Re-using the chips on Canon cartridges

[John Dalton]

I'm interested in getting a Canon Pixma iP5200R printer but the price of Canon cartridges is rather off-putting. A bit of searching on the Internet and in this forum suggested that to use third party cartridges it would be necessary to re-use the chips from the Canon cartridges. I would be grateful if anyone could answer the following questions.

1) How easy is it to remove the chip from a Canon cartridge and attach it to the third party cartridge? Advertisers' phrases such as "Full fitting instructions included" strongly suggest that this may not be the easiest of operations.

2) Glancing through some of the threads on this forum, I get the impression that the state of the old cartridge, for example whether it is completely empty or not, could be important. Is this so?

3) How many times can a chip be re-used?

 

[Xalky]

I just recently purchased a ip6700d with the cli-8 chipped cartridges.

I haven't tried to remove and reinstall a chip yet. After poking around here and considering the prices of third party cartridges, though cheap not cheap enough for me, I opted to go the refilling route for this printer.

In my mind removing and replacing the chip is as much of a PITA as refilling a perfectly good OEM cartridge. The covenience argument of cartridges becomes a mute point.

Plus I can buy good quality ink for under $1 a refill compared to 3rd party cartridges at $3-$4 each, which swayed me towards refilling.

Regardless of which method you chose, you're still left without ink level monitoring.

I suppose the chip could be reused indefinitely so long as it's not damaged every time you move it to a new cartridge. There is a good chance you could ruin the chip. That risk is also virtually nullified when refilling. Another plus for considering refilling.

Xalky

 

[John Dalton]

I've been doing a little checking and have now spoken to a couple of UK firms.

One said that they have had problems using their rechipped cartridges with the Canon Pixma IP2500R.

I downloaded a copy of the rechipping instructions from the second firm's site. It involved carefully prying the chip free with a blade and then pushing it into the third party cartridge. There then followed a complicated set of instructions for getting the printer to recognise the rechipped cartridge - it sounded like a certain recipe for things going wrong.

All in all, I think that I'll give rechipping a miss! As for refilling the cartridges, to be honest I don't really want all the hassle - I'm prepared to pay a little extra for someone else to do it for me. Ah well, back to the Internet to look for more printers.

 

[ghwellsjr]

You can still get Canon iP4000 (overpriced) and MP780 (fairly priced) printers on eBay and CompUSA still has the i9900 wide format printer for $450. These all use the unchipped carts.

 

[canonfodder]

I would be grateful if anyone could answer the following questions.

1) How easy is it to remove the chip from a Canon cartridge and attach it to the third party cartridge? Advertisers' phrases such as "Full fitting instructions included" strongly suggest that this may not be the easiest of operations.

2) Glancing through some of the threads on this forum, I get the impression that the state of the old cartridge, for example whether it is completely empty or not, could be important. Is this so?

3) How many times can a chip be re-used?

John,
Here are two answers.

1) It is not hard at all to remove the chip from a Canon cartridge. You don't 'pry' it loose. You use an Exacto knife to slice off the top of the two plastic posts that hold the tiny circuit board which we refer to as 'the chip'. After slicing off the tops, you pull the chip off the cartridge. When you put the chip on the new cartridge, some form of retention is needed. It doesn't have to be very strong retention, and assuming you will be moving the chip again, it should be something easily un-done. People have used various glues or tapes. You can't cover the gold contacts. You might read about different solutions to that detail here on the forum.

2) RELAX NOW. THIS IS REALLY SIMPLE. IT JUST TAKES ME A GREAT NUMBER OF WORDS TO SAY IT.

The state of the cartridge at the time you replace it does have a bearing on what will happen next. In operation, the printer gives two announcements concerning the ink situation. The first announcement says that a particular ink is running 'LOW'. It will keep reporting, by way of the pictorial Ink Monitor diplay, when you print. The second announcement comes when the printer declares that a cartridge is 'EMPTY'. When it declares a cartridge 'EMPTY', it will not continue to print unless you follow the instructions to allow continuing. This simply requires you to press the center button on the printer front, holding it for about 5 seconds, until that button's light turns off. This push-button action overrides the 'EMPTY' printing-stop for that cartridge. This action also leaves the ink level report for that cartridge showing empty. That condition, showing empty, is normally described by us as "Canon kills the ink monitoring". Ink monitoring for that cartridge will continue to show it empty unless you put in a new Canon-made cartridge.

If you refill a cartridge, or replace it with a non-OEM (plus chip-move), when the cartridge is declared 'EMPTY', you will have to do the button push routine right then, in order to continue printing.

If you refill a cartridge, or replace it with non-OEM (plus chip-move), when the cartridge is showing 'LOW', you can just keep printing. The printer will keep saying 'LOW' and the ink monitor will keep showing lower and lower until finally declaring the cartridge 'EMPTY'. THEN you will have to do the button push routine in order to continue printing.

Now, notice that we have been considering the actions for one cartridge. The same details apply to each cartridge in turn as it becomes 'LOW' and then later 'EMPTY'.

I refilled my Canon cartridges when several showed 'LOW'. I had to do the pushbutton routine each time another one was declared 'EMPTY'. As long as I refill those cartridges, I will not have to do the pushbutton routine again. I also have an ink monitor that is EFFECTIVELY disabled, because it shows all cartridges as empty.

3) I don't know. I don't think there is a limit, but there have been suggestions that there may be some limit of re-uses of the chip by way of its memory. I have not seen a real documented report on this subject.
With proper care in handling the chip, there should be no real limitation due to physical damage or wear out.