Refill without a resetter

[PeterBJ]

The red cartridge LED serves two purposes. It indicates the amount of ink in the cartridge to the user, but it is also read by a sensor in the printer after you close the lid after having installed a cartridge. If the sensor detects no light from the cartridge you get an error message that a cartridge cannot be detected.

You can test this function by covering the end of the light guide at the top of an OEM cartridge with black electricians tape and reinserting the cartridge in the printer. You will then get en error message that a cartridge cannot be recognised. After removal of the tape, the cartridge is recognised again. I have just done this test on an MP970 and the test works.

I tried to scan a taped cartridge, not the best image:

Here is a crop of a picture from the Pro 9500 MKII service manual showing sensors. The sensor marked "1" is the ink sensor that detects the red LEDS on the cartridges:

And the explanation from the service manual of the sensor "1":

I would have thought that the chips were sufficient for ink tank recognition, but the red cartridge LEDs are also needed. So it looks to me like @The Hat is right.

IIRC Canon once tried to get the use of red LEDs on compatible cartridges banned because of a patent violation. Not because of the function as a visual indicator but because of its role in ink tank detection. Some compatible cartridges became available with IR LEDs and an instruction of how to remove an IR stop filter from the ink sensor. I think I read this on the Druckerchannel.de website.

Edit: The Druckerchannel article is here, and a translation is here.

To get back on topic:
If you own a Canon printer for which a resetter exists you are privileged. Study the Epson forum and see how many problems compatible cartridges cause. The use of compatible cartridges with ARC chips is good "on the paper" but not always so in the real world. You can experience problems with ink starvation, ink leaking and the ARC chip getting out of sync with the ink amount in the cartridge. I have experienced these three problems when testing a set of after market refillable cartridges for PGI-550/CLI-551.
The use of OEM cartridges and a resetter for refilling is far better IMO. Disabling the ink level indication with the OEM cartridges to avoid the cost of a resetter is also a bad idea, as the cartridges are opaque and visual check of ink levels is not an option.

 

[The Hat]

What does that have to do with the chip? The print head will return to the parking position above the purge pads whether there are cartridges missing or not from the print head.

Yes, it does but it still has to pass the Light Sensor first, to update the printer to the current condition of the print head, i.e. like if a cart is missing.

As I wrote before, my MP830 manual states an ink purge occurs when power is turned off before the print head returns to the parking position.

Again, when there is a power outage, most printers will trip a purge cycle to run as a precaution, I power off mine ever night and when I go to use them, they always run a purge cycle before they start, it keeps the head in good condition.

Your evidence? Maybe an external waste ink tank showing ink going into the external tank? Or, Could it be the wiper blades doing their thing sometimes?

When a purge takes place, ink can be observed moving into the external tank, sometime very little or a lot depending on other factors discussed earlier, and each time the head moves the wipers give it the once over for good measure.

Are you sure there is an ink purge just because you lift the lid for whatever period of time?

Canon are aware of users who will try to fiddle with the chip technology to circumvent the system from working properly, but any altercations that the system can’t interpret, will give an erroneous error or the dreaded B200, lifting the top lid for long periods can also be mis-interpret ?

The cartridge contacts are in the head so I would presume so the cpu can probably read chip status anytime it cares to.

No, the print head can’t communicate directly with the on-board EPROM chip or the cartridge chips, this is where the LED light sensors comes in, on older non-chip printers it is possible to run and print with a cartridge missing, but disastrous.