epson 3880 - maintenance cartridge not recognized

[jtoolman]

There you go SEE! You did say all OEM!

From where are your refillable carts from and are they the kind that require all the original CHIPS or the kind that need only the Photo Black and Matte Black CHIPS?
My 3800 carts are from inkjetfly and use only the two black chips. The rest of the cart do not require OEM chips and just run on the Coltroller chips that ride on top. I bet the problem is with your cart CHIPS either the OEM or the Controller one. Contact your dealer.

 

[lotsawa]

Sorry for confusion, but OEM not a very common term here in Germany ...

I use refillable ink cartridges called "RCS Pro" with ink called "Photochrome AQ880", and yes, all cartridges use the OEM (original Epson) chips that I had to take off the original cartridges and put them into the refillable catridges.

I brought the printer to the service today and let's see what happens.

Do you think the printer would give an error message concering the maintenance catridge (which IS real OEM i.e. Epson) even if (one of) the ink catridges would cause the problem?

 

[jtoolman]

Yes!
I had a set of refillable that required all the Original Manufacturer Equipment ( OEM ) chips.
Everythig went just fine until all of a sudden after having topped off a couple of carts with ink, and reinserting them, it bagan to have all kinds of recognition problems. The recognition or lack of, was always random, always a different cart or sets of carts, but always the waste ink cart was unrecognized. Solution, I replaced the carts and voila, all is and has been perfect. I kept the carts themselves as the problem was not with them but with the Controller Chips.

Good luck at the service center. Hopefully they will not fight with you over your refillables.

Joe

 

[lotsawa]

Outch! Thanks for sharing your experience. I did have recognition problems of ink cartridges that I had to to take out and put in again for couple of times until they have been recognized.

So did you replace the carts with OEMs in the end and forgot about refillables or have you still used other type of refillables?

So the whole business with refillables seems to be a risky game. I more or less ruined an Epson R2400 by using a continous ink system that regularly blocked the nozzles if I didn't use the printer for a couple of days.

 

[jtoolman]

Nope I just purchased two sets from Inkjetfly.com They much better and only need two OEM chips MK and PK. No problems with chip recognition and with the 3800 they turn the MT chip inot a forever chip. Don't know about the the 3880 I would ask them.
So far ZERO problems.

 

[lotsawa]

Information on inkjetfly.com is that their carts for the 3880 all need the proper OEM chips.

So what to do?

I think I'll have to get the printer back from the service center before they start trying to repair it ... and then I should probably come back to Epson cartridges. hmmm ... I hate to spend so much money on the original cartridges (and probably waste my investment in the refillables and the ink), but don't see another reliable alternative yet.

 

[lotsawa]

I got the printer back from the service. They didn't fight with me over my refillables, instead they have been very friendly and even told me which of the carts caused the problem and that it had nothing to do with the maintenance cart. I cleaned the OEM and reset chip, had to put the cart out and in a couple of times, now it works. So I'll try to continue with the system.

Thanks for your insights!

Christof

 

[jtoolman]

It will always be one of the chips screwing up the recognition process. I am glad the techs did not give you a hard over you refillables.
I just finished a video where I cover the main problem of these types of carts. The Chip housing and what I do to minimize the chip housing from catching inside the ink compartment and possibly jamming.

I own two 3800 and not a 3880 but the problem plagues both cart types.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDi1lhDoWjM