Any experience on using ARC chips on OEM Canon carts ?

[marceltho]

Hello all,

My IP4500 and IP5200 have given up already some time ago, bought both very cheap at Kijiji and CL, and I have been clinging on my PIXMA PRO 9000MK2 and IP4300 until now. But there is hardly any offering of these printers used any more. Did 2 bad-buys recently that took $40.00 of wasted money, gasoline and time, so I am thinking to take the step towards buying a Canon MX892, it is offered now for $ 108.00 at Best Buy here in Montreal. I want to refill of course, and I have read most of the topics about refilling PGI-225 and CLI-226.

The plan.

I was thinking of buying some empty re-fillable carts with ARC chips ( $ 17.00 / set ) and mount the ARC chips on transparent OEM CLI-220 and OEM CLI-221 carts and just go on with the German refill method, which I have done without any problems with my PGI-5 and CLI-8 carts.

My questions:

Does anyone have experience with this, or any experience using ARC chips on any other cart in a Canon printer ?
Is there something wrong in my thinking of doing this ?

Thanks for any comments in advance.

Marceltho

 

[The Hat]

Your idea of switching the chips sounds pretty good and will work with no problems at all.
However I dont think you taught this plan thought enough, costs wise I mean.

A resetter with cost much the same as these refillable carts with ARC chips your planning on buying,
so as good as your plan is a new resetter maybe a better one.

Have a quick Google round and check out the prices of a resetter and then decide if its worth getting ARC chips at all..

 

[marceltho]

Thank you for your reply Hat.
Actually, I DID think it throughI just was not complete with my story I guess.

1. With this switch I have to start from SCRATCH, as I am into CLI-8s right now
2. I would like at least 1 spare set of carts.
3. So I will have to start to buy empty virgin CLI-220/221s. ( best deal is Ebay, $50.00 for 15 sets..)
4. I can sell my FULL OEM PGI-225 CLI-226 carts for $ 30.00 35.00 or so ? ( hopefully )
5. From that money I will buy the 2 sets of re-fillable carts with ARC chips
6. I mount the ARC chips on the OEM CLI-220/221s
7. If it works OK for me, I will buy a few more sets of re-fillable carts with ARC chips, mount them on the PGI-220/221s and sell them on Ebay as re-fillable OEM carts, perhaps even people in the forum would be interested With the re-fillable carts, the orange clips are included as well, also the rubber seals on top. People could chose for top-fill or German......I am pretty well set-up to purge the carts.

Point 7, is not to start a business or make money, it would be just to play even on the purchase of the 15 sets of CLI-220/221

What do you think ?

Marceltho

NOTE: if I would go with a resetter, I would need to buy some virgin PG-225 & CLI-226 AS WELL, NEXT to the other carts ( I would need the chips...), as I really want to see what I am doing, not sure if this is cheaper.....I undertand that it will cost money, but this switch will be for another 3 - 4 years at least. I print a lot of brochures letter format, guess around 500 - 600 / year ( double sided )

 

[MP640]

But with ARC chips you will not have actual ink levels, as the chips will reset each time the printer is powered on.

It is my experience that after inserting a new cartridge (or a refilled one with a reset chip) the printer will engage in a cleaning cycle. I have no experience with ARC chips, but wonder whether the ARC will initiate a cleaning cycle each time the printer is powered on (printer thinks it's a new cartridge)?

 

[marceltho]

I ALWAYS keep my printer on, except for the PRO 9000MK2, as I use that one only for special occasions.
I also have no experience with ARC chips, I thought with useing OEM CLI-220/221 carts in combination with the ARC's, the light-prism system would still work.....but you can be right.
Perhaps someone else knows the answer on that one ?

 

[The Hat]

I apologise for thinking your had gone off half cocked but in fact you hadnt.
Youre perfectly right about the prism cutting in and telling you that youre low on ink despite using the ARC chips
and if you intend leaving on your printer then ink monitoring is not going to be a problem either.

You can get some empty cartridges here on Precisioncolor if youre interested,
if only to check out their great prices.. http://stores.ebay.com/PrecisionColors?_rdc=1

 

[marceltho]

Lol Hat, no need to apologize, I make my living with selling my ideas, I consider it more as a compliment, although the ratio between my good and bad ideas could always be improved of course..

I use already Precision Colors, I just didnt see the sets of empty220/221s, because I looked on his website, not on Ebay.
Bought two sets empty 220/221s + ink, and just bought two sets of ARCs for them. I will see how this goes. Winter is coming ( today we had the first snow ) and we have some power outages in wintertime, and my battery backup always lasts 15 minutes less ..

Picked up my MX892 this evening, and tomorrow the OEM carts go on Ebay, These sets are sold for $ 45.00, so if I ask a bit less it shouldnt be a problem.

I am happy nothing has to come from China, as, as a rule, Canadian customs keeps everything at least 3-4 weeks on hold..starts to be very annoying, but to be honest, it helps ...at least with me....

Thanks for your input, if everything is running I will post how it is going.

Marcel.

 

[marceltho]

UPDATE

I have used the 225/226 ARC chips, glued on two sets of virgin 220 /221 carts for a few days now, and I WOULD NOT RECOMMEND doing this to others.

1. The ARC chips are not reliable, at least not mine. They do not show always the same level. Example: looking at the ink level window when I print, the levels shown are different than looking at these levels at the next print.
2. The levels show almost full at a certain moment, but when I actually opened the printer to check, 3 of the 5 carts were EMPTY.
3. Some reset after filling, some stay at the same level, or show only half full.

Conclusion :

Just a bad idea trying to be too cheap I guess..
Guess will try to buy some empty virgin 225/226 carts to get the real chips, AND a resetter.

There must be a connection between the prism system of the printer and the OEM chip, as at a certain time the carts were full but the prism system did not show that as such.

I like the MX892, but the cart volume of the colors are getting smaller and smaller, but I guess you all know that already.

 

[mikling]

Proper ARC chips "should" work with the prism. The problem is that what I have noticed is that the ARC chips MUST be left powered up all the time. There are a couple reasons for this. First is that upon each power down and power up cycle they reset. Now that is not a big deal we might think because, as long as the prism system worked, we would have an arrangement like the really old Canon BCI-6 days with no chips and just rely on the prism system. All would be just dandy, the level didn't really matter as long as the prism warned of ink out. BUT....what I noticed from the CLI-8 days is that when the chip indicates full or near full, the printer seems to ignore the prism for a while.

Why this might be is totally logical. Here's how. Remember when the chip was introduced the printer warned of a low ink condition but NOT EMPTY when the prism kicked in.
From the time prism warns out of a LOW ink condition, the printer starts counting down a further amount and then indicates an EMPTY condition. During this countdown, it is doing so blindly...then when it reaches a point it kicks out an EMPTY.

Now imagine if during this countdown, the chip was reset to FULL and then the prism kicked in. How did Canon handle this series of events? I would imagine not to the benefit of the ARC. So the best thing for the ARC is to use it as it was meant to be used.

Now add to this, the observed behavior even with normal OEM chips. If you reset, the chip with an empty tank, the printer will not kick in the warning immediately. It wold still allow printing....possibly using the second countdown to empty counter. In the programming, when the printer detects the ink out in the tank, it forces the chip count to a certain level after a while and then begins the countdown to empty.

Did you refill and reset ALL at the same time?

This is interesting because I was thinking of providing 220/221 carts with 225/226 ARCs as a solution like you did. I am now really interested in what is going on. I will hold off on those plans now or do further research into this pending your discoveries. Is there an identifier to the ARCs you are using?

 

[marceltho]

I am still using the CLI-8 carts with my Pro 9000MK2 and ip4300 with great success, using OEM carts and the German refill method. But I started changing with the idea for the long term, as it is hard over here to buy use-able second hand CLI-8 printers, and the ones I have, do not have eternal life. I always refilled at the first warning, and at the same time I checked the other levels, and if they were around 25%, I refilled those as well.

Mikling wrote

Did you refill and reset ALL at the same time?

I tried following:

1. I opened the printer and compared the real level with the level given in the window, these were not all the same. Put back carts, and now different levels were given as before, 2 carts were reset by the ARC.
2. Printed a page in Word ( black text ) and took out the carts again. With same result as above, different levels AGAIN.
3. Took out ink from SOME of the carts, and not always the chips did reset, one reset cart showed full on the printer screen, the other one did not..


There is a good chance that the ARC chips are just garbage chips, as I did not pay much for them, below is the link to them on Ebay
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Refillable-...3660?pt=US_Ink_Cartridges&hash=item2a25c859fc


In my mind, having experienced the problems above, doesnt mean this will not work with proper ARCs. On the other hand, we all say stick with OEM carts to refill as they are the best. So why experimenting with unknown cheap ARCs ?
Lol.not sure if this last sentence was meant for you or for me

Mikling, I am leaving for Europe in a few days, but is there any chance I can reserve 2 sets of empty OEM carts for my MX 892, as I have the feeling you are holding them back from your website. ( I have already the 2 empty 221 sets and ink from you..)

Please PM me about this.

Cheers.