SC-P600 Waste Ink and WIC Reset Utility

[Taksmon]

Well I think according to my testing and also toolman Joe's testing as well, the remote cartridge printers such as the R3000 and P600 do not perform a purge each time a cartridge is replaced. As a result, these resetters indeed have limited functionality and are not of the same benefit as you would have say on an R2880 or SP1400 or even R1800/800. So after a reset, the printer continues as per normal. Thus you can top up cartridges even when the printer is off and it will not matter.

The issue I mentioned is not about the PK/MK switch, but is about what happens when the printer stops in the middle of a print due to ink exhaustion as reported by the chip. This isn't only a problem with refillables, Keith at Northlight Images found the same issue when he reviewed the P600:

It's not a huge deal, but I think that managing your ink levels manually is an advantage over OEM and auto-reset only carts

The other issue with the P600 (and why I think the external waste ink catcher is a good idea) is that the printer will run cleaning cycles when it sees fit to. This doesn't seem to be related to idle time like for Canons, but on some other factors. Mark at Aardenburg Imaging called them "stealth cleaning cycles" and found that they subsided after some time, but for me the P600 runs a short cleaning cycle every so often, maybe after every 5 or 6 13x19s. It even ran a cleaning cycle during one of the MK/PK switches. This creates more waste ink than I expected, so I'm happy to have purchased that waste ink kit.

 

[mikling]

The cleaning cycles are sometimes run to expel air infiltrated ink as well. How and when it does this is not well understood even after careful observations and it is a mystery. Having an R3000 and P600 running side by side, I can ascertain that the R3000 will run these cycles more often than the P600. What I have not been able to uncover is exactly what the difference in technology between these two very similar printers are. We know that the print engine is not the same. Is the printhead though? Based on running side by side with identical inks, I can say the P600 is distinctly more reliable than the R3000 in retaining a proper ink condition in the nozzle.

What I have been unable to determine is why Epson has chosen to place little metal balls inside the cartridge. Is it simply for better shaking before installation or is there a mixing mechanism magnetically driven that stirs the ink. Does anyone have access to an R3000 service manual?

Here's the kicker, so an office printer like the WF3640 has a user replaceable waste ink tank and it sells regularly for less than $100. Here we have the R3000 and P600 that consumes and wastes far more ink and costs multiples more and yet a user replaceable waste ink tank is not designed in. Does that make sense? Now having returned 2 - R3000s and a P800 under warranty, I will not install a waste ink tank or make any mods until the warranty period is over. A modded machine would have voided the warranty. I was able to retrieve a waste ink tank from the returned P800 and used it on the incoming replacement. Epson does not want the carts nor the maintenance tank returned on warranty machines.

 

[Taksmon]

There's a link to a R3000 service manual in this post - I don't see any reference to an automatic stirring mechanism, so I guess it's just to aid in manual mixing.

Going back to a previous thread, I wonder if there's a difference in the frequency of automatic cleaning cycles between OEM carts and "non-genuine" carts...

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

I think there are different types of cleaning cycles - different occasions for the pump to start running, it depends on the position of the printhead over the cleaning unit. When the printhead is lowered onto the cleaning unit and the pump starts running it is pulling ink through the nozzles. But then the printhead is lifted pretty soon after and the pump continues for a short while. And there are other maintenance activities of the printer hardware during longer print jobs - the printhead moves to the cleaning unit and is apparently wiping off the nozzle plate and then the pump starts running, either with the head slightly lifted or moved away depending on the printer model. Not all pump activities consume additional ink. This nozzle plate cleaning appears to be related to the print activity. And then I observe cleaning cycles which seem to be scheduled - my Brother printer does that once in while in the evening, even offline. My Epson printers are running too frequently needing such an idle time cleaning cycle so I don't know whether they would do it at all.

 

[Greatwhitewing]

I thought I had sent this but when Iogged in it was still in the editor..oooops

@Taksmon Thanks, great info. Nothing better than first hand experience. Frankly I find the instructions on these aftermarket sites a little confusing to me. A lot to do with being new and not knowing the jargon real well and I am sure they don't hire professional tech writers either.

I did download the WIC resetter utility just to see how it worked. It correctly identified, AFAIK, the waste ink level which of course it's very very low and a long way from being a concern. It also claims to be able to roll back firmware which I hope I don't need and no reason to believe so.

@Ink stained Fingers , Thanks for the detailed write up as usual.

@mikling I am trying to follow the instructions I receive here as carefully as I can. I have not run my blacks down to empty although the PK did get lower than expected like in the blink of an eye. I am also doing some paper sample testing and arranged printing to minimize black ink swapping but apparently not very well...lol
I guess I don't know exactly, before it happens, when a black ink swap is going to happen so I can reorder printing and/or use step 3 above. Something I need to learn better too.
I am holding off any more printing till your carts/ink come in so as not to run out of anything. As I said to Taksmon the instructions are a bit confusing to me. I am going to re-read instructions from your website over a few times more and the info here, maybe even rewriting it for myself. I am planning to keep the OEMs stored for backup.

I think have several solid several take-aways and correct me if wrong
1. The ARC cart/chip won't reset to full unless there was a low ink warning after reinserting it
2. A chip resetter will allow me override that condition and get a cart to show full prior to a low ink warning
3. A waste ink might be a good idea. Logistically will be difficult where the printer is now
4. The WIC utility Is legit and serves a purpose I may need in the future

 

[Taksmon]

With the initial carts, about 10ml each are used to charge the ink delivery system, so the carts will appear to deplete faster than usual (those chips are programmed to report full after the initial ink charge).

The ARC refillable carts will reset when you would get a low ink warning (yellow !) an OEM cart. On the ink monitor it goes from about 10% to a red X (cartridge not recognized), and at that point you can take it out, put it back in, accept all the nasty warnings, and it will be recognized as full. You should always make sure there is sufficient ink physically in the cartridge of course.

I suggest you turn off the auto ink change on the printer (Setup > System Administration > Printer Settings > BK Ink Auto Change > Off) so you don't accidentally initiate a black ink change. I usually change once a week or so and I batch my prints.

Otherwise, enjoy printing on the P600 with PC inks!

 

[mikling]

taskmon has covered it.

On the intial charge by the printer in setup, if you monitored the ink weights, you will find that the PK is depleted the less than MK. Here's why, The printer starts up by initially filling the tubes etc. with PK, Then it switches to MK, and starts filling that line. In so doing it uses the other colors as well. Then when MK is filled, it performs an autoswitch back to PK and then printing is able to be done. As a result of this, the MK will be used the least, then the PK and finally the other 7 colors. It uses approx 12 ml to charge the lines twice.
I carefully monitored the progress during chargeup with a before and after weigh.
Color - Before - After in grams
C 52.1 40.7
LC 52.3 39.0
M 52.9 41.1
LM 52.3 39.3
Y 52.4 40.6
PK 52.3 42.4
LK 52.3 39.7
LLK 52.1 39.5
MK 52.7 44.3

You will note the variation in the weights after the initialization. This is a clear illustration why ink levels do not track perfectly. Variations in the cart and reistance to flows due to ink properties and physical characteristics of the line will cause variations in the consumption of ink...even with OEM carts.

The other thing is that the setup carts provided by Epson are special when run with the printer firmware, despite a lot of ink being consumed initially, they intially report as full whereas, we know they are not. They are closer to nearly half used during the setup. The ink consumption will therefore appear to be quite high on the setup carts but when they are changed out the real consumption will show as being much lower. With newer Epsons, always use the provided setup carts, not using them can create electronic issues afterwards, even if you revert back to OEM.