Sun May 18, 2008

Hello Tech'ers,

Recently bought a CIS "Continuous Ink Supply" unit for my Epson R280 inkjet printer.

I have run into two problems. Although product is advertised as having a new 'auto-reset chip' which works on any model made before and after 2007, I have found my machine is not being very cooperative, probably an indication of Epson's sneaky ways of making things like this CIS product not work with their machines.

First is the utilities: Nozzle Check & Alignment Check, send up an error screen saying "Close the Lid". (The lid, as you know, is partially opened on one side to let the belt-like hose pass from inside to the outer ink reservoir.) Since it is not a big deal to do these nozzle checks too often, I don't mind pushing down the front corners of the lid forcefully when the test runs, and it works fine. But I wonder where the sensor or gadget is that tells it the lid is not fully closed ?? How could we modify it so it wouldn't cause this problem ?

The next problem is more serious. After loads of printing the reservoir in one cartridge went below 10%, which is supposed to trigger an 'auto-reset' deal. Switching power off for an hour is recommended, then power it up. The status graphic should read ALL the cartridges are full again!
But it failed to do this. Remained stuck on "Low Ink", and machine froze. So the instructions suggested to remove and reinstall all (?) cartridges and then try again. This I did, unhappily. I don't want to have to pull all 6 out every time one gets low and sends a refill imperative up at me. Well, after switch off & on twice, it finally read all tanks as being full.

I'd like to keep it and get it to work for me, since it works for over 3,000 satisfied EBay'ers who bought one too. But the chip needs to 'auto-reset' like it's supposed to.

Is there any way to do that through the PC ?? To tell the printer driver/software to ignore or over-ride the 'close lid' error, and to 'auto-reset' the tank-levels back to FULL after it goes below 10% and you power it off for 1 hour ???

Alot more people are printing in bulk, and the printer manufacturers like Epson, HP, Canon, etc etc are clearly trying to gouge us here on the sales of individual ink cartridges. They must be putting something into the printer's software/driver/firmware to make it hard to kite one of these CIS gadgets, which is a shame because they DO work GOOD.

How do I re-program/veto Epson's firmware commands that thwart my 'auto-reset' CIS system ?

Any other info about all this would be appreciated, since nothing came up in a site search, and I'm sure more people are trying out continuous ink systems.

Thanks,

-scottportraits

I hate to say this but everything I've read about the newest Epson printers (of which the R280 is one) the auto-reset chips are a new breed that do require the cartridges to be removed and then re-installed.

MIS Associates and Ink Republic both have versions which should work with your printer but I can tell you now that someone on ebay who has 3,000 happy customers probably has 2,998 customers with earlier printers that didn't have any problems and is slowly building up a number of R280, C110/D120, etc... printer owners who are about ready to tear their hair out and won't be quite so happy.

The problem is that Epson has started actively implimenting anti-ARC (auto-reset-chip) measures to make it harder for them to work without user intervention. The rational being rather elegantly demonstrated by yourself... ie: more work required on part of user to get a reset, less likely to want to use... more likely to use Epson OEM. Nice eh?


At a guess your problem is partially related to capacitors storing some power that keeps the chips from resetting.. so in future you may opt to switch the printer off at the mains as well, wait for the appointed hour and then see if they reset.

FWIW: The ink republic system seems to be the most elegant (it uses a simple push switch to reset) so you might want to contact them about replacing your chips with their version.


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Printers: (Canon) MP500/830, MX700, iP4000/4200/4300/4500/5200, iX4000(A3) (Epson) C84/86, D88, CX6600, R285/800/1900 (HP) K550, K850, K5400, L7680

May 26, 2008

Yah, they have made it hard to do anything but use OEM cartridges....

I tried pulling the plug at the outlet after powering 'off', even let it sit over night, but the capacitors stored enough juice to keep it calling for a 'refill' or cartridge change.

The only sort-of good news is that by pulling all six of them out and then pushing them back in, re-installing them, DOES seem, so far, to reset the levels to 'FULL', after a power off for 5 minutes.

My main concern is that the gold contacts may wear down, or one day it just stops working. I got this utility at http://www.ssclg.com/epsone.shtml, but my Epson model is unsupported. Too bad. I installed this utility and it seems really cool. Wonder why more techs don't make software solutions to adjust the firmware 'blocks' that the printer companies keep building in and changing frequently.

If your printer is supported, this utility would make a fine addition to your printing protocols. It apparently takes over the firmware and gives you many more options and lots of control over the whole thing. You can clean one nozzle only, if you want, and get many other choices for settings and things.

Thanks for the reply.

-scottportraits

No worries...

At some point I may drop Ink Republic a line and point them to this and other threads to see if they're considering providing chips on their own as replacements. I have my doubts because the way they install theirs on a single block makes it a lot harder to damage the strip of wiring whereas the separate cartridge nature of most other carts does tend to make it harder to keep the chips in place and damage free.

We'll see anyway... certainly there's a market opening up for a new breed of autoreset chip.


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Printers: (Canon) MP500/830, MX700, iP4000/4200/4300/4500/5200, iX4000(A3) (Epson) C84/86, D88, CX6600, R285/800/1900 (HP) K550, K850, K5400, L7680