Resetter disasters

[Paul Verizzo]

For quite the while I was content to drain the cartridge, tell the printer to ignore the warnings, and then refill. Been doing that for some years.

I decided that I shouldn't risk a print head and get a resetter. If I could only reverse time......I'm just now, months later and much aggravation later, coming out of the dark side.

The first resetter I bought on eBay is, externally, the same as MIS and a number of other refiller suppliers have on their sites. (MIS alone says it works only on the official Canon chips.) The first several refills and resets worked as they should. Cool.

And then all hell broke lose. Any repair technician, from cars to electronics, dreads the "inconsistency syndrome." In other words the results of every procedure is not consistent. Impossible to find the point of error. And so I spent some months, off and on, with a iP4500. Then, when I tried to use my 9000 MK II, I was seeing the same errors!

Yes, I had tried to reset both Canon and generic cartridges. Sometimes all the carts had all the lights on, then when the carriage returned to the right position, errors. It would be impossible for me to tell you all the combinations of attempts and errors, or once in a rare while, print two pages. Some color positions seemed to be worse than others. I tried every cleaning method I could think of on the chips and the wires they connect with.

I even blamed the resetter and bought another one, physically similar, slightly different. No better. I was at the point where I was wondering if the resetter had messed up my logic board. No, two logic boards.

What clued me in on the source of my frustration is that the 9000 red and green carts, never touched by a resetter, were always just fine.

I bought some new generic carts on eBay, put them in my 4500.....and all was well. My 9000 still has some "recognition" issues, I need to get some photo cyan carts. But I'm now confident that things are on the upswing.

No more resetter crapola for me. Back to monitoring closely, or I may try some ARC chips.

 

[Lucas28]

There are resetters around which give a too high voltage, resulting in damaging the cartridge chip. Maybe you've got one of those.

Another possibility is a too low voltage, due to bad batteries. The quality of the batteries in new resetters are often poor.

The two resetters I've got work fine. One of them gave battery problems, so I cannibalized an USB-cable and attached it to the resetter. A Si-diode in serial reduces the 5V to the necessary 4.5V.

For Canon a resetter is not really necessary. I noticed that Canon printers give already an ink warning at a cart that is still filled for 1/3.

 

[Paul Verizzo]

As mentioned, I got the same results with two different resetters.

Whatever the reason(s), I, nor you, should have to experience these problems and then find a solution. Button cell technology is ancient and there shouldn't be an issue for a long, long time of use.

I just tried to remove the bottom on one of my resetters, welded on too tight. Not worth the continued effort.

You don't get any warnings if you've told the printer to ignore ink levels for the given cartridge.

 

[The Hat]

None of the OEM chips are meant to be reset at all so if you’re going to do then make sure you use the correct resetter for that chip and that you have enough battery power to complete the reset.

Canon chips are known to reset dozens of time without failure but can as easily fail on the very first reset, so if they do then it’s just as easy to replace the damaged chip for another one.

If you value your printer then don’t use compatible cart/chips always try to use OEM cart/chips and running your printer blind without ink monitoring is not a sensible thing to do because you’ll just end up burning out your print head..

 

[Paul Verizzo]

None of the OEM chips are meant to be reset at all so if you’re going to do then make sure you use the correct resetter for that chip and that you have enough battery power to complete the reset.

Canon chips are known to reset dozens of time without failure but can as easily fail on the very first reset, so if they do then it’s just as easy to replace the damaged chip for another one.

If you value your printer then don’t use compatible cart/chips always try to use OEM cart/chips and running your printer blind without ink monitoring is not a sensible thing to do because you’ll just end up burning out your print head..

Everyone needs to get their stories/opinions straight. MIS/Ink Jet Supply says that ONLY OEM Canon chips can be reset. No one else makes that claim, that I've come across.

You can't measure "the battery power." The resetters are welded shut. That you say they can work great or not, just reenforces what I experienced: disasters.

"Running blind" worked for me for a number of years on a number of printers. Sure, one risks damaging a print head, but that's my choice. And if I had never decided to do the "right thing" and use a resetter, I would not have wasted months of aggravation trying to figure out what was wrong.

So, each to their own, eh?

 

[The Hat]

Like ink, not all resetters are the same there’re are a lot of scammers pushing rubbish out there, it all depend on where you buy from.

Now the cheapest part of the equation are the chips then the resetter and then the print head, of the three the chips are the easiest to replace and move on from but as you say “Each to their own” I reckon you might want to stock up on a couple of print heads..

 

[mikem65d]

Like ink, not all resetters are the same there’re are a lot of scammers pushing rubbish out there, it all depend on where you buy from.

Now the cheapest part of the equation are the chips then the resetter and then the print head, of the three the chips are the easiest to replace and move on from but as you say “Each to their own” I reckon you might want to stock up on a couple of print heads..

Ditto...........i'd buy a resetter from PC or Octo to be sure that i'm buying tried and true.

 

[palombian]

There are resetters around which give a too high voltage, resulting in damaging the cartridge chip. Maybe you've got one of those.

Another possibility is a too low voltage, due to bad batteries. The quality of the batteries in new resetters are often poor.

The two resetters I've got work fine. One of them gave battery problems, so I cannibalized an USB-cable and attached it to the resetter. A Si-diode in serial reduces the 5V to the necessary 4.5V.

For Canon a resetter is not really necessary. I noticed that Canon printers give already an ink warning at a cart that is still filled for 1/3.

I was thinking the same on the USB upgrade.

Many resetters, also the Re(d)setters, developed by a German electronic firm specialised in reverse engineering on order of the previous Sudhaus, are not closed.

 

[Łukasz]

I have reseter for PGI-525/CLI-526, USB powered.
I was told, that it works only with OEM chips, but somebody claimed other story.

I found, that my reseter is resetting compatible chips, but it looks a little bit wired: after first flash, compatible chip's LED stays lit to infinity while resetting

Printers (iP4850, iP4950, MG5150, MG5250 and MG6250) works fine with these chips.
Also mix of OEM and compatibles works.

Even resetting compatible CLI-526GY chip works, tested in MG6250 for ~1 year.

Really hard to complain, reseter is typical china no-name "525/526":

Ł.

 

[palombian]

Here the "genuine" Sudhaus Redsetter and a Peach compatible that resets same as an OEM.

The resetter is still available for less than €15.

(I had even a 520/521 for free since they shipped the wrong one, if someone needs it let it know, so I am not tempted to buy more printers ).