My MAXIFY 5350 is on refill ink

[Redbrickman]

The jury is out now. Both sets of my carts from Octopus do not have the ARC chip according to the photos that Palombian has posted. When I changed the first set weeks ago I was sure they had reset to show full, however today I inserted the orginal set which has an empty Black and about 5ml of colours in each. Printer shows all carts as 3/4 full

I put the second set back in and they are reading the same as they were when take out - 1/4 full. These did show full when first used but are now at 1/4 no matter how much ink is added.

I also did an "official" replacement of the second set of carts, i.e. remove all carts, switch on and wait for the printer to park the head and ask for carts to be inserted. After this the carts still show 1/4 fulll

My conclusion therefore is that both sets of carts are not ARC's and are just one shot chips

I also have discovered that the ink pools appear to happen when the carts are changed by the switch off and move head method. Doing it by the "official" way so far has not shown any leakage but I do not see how there could be any difference in the procedure.

 

[palombian]

Well spotted Palombian, I just noticed that on the photo on the Ali Express page you can also see the A symbol on the chips, so hopefully my new set of carts when they arrive on the slow boat will definitely be ARC chips.

I noticed this too, but I doubt the pictures always match the goods (on octopus-office.de they do not on every page).
There are probably several chip manufacturers.

The "new model" chinese carts are now filled with 40 ml color and 80 ml black (up to the top of the spring as seen in previous photos).
Let's wait until empty ...

PS: while topping up the magenta I could observe a light sigh when removing the ink plug, seems the bag really collapses with ink usage.

 

[palombian]

The jury is out now. Both sets of my carts from Octopus do not have the ARC chip according to the photos that Palombian has posted. When I changed the first set weeks ago I was sure they had reset to show full, however today I inserted the orginal set which has an empty Black and about 5ml of colours in each. Printer shows all carts as 3/4 full

I put the second set back in and they are reading the same as they were when take out - 1/4 full. These did show full when first used but are now at 1/4 no matter how much ink is added.

I also did an "official" replacement of the second set of carts, i.e. remove all carts, switch on and wait for the printer to park the head and ask for carts to be inserted. After this the carts still show 1/4 fulll

My conclusion therefore is that both sets of carts are not ARC's and are just one shot chips

I also have discovered that the ink pools appear to happen when the carts are changed by the switch off and move head method. Doing it by the "official" way so far has not shown any leakage but I do not see how there could be any difference in the procedure.

According to the instructions you have to wait until the chip indicates empty:

"It is possible to set the ink level back to status FULL when the respective cartridge has been messaged as empty inside the Maxify printer. Remove that cartridge from the printer, fill it up and install it back into the printer.
It requires a different process to remove a cartridge from the printer that does not have the empty status yet. Please check our tutorial specific for that topic".

This clearly suggests the "official" procedure with ARC's.

I waited for this with 3 colors, but only had a ?, and it did not change after continuing to print.

No ink pools in my printer when changing refillable carts. They have a valve on the ink outlet (the OEM don't and they do leak unless you are very fast, discouraging uninformed users to fiddle with the carts ).

 

[Redbrickman]

I hear what you are saying Palombian but one thing puzzles me and perhaps I do not understand fully the refill process. Lets say Cyan shows the ? symbol. You remove it, refill and replace using the "official" method and the ARC chip resets the level. The printer then does it's long cleaning cycle. That means that every time one cart is showing ? there will be a cleaning cycle, something we all like to avoid as it uses all inks and also fills the waste tank more quickly.

Or when you refilled the ? cart did you do so using the power out trick only, therefore avoiding a cleaning cycle?

As for the ink pools, my Octopus carts also have the spring loaded valve on the outlet but when I put them back in using the power off method each of them deposited a pool of inl on the ledge behind

 

[palombian]

I hear what you are saying Palombian but one thing puzzles me and perhaps I do not understand fully the refill process. Lets say Cyan shows the ? symbol. You remove it, refill and replace using the "official" method and the ARC chip resets the level. The printer then does it's long cleaning cycle. That means that every time one cart is showing ? there will be a cleaning cycle, something we all like to avoid as it uses all inks and also fills the waste tank more quickly.

Or when you refilled the ? cart did you do so using the power out trick only, therefore avoiding a cleaning cycle?

As for the ink pools, my Octopus carts also have the spring loaded valve on the outlet but when I put them back in using the power off method each of them deposited a pool of inl on the ledge behind

To be clear, the ? does not let the printer change the cart officially, it only says it does not know the ink level.
This is IMO better than disabling the ink monitoring, where you push a button, so the printer knows you know there is no ink.
I asked the guy at octopus-office.de what was the difference, in particular if the printer would do more purge cycles in the second case, but they had no proof of it. I could not observe more purges in the ? status either.

I had to remove the cart(s) with the plug pull trick.
Since they do not reset, I also replace them with the plug off.
In this situation the printer does not know about the cartridge change (also @The Hat's opinion).
It doesn't know about paper changes either, wich it knows when the printer is powered off but plugged in (try this, you will get a register request !).
The printer only gives a warning to be a good boy and power off with the button next time. It does some movements maybe there is some kind of cleaning, but shorter than with an official cartridge change.

Given all this, the one-time chips are maybe not such a bad thing.
With 80 and 40ml ink you can print at least 2000p. Pull the plug and top all 4 up with minimal ink purges.

 

[Redbrickman]

New carts arrived today - they have the chips with the "A" on them so fingers crossed they will be ARC chips. They look exactly like your carts Palombian

I noticed as well as the coloured filler plug there is another one above it sealing the airway that goes to the outlet port. Wonder if it is to help if flushing carts? Also I would love to know what the purpose of the little pcb type board is for that is shown in my picture below. It is at the same height as the filler plug so maybe a level sensing thing?

Will fill them later and test them out.

UPDATE - looking at the little board under a strong light it seems to have a very fine mesh or membrane and two holes to the outside so I guess it's a vent at the end of the labyrinth.

 

[palombian]

ATTENTION @Redbrickman, supposed our carts are the same, the plugs are inverted !

The colored plug is (erroneously) in the lower AIR inlet, this must be left open.
The INK fill hole is the UPPER one, this must be sealed after refill (with whatever plug you like).
You can check this by inserting a syringe without needle in the upper hole and aspire, you will see the bag collapsing.

My carts were delivered with the plugs in the wrong holes too, but on the website it was explained as follows.
I filled mine this way (40ml in the colors, 80ml in the black) and they run like a charm since a few weeks now (no leaks, no ink contamination).

 

[mikling]

When changing, remove all the carts quickly all at the same time. 1234.
When replacing, do the same and put them back all at the same time.1234.
No stopping in between.
If you want to refill one cart, it's OK. do one but do not remove one , refill, replace and then remove the other one and then refill and then the next. etc.
As soon as you replace the carts quickly, immediately start with some use. I always refill when I need to do long runs so I know I have ink for like hundreds of pages continuously. By doing this I totally ignore chip reports. The pressure sets up quickly with continual printing.
If you refill one, and then put it back and let it sit there while you work on another, the positive outlet pressure on the just replaced tank will cause the ink to leak out though the nozzles and cross contamination will result. The only way to get the pressure to set up is to use the ink and cause the pressure to set up. Looks like some have been running into this.
On sponge carts the sponge and ink characteristics control the ink release. On these spongeless carts, the generated pressure controls ink release. So new full carts need some use immediately to settle in and generate some negative pressure.

That is possibly what is happening with all the leaks etc.

With those new carts, I don't see the details but I suspect that the long plug is actually also sealing the priming chamber via a second hole at the top of the riser. If the design is what I think it is, these I have seen before on Brother refillable carts. You need to make sure that the plug seals a tiny side hole when the plug is fully inserted. If not, the pressure is not setup in the priming chamber. The small hole allows air to escape when ink is put it. It vents the priming reservoir and this must be sealed air tight after it is primed. The plug is supposed to do this when it is fully inserted. Look for a tiny hole at the end of the rise and it might be 1/32" in diameter. The riser is an easy prime feature but it can also backfire if the plug is too small in diameter to seal the side hole perfectly.

Good luck.

A small CISS might actually be a good idea on these Maxifys if you're doing large runs a lot of the time.. I am thinking of adapting mine to that.

 

[Redbrickman]

Thanks Palombian for contacting me quickly

Now I'm confused

OK - fill the cart via the top hole, no problem

Do you mean that the second hole down which is beside the little board and labyrinth is to be left completely open without any plug after filling?

The Ali site has the following which seems to suggest that (See point B)...


Note


A. Please try to refill inks to 80% of cartridge volume before you install printer;

B. Remove the colors air hole rubbers before plug into the printer

C. When the ink level goes to 10-15%,refill inks again;

D. When you take away the cartridge to refill inks, then plug into printer, the chips has been resetted.

E. Try to choose high quality printing inks;

 

[palombian]

On @mikling 's post:
I can understand and confirm that the pressures are maintained by printing, and that unnecessary changes can disturb this.
With no doubt OEM carts and the "new model" Chinese refillables are much less sensitive to this.