ip4200 Possible Chip Fix

[ultrasonic2010]

I recently purchased the ip4200 (American version) and the first day I had it I re-enabled the CD printer and engineered a custom CD feeder tray. That was easy This is a little harder.

I know it is almost impossible to refill the tanks and not get caught, BUT I used to refill several HP cartridges on various printers and I found a work-around that might work with Cannons as well. See with many HPs the printer only logs 3 cartridges serial number in memory to track the most recently used cartridges and their fluid level. All you needed to do was rotate three cartridges in and out of the printer then insert the refilled one (as the fourth cartridge) and vala! It was registered as a new cartridge! The printer does not have enough internal memory to log all the cartridges it has used to it begins to purge them after the third cartridge. This printer being so new I have not attempted this yet. But theoretically it could work. Unless there is a flag in the ink-tank itself. The only problem is that incorporating all this anti-refill technology in the ink-tanks gets costly, and I pretty much doubt Canon is going to jack up the price on these tanks any more just to snuff refillers. Its not competitive or cost effective putting expensive equipment in tanks for this one purpose. Anyone try this yet?

Another possible way to reset your unit is (maybe) rotate through country regions. Example would be if you had a U.S. unit and you changed it to Japanese and then to European then back to U.S. would it remember that it was a flagged refilled printer? Would the lights come back on the tanks? I might try this as soon as my ink runs out.

Skip the chip! There might be a way to just disable the prism under the chip. You still wont receive low ink errors doing this but itll spare your units from being flagged by the software as a refilled unit (theoretically). For instance, if you removed the chip from a near-empty tank took some nail polish and painted over the prism so it (theoretically) thought there was always ink in the tank. Could this work? I have not tested any of this --- yet! But Ive got good ideas to maybe start something until there is a chip-resetter on the market. I am defiantly going to try some of these theories out.

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Also - I was speaking with an ink engineer who spoke with canon when a print head went out and he refilled his 4200 (the rep questioned whether he ever refilled or not). He answered yes and the Canon rep said his warranty was void now. Funny thing is he called there bluff and told the rep that voiding his warranty they were breaking the law. The rep quickly backed off and returned the print head. I feel that Canon is walking a fine line right now of actually breaking federal law by stating to customers their warranty is void and using persuasive, confusing, and misleading terminology in the error messages those customers who refill; receive.

 

[Nifty]

ultrasonic2010, great first post, and welcome to the forum!

Some very interesting ideas you've got there regarding potential fixes for the chip issue. I look forward to the experiments you and others try with these printers.

Also, a very interesting story about the canon rep. I wouldn't be surprised if they were actually trained / encouraged to "bluff" a bit with regard to refilled cartridges and plugged print heads.

 

[drc023]

I agree that Canon may be on thin ice in trying to tie in usage of OEM only supplies to receive warranty coverage. Even Hyundai/Kia with their 100K warranties tend to emphasize the fact that very expensive maintenance checks need to be done at 30K intervals and that the work needs to be performed at the authorized dealers. However, when pressed on the issue they back down and just advise owners to keep adequate records showing that the maintenance has been performed - somewhere. Fortunately for Canon owners the situation isn't all that bleak. IP4200's are less expensive to buy than older iP4000's (if you can even find one). Because most of us refillers want at least one spare set of tanks on hand, getting a spare iP4200 makes more sense than buying an extra set of tanks. Use one printer and if the printhead goes out, just install the printhead from the spare printer. I'm not recommending that anyone put the failing printhead in the spare printer and try to get warranty service since that would be less than truthful, but I'm sure some users will do that. OTOH, the printers warranties are only for one year and after that it wouldn't make any difference if the refilled indicator was triggered or not.