Pro-100. - Still Having Problems With Displayed Ink Levels

[Roy Sletcher]

I have noticed a disconcerting anomaly with my reset CLI-42 chips.
Sorry - this is going to be a bit wordy because I want to be specific.

Mr Moderator: Let me know if I should post a more concise version.

Would others please comment on whether they experience, or can duplicate the same issues.

It could be my printer, my computer setup, the REdSETTER, or something that I have not considered.

SYMPTONS:
In a nutshell - the usage of the ink is not being properly displayed in the small desktop ink level utility.
On my unit with a full refilled and reset cartridge it will still display full, even after much ink usage and when the ink level has dropped significantly. By the time the ink level reaches below half it will display 3/4 full, which is as low as it goes. It then abruptly gives the <!> warning of an empty cartridge when that level is reached. The refilled cartridge will NOT go through the progressive display of 3/4, to 1/2, to 1/4, but go straight from 3/4 to the empty warning.

EXAMPLES:
Example is the file capture.jpg. The black cartridge correctly displays empty. (But had moved straight from 3/4 to empty just before I made the screen capture) The other cartridges were all well below half full, except for the yellow (More about that later) In fact the GY displayed empty warning couple of prints after the screen capture, despite showing 3/4 in this screen capture. Again I repeat no progressive depletion indications.



MORE OBSERVATIONS:
The file capture2.jpg is a capture I made this morning. Since the previous capture all carts,with exception of yellow have been refilled and reset with REdSETTER. I have beeen printing a lot and currently all carts are below half full, some at quarter. However you will note that all the carts, except for yellow show FULL. - I am anticipating that they will shortly show 3/4, and then go straight to the <!> warning.

THE YELLOW FACTOR:
Couple of weeks ago had problems with my Yellow cart. The upshot was I replaced my refilled yellow with an OEM yellow. The yellwo correctly showing half full in the capture2.jpg display is NOT A REFILLED AND RESET CART, but an OEM Canon cart, AND IT IS DISPLAYING INK LEVELS CORRECTLY.

QUESTION
Is anybody experiencing the same problems or issues, or can duplicate the events.
Unfortunately my volume of printing will decrease for the next month or so, and it will be some time before I can verify and duplicate the above observations.

Coments or observations are welcome.

Besides I don`t do brevity well
Intend to post details about the failure of the refilled yellow cart later for advice, if I don`t get banned for hogging bandwidth.

RS

 

[stratman]

That is odd. I doubt it has anything to do with your computer or printer setup.

Did the ink level monitoring behave this way with OEM new cartridges and only begin to act this way after resetting?

One test would to be buy a new OEM cartridge for the ink you run out of quickest AND displays the odd behavior you wrote of. Then print away and see what happens with this new OEM cartridge's ink level monitoring. You've already done this with Yellow so your issue points to a redsetter OR a chip issue. The only way to be sure is to purchase new OEM cartridges, follow ink level monitoring and then reset those catridges and see how they behave then.

On the bright side, it sounds like you have not run out of ink while printing or before the cartridge is marked empty, so you are still protected against print head burnout as long as you fill the cartridges adequately (as much as or greater than new OEM)

 

[The Hat]

Hi Roy,

You’re obviously watching your ink monitoring like a hawk and when it blinks you pounce, brilliant.

What you describe it not that unusual so your problem could be (1) that you need to get use to
using the new redsetter and allow it time to reset properly.

With this new resetter you have to wait longer for a full reset than you would have for the older
type say up to five seconds, the previous ones were only three second.

Just looking at your screen shots I can see no real problem at all, you have full on screen ink monitoring,
that’s the important bit and then a delayed reaction before the low ink warning shows up.

You should understand that your cartridge is not out of ink entirely, the yellow triangle message
only means LOW ink because both your printer and chip are singing from the same hymn sheet, (Edit)
so there’s no need to worry at all.

(2) It maybe that these new chips, (Speculation) are a lot harder to reset than the older chips were
but despite this the redsetter still manages to do it brilliantly anyway, now ?

The big question here is can we run this chip down to register empty then try a reset back to full again,
will it actually reset or will it fail to reset altogether and render the chip useless, yes/no ?

Because these chips are going from full to low in one action could also mean they are can only function
to the same levels they were at originally, in this case (Low) before they were fully reset.

It’s got to be remembered that it’s the little prism that’s actually reacting to the low ink inside your
cartridge which then in turn signals the monitored cartridge chip to register the same ink level
and not the other way round, this action won't happen if you have no ink monitoring enabled.

We will only know this when someone carries out this experiment and allows their cartridge to register
empty and then tries a full reset to see if the chip will respond or not, it should do no problem.

NOW PLEASE don’t go quoting me on any of this because none of it has been proven so therefore
its pure speculation on my part at this stage and need to be checked out properly..

 

[stratman]

... both your printer and chip are singing from the same hymen sheet,
so there’s no need to worry at all.

Hymen? Now I have to worry whether my printer is a virgin after resetting. My printer is a bit sexy but she's not slutty, thank you. Fair warning -- Don't "speculate" with my printer printer or there will be trouble.

 

[The Hat]

Nice one stratman...

 

[Roy Sletcher]

Hi Roy,

You’re obviously watching your ink monitoring like a hawk and when it blinks you pounce, brilliant.

What you describe it not that unusual so your problem could be (1) that you need to get use to
using the new redsetter and allow it time to reset properly.

With this new resetter you have to wait longer for a full reset than you would have for the older
type say up to five seconds, the previous ones were only three second.

Just looking at your screen shots I can see no real problem at all, you have full on screen ink monitoring,
that’s the important bit and then a delayed reaction before the low ink warning shows up.

You should understand that your cartridge is not out of ink entirely, the yellow triangle message
only means LOW ink because both your printer and chip are singing from the same hymn sheet, (Edit)
so there’s no need to worry at all.

(2) It maybe that these new chips, (Speculation) are a lot harder to reset than the older chips were
but despite this the redsetter still manages to do it brilliantly anyway, now ?

The big question here is can we run this chip down to register empty then try a reset back to full again,
will it actually reset or will it fail to reset altogether and render the chip useless, yes/no ?

Because these chips are going from full to low in one action could also mean they are can only function
to the same levels they were at originally, in this case (Low) before they were fully reset.

It’s got to be remembered that it’s the little prism that’s actually reacting to the low ink inside your
cartridge which then in turn signals the monitored cartridge chip to register the same ink level
and not the other way round, this action won't happen if you have no ink monitoring enabled.

We will only know this when someone carries out this experiment and allows their cartridge to register
empty and then tries a full reset to see if the chip will respond or not, it should do no problem.

NOW PLEASE don’t go quoting me on any of this because none of it has been proven so therefore
its pure speculation on my part at this stage and need to be checked out properly..

Hi Hat,

Thanks for you reply. As several others are using this printer, I was hoping for more comments.

I am somewhat paranoid about ink levels and nozzle checks. I have managed to fry two print heads over two and a half years which is higher than average, and I want to improve my results.
I am reliably informed it is the hardware nut 12 inches above the keyboard causing most of my problems.

(1) When resetting have disconnected as soon as I get a long red. I will hold the red for at least five seconds in future based on your recommendations , just in case.

I have the on screen monitoring as you comment. You suggest it is slightly delayed, I feel it appears to be completely inaccurate on the seven refilled and reset cartridges.
The yellow cartridge is a brand new NEVER RESET OEM cartridge, and displays accurately. Hence my hypothesis that something is causing the inaccurate display after the reset.

Regarding the empty comment - I understand that with the <!> warning that there should still be ink in the sponge portion. The actual ink chamber is empty, and this is the point when I usually refill, rather than risk ink starvation. Given the current situation I am having to rely on a measurement system that I can demonstrate is inaccurate. To be safe I am reverting to visual cartidge checking.

About your comment (2) - The difficulty (or not) of resetting the chips is the function of the REdSETTER. After a reset the cartridges indicate full, but do not record the ink depletion with usage accurately. At this stage I do not think the REdSETTER is the problem - just mentioning it because everything is "on the table"

The seven colours (Excluding yellow) have all been reset several times and the result has always been the same inaccurate display of the ink usage as the cartridges deplete. I was just slow noticing the consistency.

It would be interesting to know if other users of the Pro-100 and refilling have the same experience.

My theory at this point is that the seven cartridges causing the problem were used before the resetter was available, and consequently when forst empty, had the ink monitoring disabled with t he usual canon warnings. it is possible that something in that disabling cause the problem when reset with the REdSETTER. I wil be able to verify this when my NEW OEM VIRGIN yellow cart reaches empty and is reset.

In the meantime hoping others can respond.

RS

 

[jtoolman]

Hi Roy,

So far because of the sheer number of printers, I have not had a chance to run the volume of prints through the PRO-100 needed to empty any of them yet.

I have topped off and reset the three blacks.

The Black and the Gray were reset and topped off, they are now show about 1/8 down from max. The light gray is still showing as full. So it appears I am getting a more gradual display of estimated ink levels on the visual ink indicators than on your printer. This week I will make sure to run a lot of prints through it as I am spending the weekend in beautiful Pennsylvania shooting and doing Civil War stuff in Gettysburg. So I should be able to record whether the ink monitor behaves normally or not.

Joe

 

[The Hat]

Roy

Let me put your mind at rest first,when you get the low ink (Yellow triangle) warning
and respond by resetting and refilling that cartridge, then there is no possibility whatsoever
of damaging your print head in any way and I can guarantee that, Hell will run out of inmates first.

Your method of replacing your cartridge at the first warning message is the correct method to use
and if most guys used this same procedure instead of trying to get the last drop of ink out of their cartridge
then there would be far less problems to report on here.

The inaccuracy of the chip to register the on screen ink monitoring progress is not that important,
because the inbuilt prism will always work correctly and safely, long before any ink starvation can occur.

We will only know this when someone carries out this experiment and allows their cartridge to register
empty and then tries a full reset to see if the chip will respond or not, it should do no problem.

My theory at this point is that the seven cartridges causing the problem were used before the resetter was available, and consequently when forst empty, had the ink monitoring disabled with t he usual canon warnings. it is possible that something in that disabling cause the problem when reset with the REdSETTER. I wil be able to verify this when my NEW OEM VIRGIN yellow cart reaches empty and is reset.

That is the exactly the situation I was referring to above, so maybe the answer is not to allow the
cartridge chip to register empty at all, (Similar to Epson) but to reset it at the low ink warning
every time and then the ink monitoring may work more accurately.

The facts are that this new redsetter gives you all of the comforts of using new OEM cartridges
every time you refill them is a huge saving in itself, and the added bonus of having ink monitoring
enabled at all times which in turn protects your print head and reduce overall ink wastage.

Happy Refilling guys..

 

[mikling]

Disabled initially all colors for several months and then reset and functioning normally. Of the multitude of purchases of the resetter, none have reported any issues either. So there is the possibility of an errant chip itself on your yellow.

 

[stratman]

So there is the possibility of an errant chip itself on your yellow.

Roy's second post says

The seven colours (Excluding yellow) have all been reset several times and the result has always been the same inaccurate display of the ink usage as the cartridges deplete.

Could be chip malfunction, improper reset technique, redsetter not able to reset chips to full OEM function, resetter malfunction, the printer or chip function is altered following a reset, etc.

I doubt the issue is due to timing of the reset, but this cannot be entirely discounted until more data is available from others resetting their chips with the Pro-100.