Internal Anatomy of an OEM Epson PRO 3800 cart

[jtoolman]

I had an very low Magenta cart on my R3800 I had to replace it.

I now had an empty Magenta cart that I sould not wait to perform surgery on.

All went well and no mess at all.

I removed the paper label and pried off the cover facing the film covering the side of the cart.

To my surprise I found an ink bag directly attached to a the ink outlet port.

I carefully cut out the plastic film and took off a plastic webbed piece that held the ink bag down and in place.

The following images show what it all looks like.

As you can see from these pictures, the internal structure of these carts is rediculously simple yet brilliant!
I actually attemted to inject water into the exit port and though it took a lot of fiddling, I was able to do it with a syringe. The tip of the typical syringe is too large in diameter and though I was able to inject water into it, it was not easy to do so. You would need a custom designed tip that would dpress the exit port valve and at the same time seal itself within the port rubber gasket.

So If this is possible and a resetter was available, you ought to be able to reuse OEM carts and OEM chips and refill them with any of the several good inks available out there. By the way, there is no "Wet Sensor" behind these chips like are found in other Epson carts so that would not be a problem to contend with.

Being retired is sure fun!!!!

 

[pharmacist]

Jtoolman,

I discovered this a few years ago. You might also read my review about the refillable systems for the Epson Pro 3800 and there you can see the review of a resetter. Could you show how to refill these cartridges, because I am interested to in refilling these cartridges, because I never was able to do so.

 

[The Hat]

jtoolman

You can make up a little cap like (the freedom refiller) that will fit over the inlet port to hold open the valve and then fit the syringe on that.
In the mean time a resetter or ARC chips shouldnt take that long to hit the market so you can use that time to perfect a new refiller.
If these cartridges will work with the chip disabled then youre onto a winner..

 

[pharmacist]

Hi The Hat,

the problem is the one-way valve: it is possible to suck ink from the cartridge, but I never was able to inject the ink into these cartridges. So if someone could tell me how to deal with it, many thanks !!!

 

[The Hat]

I am sure that a replica of the print head layout could be made and glued up together,
then pressed against the cartridge to hold the valve open allowing free access to the inner bag.
Anyone want to send me a photo of the print head and a cartridge to experiment with ?

 

[jtoolman]

Late last night, now that I had the bag and oulet port / valve in hand I was able to force water into the bag with a 10ml syringe. The problem is, like TheHat suggested, is an adapter that will push the valve open, thus oppening and allowing access to injecting fluid into the bag. Because I only have two hands, I clamped the bag lightly by the plastic port assembly ( Refer to photos ) on a small vice to provide support and was able to inject about 20 ml of water into the bag. The hardest part is getting the poppet valve to remain open and at the same time provide enough of a seal so you do not leak ink all over the place as it appears to take a bit of pressure to push the fluid into the bag. Another problem is that a syring tip, though it can push open the poppet valve, also seals itself against it. So when you apply pressure on the syringe, it takes quite a bit more pressure to force ink around it and into the bag. The poppet remains in really good contact against the end of the syringe tip. I need to figure out how to push open the poppet and keep it open while at the same tine pushing ink into the bag.

I have to think that a reliable resetter would be the bigest challange. I've actually seen one being advertised on Alibaba and on Ebay. The are a bit pricey and worrisome as one of the decription statements say that you have to not let the ink go down bellow 10-20% or they will reset but still read as empty. That will not let the printer accept them. It also says " May reset OEM chips "!
What? That's not very reasuring is it?
There ia also one that supposedly resets the waste tank chip.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/CHIP-RESETT...799?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item564407652f

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Malntenance...uters_Printer_Accessories&hash=item56430e2095


I am currently running a test on a set of refillable carts for the 3800 using the piggy backed controller chip over the OEM chip. Most of the currently extablished refill systems for the 3800 and 3880 utilize two controller chips moiunted on two tanks that run in tandem with the remaining OEM chips. You have to tape over one of the OEM and Waste Tank chip's terminals and you reset by going through an elaborate procedure or removing and reinstalling carts.

The piggy backed chip system is "Supposed" to convert the carts to a pseudo Auto Reset Chip system.

Two possibilities.

One: The chip will monitor ink usage as a normal chip would do. When the printer tells you to replace the cart, you remove the cart, refill reinsert and the chip resets. Not too different to some other ARCs avaiable now.

Two: The chip will NOT monitor ink usage but instead read as FULL all the time.
Why do I think that?
Take a look at the inkjetfly web site and at their 80ml 3800 / 3880 refillable carts. They also use what appears to be the same piggy backed chip system but they claim that they will remain reading as FULL at all time.

http://www.inkjetfly.com/product_info.php?cPath=191&products_id=298

One thing is that you can run them along side other OEM carts. I will be printing some charts for the person I am conducting this test for first and will know pretty much how these chips will behave. If I see a drop on ink levels on the two refillable i replaced I'll then they will behave normally but if there is no drop of ink levels then obviously they are as described on inkjetfly's site.

More info as I obtain it.

 

[Tudor]

I need to figure out how to push open the poppet and keep it open while at the same tine pushing ink into the bag.

Why don't you try to make a channel into the tip of the syringe?

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[jtoolman]

Thank you Tudor but I didn't know I had the solution right in my shop.
I had recently purchased an Epson refilling tool kit, Epson Super Valve Plug Kit 3233 from R-Jet Tek

http://www.rjettek.com/s.nl/sc.7/category./.f?search=3233

and as part of all the tools it came with exactly the adapter you would need.



It has a Luer lock back and as you can see the tip has been modified to allow the poppet to be pushed in while allowing free flow of fluid.

Apparently these valves aren't really "One Way"

I will shoot a video of the filling of the bag later today.

 

[jtoolman]

Well, even though I was originally able to inject almost 70 ml of water into the bag, That is no longer the case. I cannot for the life of me inject any more water into the valve.
Mind boggling!!!

Anyway It was a fun thought!!