included in the instruction set I keep with my inks (nor are they in the instruction set you still have on line). In my case I was already using the MK cart for some printing, and when I tried to go to glossy (PK) paper, I couldn't. When were these warnings issued? Did you mail or e-mail me these warnings? In any event, it sounds like a classic product defect. And the warnings don't explain the yellow cart problem.

I'd appreciate it if you'd stand behind what you sold me. You're turning a happy customer into the opposite.

Best,

Jim

jon 2016-12-26 00:22:37 UTC #4

Hi Jim,

You purchased these two carts in March and May of 2015. The chips do not last forever. Some people report long life and others shorter. But, if they are not resetting after reading empty by the printer, they can not be manually reset. There is nothing we can do to help you reset them. If waiting for the red light did not work - then they need to be replace. We do offer spare chips and we do recommend that you keep spares on hand.
R3000 spare chips

Can you tell us if you updated the firmware on this printer recently, or accepted any software update that was "pushed" to you by Epson...meaning that you did not go and seek it out yourself but accepted an offer from Epson to update it?

Arphan 2016-12-27 16:06:13 UTC #5

Thanks, Walter, for suggesting a way forward.

No, I did not accept any software updates pushed to me by Epson. I did check on their website, and the current driver up to date. Version 6.71. Not sure about whether the firmware is the newest. Since I've not updated it, I assume that the published 2014 update (AS25E3) is newer than what I have. Should I try to install the firmware package?

Is there any advantage to buying a complete cartridge replacement vs. the replacement chips? Is there any way of predicting when the other chips might get out of whack?

Thanks.

Arphan 2017-01-10 14:58:47 UTC #6

Please reply to my questions posted last month.

walkerblackwell 2017-01-10 15:26:42 UTC #7

The cartridges generally last a few years. Over extended use they will always fail after a while so it's good to keep a set of backups available at all times. Some printers have slightly different voltage control than others and can cause chips to fail at a higher rate. It's useful to put your printer on an APC power backup or power conditioner as a precaution for this as well as a precaution against main-board failure or head-failure due to power surges.

best,
Walker

LarryB 2017-01-11 00:30:35 UTC #8

Interesting you mention that Walker.

My WP4530 lost a chip a couple of months ago. I think it was just after a power failure. It wasn't on an APC, but it was on what I thought was a fairly decent surge protector. Perhaps the battery backup plugs of the APC may provide cleaner power?

Larry

killerbanshee 2017-01-16 10:51:23 UTC #9

I am having the exact same problem with the same 2 cartridges. Photo black & Yellow. Happened the first time I tried to print after the 1st. Both were getting near where I top them up, the Photo Black was lower than the yellow. Is there something about those 2 cartridges that I/we should order extra extra of those? Very frustrating in the middle of a print job.

So the only solution is to replace these cartridges chip or the entire cartridge? There is no repair/fix?

Kriss

walkerblackwell 2017-01-16 11:00:43 UTC #10

Dear Kriss. Please elaborate. I'm assuming the chips reset during printing (as they always do, there is no other way for them to reset) and you then topped them off and they did not show up as full when you put them back into the printer?

Just taking a cart out that is low and refilling and placing back into the printer will not reset them.

Walker

killerbanshee 2017-01-16 11:16:42 UTC #11

I also hadn't seen the warnings on the product page (which were posted after I purchased) & only saw them now because I went to look based on the note on this thread.

It would be great in the future if you could send an email to everyone who has purchased 'Thing A' when/if a note/warning is added to its product page. There is no other way we would normally find out.

On the warning 2

If your Photo Black ink reading is very very low on the chip and you switch your printer to Matte Black, you won’t be able to switch back to Photo Black. Normally at this point, Epson would force you to buy a new cartridge. When your Photo Black is reading low, keep printing until it resets, top it off, and then switch to Matte Black

How does one know when said cartridge resets?

We really have to just randomly be stuck using photo black instead of matte?

The How often is this likely to happen?

TIA,
Kriss

walkerblackwell 2017-01-16 12:02:43 UTC #12

When a cartridge re-sets is either shows up as "empty" on the printer or "cartridge error please replace cartridge"

In both cases, the printer will pause printing and you can refill and put back the cartridge at which time it will show as full and the printer will continue printing.

When the cartridge is about 2/3 full it will do this. It is important to refill a cartridge anytime is shows up like this in the printer. You don't want a cartridge to reset to full without topping it off because this could give you a miss-leading ink level indicator on the printer panel.

best,
Walker

killerbanshee 2017-01-17 02:03:52 UTC #13

So if I was printing with photo black when it said that it was out, then why did it switch to matte black? There was no dialog saying did I want to switch. I refilled the cartridge and it isn't recognizing.

Right now there is a Warning "The following ink cartridge(s) is too low to change. Replace the ink cartridge(s)."
That color is photo black. I pulled the cartridge, topped it up & replaced it.
Warning continued
"To continue printing, you need to replace ink cartridge(s). Continue?
Replace Now
Cancel Printing"

I have tried both options without it recognizing the cartridge.

Same basic issue is going on with yellow except that it doesn't have the can't switch to it problem.

walkerblackwell 2017-01-17 06:54:41 UTC #14

PK to MK uses about 1/3rd the amount of ink as MK to PK. This is the reason for the error. It's kinda designed into the printer.

You'll need to get a backup R3000 PK chip. http://shop.inkjetmall.com/Spare-Auto-Reset-Chip-for-our-R3000-cart-Photo-Black.html

It's good to always have one of these handy.

-Walker