Refill Carts for the Epson P400, Need Advice

[Charles218]

I've spent the better part of two days researching possible firmware issues with the P400, I'm overwhelmed and confused. I just ordered the printer from Epson, it will arrive in a couple of days, it is a refurbished unit. I have several questions and hope someone here can help.

1. Assuming the printer has the version firmware that blocks third party carts, can I downgrade using the "WIC" software? If so, how can I tell which firmware version to use?

2. Will the chips on the Precision Color carts reset or do I need to manually reset them? Is there a manual resetter that works on the P400? The carts that I am looking at are here: http://precisioncolors.com/P400_ref.html

3. Assuming that everything else is in order, when the printer arrives should I just start with the Precision Color carts, or use the OEM Epson carts?

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

I assume the printer has been refurbished by Epson, a service center or an authorized service office ? The unit will most likely come with a set of genuine Epson cartirdges, use those for the start up and do some testing, nozzle check, and test as well the paper feed with paper as wide as the printer supports.
So if you have any problems with the printer at this point report them back to Epson, don't start with the refill cartridges in that case , or you might give them an argument to decline warranty.
You may run the WIC Reset utility which gives you some information about the printer with the status report, you'll see to which level the reset has been done at the page count or cartridge replacement counters.
The firmware can track genuine or other cartridges separately.
I'm not aware that the P400 is affected by Epson's firmware games - different versions in Europe or North America or elsewhere as they play with some other printers.
I recently got a P400 set up and working, I'm currently testing various inks for their gloss and bronzing compared to the genuine inkset, that does a pretty good job, and I have found no 3rd party refill ink yet which comes close in this respect. Not all refill inks are alike, you can see differences. Judge gloss and bronzing only after a day, it takes a while until the solvent is gone and the surface of the paper coating reaches its final look. And you'll find as well differences between papers, not all glossy papers look the same when printed on with a P400 with the gloss opt active.
I did more of such testing some years ago with an R800 at that time, a kind of pre-predecessor of the P400 as an A4 printer.
There are refill cartridges on the market, and they should work, if not request a replacement or refund from the dealer.
Be aware of a potential issue, the genuine cartridges come with 14 ml of ink, the cartridges are higher then typical ones for desktop printers, and lots of refill cartridges only take about 10.5ml, they run short of ink before the firmware counter is at 0%; refill cartridges all come with ARC chips, I found them working without problems, but I had a few chips not being recognized at all - on matte black and cyan, but I got replacement chips, all via China/Aliexpress.
There are a few companies offering cartridges with an extended refill volume, they do the job.
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Ref...lgo_pvid=2f3b78f7-2587-43dc-91b6-9af8656681b1
They claim double capacity but that's nonsense, it's the firmware with the chip data counting down. The actual ink volume or level is not measured at all.

 

[Charles218]

Thank you for your response, this is very helpful.

Yes, I purchased a refurb directly from Epson, my thought is that it will have gone through bench testing and I will avoid getting a lemon. A new unit cost only $11 more, but I feel more comfortable with the refurb. Being a refurb, I suspect that they have updated the firmware, and that was my concern.

Just to clarify, you mention that many refill carts only hold about 10.5ml and that "There are a few companies offering cartridges with an extended refill volume..." followed by a link to Aliexpress. Are you saying that these carts do or do not hold more than 14ml? If so, it sounds like I need to manually monitor the ink levels and fill accordingly. Most importantly, do the chips on these Aliexpress, and or Precision Color carts auto reset?

Thank You!!!

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

All refill carts for the P400 I have seen so far - by ink sellers or on Ebay or on Aliexpress - all offer auto reset chips, that appears to be pretty much standard. A resetter for P400 cartridges is not very popular at all and pretty expensive.
I have observed a problem with the refill volume on those I got from a German Ebay seller, I don't know whether that would apply to all other carts on the market, I just don't know. I only see different heights of carts offered by Aliexpress sellers, so it might be a problem - or not - just keep an eye on it. You may go with those by PC, they would help you for sure in case of an issue.

 

[websnail]

Checked something on a hunch and it turns out the WICReset tool (2manuals version) has a special function that effectively turns off chip checking functionality for the SC-P400 among a few other models.

It's not something I've done with any printer myself as I've been too busy but I have heard from end-users that have, and it seems to work. A specific type of reset key is required (not the waste ink type) and it's not cheap but that might be worth considering.

Disclaimer: No idea as to the legality, advisability or success rate of using this function so it's very much at your own risk, if you decide to explore this further.

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

yes, this source is offering a firmware hack to make the cartridges appear chipless, pretty convenient if you install a CISS, so you don't need to care about any resets anymore. But there is a caveat - related to the version of the firmware - older firmware accepts this hack via the WIC Reset utility, the latest version requires some special software and is charged with a higher price. I gave it a try - I did not get it working - I'm left with an error code which can mean anything from a USB problem, firewall/network problem - cannot connect to server or try later again.
I'm now waiting for a chip resetter to overcome the domino effect with cartridges dropping empty one after each other.

 

[websnail]

But there is a caveat - related to the version of the firmware - older firmware accepts this hack via the WIC Reset utility, the latest version requires some special software and is charged with a higher price. I gave it a try - I did not get it working - I'm left with an error code which can mean anything from a USB problem, firewall/network problem - cannot connect to server or try later again.

Ah... Thanks for the info. I haven't kept up to date on the "chipless" side of things so I wasn't aware they'd switched away from the WICReset tool.

I guess it would be better to revert back to more traditional methods then...

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

It all depends - on your printer model and the actual firmware it is using - the WIC Reset tools offers the function to make the pritner chipless for lots of those combinations but it does not work for all - it could be as well that Epson tries to make that change more difficult.