Half Full

[mrelmo]

Has anyone reset the chip and only half filled a cartridge? The reason being if you do not completely refill a cartridge (say a few ccs low) will the light prism over ride the chip and notify you that the cartridge is near empty. Does the chip or light prism take preference. Using 220/221 cartridges.

 

[The Hat]

@mrelmo, yes that was tried and tested before.

If you reset the chip and half fill a cart then the prism will bring on the low ink warning that much earlier and the chip will then reflect the prisms decision every time.

The prism controls the first half of your ink flow, [Empty reservoir] then at low ink warning the printer counts down from that point onwards, the chip is just an onlooker, it only job is stop you refilling..

 

[mrelmo]

hmmmm, very interesting

 

[palombian]

I tried resetting an OEM cartridge when the reservoir was empty, and the printer showed a full one.
But maybe I didn't wait long enough.

@The Hat: how does ink count works with 3th party cartridges without prism ?
does the printer sees always a full reservoir ?
this should mean the chip counter prevails over the prism ?

 

[The Hat]

Resetting a cartridge with no ink in the reservoir is a recipe for disaster.

Because you have just over ruled the cartridge prism protection system and so the printer will blindly run out of ink regardless, you have willing tricked it into doing so. Ouch, scratch one print head.

All 3rd party compatible cartridges have some sort of prism in them and if they don’t then refuse to use them because your printer will continue to work blind as stated above with disastrous results.

The Pro pigment printers use a different system all together they can work without a prism, so on start-up they check the status of the chip for ink amounts and then count down from there, there is more ink in a cartridge than is counted.

So if you put in a cartridge with the chip showing half full then the count automatically starts from there, try to fool the system and you lose every time, the chip doesn’t do anything other than show the starting line, regardless of cartridge contents..

 

[mrelmo]

So are you saying that the chip does not start counting until the prism shows empty, if that is so why does the monitor show the cartridge half empty, when there is ink still in the reservoir.

 

[The Hat]

The chip does not count anything, it’s only purpose it to stop you refilling the cartridges and it also prevents a cartridge from being put in the wrong position by mistake, which can happen quite often.

The ink monitoring is carried out firstly by the prism, it alone indicates when the reservoir is empty regardless of what the chip is actually showing, then the EPROM chip in the printer takes control from there onwards and it will then alter the cartridge chips status to show low ink.

The cartridge chip is only a fudge and it pretends to show the actual ink levels but it doesn’t, for instance if you put just enough ink into the reservoir to barely cover the prism then reset the chip to full again.

Now fit it into your printer and it will show up as a new full cartridge but will only last a couple of prints before the prism indicates low ink once more and the chip will immediately show the customary yellow triangle beside it. (From full to low)

There is no way of fooling or beating this simple system which is in there to safe guard the print head, but if you want you too, (Not recommended) you can deliberately cover the prism with electrical tape and your cartridge will never show empty again, but be prepared to get in a good stock of print heads because your going to need them.

Another trick was also tried and that was to prevent the cartridge from getting low on ink in the reservoir in the first place by topping up the cartridge while it was still in the printer, that didn’t work either and soon after the second fill the chip was declared empty. (Game over)

When you fit a CISS you have to run the printer with no ink monitoring, which is now not needed because you can visually see how much ink you have externally, but that increases the amount of waste ink considerably. (Lots)

The only safe way to run your printer with third party inks is to use a proper resetter and then carefully refill your OEM cartridge with the best inks available to you, even then this method has its risks from ink starvation. (Stay vigilant)


Foot note: - on the newer model desktop printers you best option is to use good compatible refillable cartridges as a safer alternative unfortunately..

 

[Tigerman]

You mean there is no ink sensor here like HP printers tell me that the cartridge is empty??? Despite the counter in chips.

 

[fotofreek]

You mean there is no ink sensor here like HP printers tell me that the cartridge is empty??? Despite the counter in chips.

Sorry to say that Canon carts do not have the equivalent of the fuel gauge in your car that measures the remaining fuel with a float in the gas tank. Prior to having the chips, Canon's pop-up screen indicator was an estimate. The prism at the bottom of the cart was a good indicator that the ink content was low when it was exposed, and the software then did a print count-down to tell you the the cart was "empty". In fact, there was still some remaining ink in the sponge area, but you don't want to really keep using the cart until it is bone dry as you would ruin your printhead. From the posts above in this thread you can read about the function of the chip on the newer carts. It is still not like the relatively accurate of the fuel gauge in your car. (I say relative accuracy as anyone who totally relies on the fuel gauge will find himself stalled at the side of the road someday waiting for someone to bring him a container of fuel!)

 

[palombian]

No refiller would like Canon placing ink sensors .
Accuracy of the actual system is sufficient.