Refilling Question

[The Hat]

This is the first I have heard that printers using CLI-8/PGI-5 cartridges actually do anything with the optical sensor. When did this become the new norm?

The optical sensor still work in my printers using CLI-8/PG-5/CLI-521s, in fact only yesterday
I reset one of my CLI-8 which was then showing half full and put it back into the printer.

I will be expecting the low ink warning notice to pop up when the reservoir becomes empty,
I will however keep an eagle eye on it just to be sure.

I tried this experiment before doing it the other way round, i.e. refilling a half full cartridge to full again
and not resetting the chip and the low ink warning came up only after the reservoir was empty
which is one and half times the cartridges capacity..

 

[Big_Al]

1. Now I am confused on the CLI-8 ink cartridges- What is the usefullness of the optical ink sensor?
2. The CLI-6 has no chip, and I would guess there is an optical ink sensor that lets one know when the ink is low.
3. I gave my Granddaughter a Canon iP6000D with four CLI-6 cartridges and two CLI-8 cartridges. Will the CLI-8 cartridges show when they are low?
Thank you, Al

Don't you mean BCI-6 (not CLI-6)?

Yes, thank you for catching that. To the question of two CLI-8 cartridges in the Canon iP6000D, will the optical ink sensor work when the printer was designed to use BCI-6 cartridges?
Thank you, Al

 

[mikling]

The optical sensor is the heart of the ink sensing system that was initially designed into the ip6000D.
The ink level monitor readings will not make sense to many who refill the BCI-6 because the printer will never know whether the tank is half full of 3/4 full etc. It only senses that there is ink in the tank. Period.
Only when the tank side empties sufficiently for the optical prism to detect there is no ink will the warning come up.

The chips were a "band aid" measure to allow users to ESTIMATE the quantity of ink remaining between full and new and during use according to normal conditions. It does not SENSE the volume of ink in any way shape or form at all it only estimates and "assumes". Whether this was the primary reason is open to debate but it does provide the ESTIMATE.

I capped ESTIMATE for a reason. Many users think that this magical chip, senses, whereas it does not.

 

[The Hat]

Big_Al
To the question of two CLI-8 cartridges in the Canon iP6000D, will the optical ink sensor work when the printer was designed to use BCI-6 cartridges?
Thank you, Al

I also use CLI-8s with my BCI-6s in an i9950 and the printer accepts them just like any other BCI-6 cartridge.
The added chip that is on the CLI-8 cartridge becomes redundant when used in the older printers, try it and see.

fill one of your cartridges pop it into your printer and it will show full because the printer
has no way of knowing the amount of ink thats actually in a newly installed cartridge.

When the reservoir becomes empty youll get the customary low ink notice and later on the cartridge will show empty,
thats this little optical sensor, doing its job not the printer or the Chip.

mikling
The chips were a "band aid" measure to allow users to ESTIMATE the quantity of ink remaining between full and new
It does not SENSE the volume of ink in any way shape or form at all it only estimates and "assumes".

I capped ESTIMATE for a reason. Many users think that this magical chip, senses, whereas it does not

I agree 100%..

 

[stratman]

This is the first I have heard that printers using CLI-8/PGI-5 cartridges actually do anything with the optical sensor. When did this become the new norm?

Me as well and the reason I said "if it works at all".

 

[mikling]

If the optical system is not operational on chipped cartridges, then we must really think why Canon would leave a clear window on the prism on the opaque 526/226 etc cartridges. This clear opening must cost more to manufacture. While not a proof, we can certainly try some more experimentation to determine this. I do know it works on the current Canon printer I am using, just went through it myself this week. Maybe there are conditions where the algorithm gets fooled and it doesn't work. If stratman and ghwellsjr says it doesn't work for them, then there could be something to this.

 

[stratman]

Agree, Mikling, it makes no sense to leave in place a system that no longer functions, if only for the additional manufacturing cost that it presents.

Many of us believed at the time that the optical sensor was a way to safeguard a burned out print head by popping up a warning when the spongeless side was empty of ink. In this fashion, if a cartridge were to leak in the printer then Canon retained the optical sensor to warn of an earlier than expected low ink cartridge. Few believed the optical sensor was to assist in warning the user of a totally Empty cartridge - that's what the chip is purported designed for.

My single simple test was to take a CLI-8 cartridge that had no ink in the spongeless side but plenty of ink in the sponged side, rest the chip, then re-insert into the print head and start printing. My hope was that the optical device would quickly catch on that no ink was in the spongeless side. It didn't - I received no Low Ink warning - and after a couple of printed pages I stopped the test.

It could be that my MP830 takes a while for the optical sensor to function. Maybe a few more pages and it would have kicked on. But, all the anecdotal reports at the time were that the optical sensor was a mystery as to functional status and operation. That was basically the conclusion reached on this board across several models of CLI-8 printers. At least that is my recollection.

 

[mikling]

Try filling the tank side so that the prism system works for a while and then see if it kicks in the warning. Prehaps if it is reset as full and then the printer sees the optical system is not detecting ink then it will bypass the optical system believing that it is faulty but since the chip indicates full, it will take the chip reading for a while.

Sometimes there are holes in programming logic and thus why backdoors and hacks exist.

Just fill the tank 50% and see if the tank kicks in afterwards.

 

[jimbo123]

good discussion. i always wondered if the optical sensor worked on my MP830. been using a resetter for years, but my first year refilling i flew blind by disabling monitoring and checking manually.

old habits are hard to break, i still check manually and only rely on the chip counter and/or optical sensor as a backup.

new tricks are hard to teach to an old dog

J

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Printers: Canon MP830, IP4500, MX700, MX860, MX870, MP980
Method: German Durchstich Method
Ink: Hobbicolors ink, PMT-BK, UW8
Misc: Squeeze bottles - so much easier than syringes

 

[ghwellsjr]

Big_Al
To the question of two CLI-8 cartridges in the Canon iP6000D, will the optical ink sensor work when the printer was designed to use BCI-6 cartridges?
Thank you, Al

I also use CLI-8s with my BCI-6s in an i9950 and the printer accepts them just like any other BCI-6 cartridge.
The added chip that is on the CLI-8 cartridge becomes redundant when used in the older printers, try it and see.

fill one of your cartridges pop it into your printer and it will show full because the printer
has no way of knowing the amount of ink thats actually in a newly installed cartridge.

Actually, if you have a cartridge in your printer with an empty reservoir so that the printer is showing the "yellow" warning, you don't even have to refill it to show a full level, just remove it from your printer, close the lid and the printer will think it has a full cartridge.