Soon: big test of refillable Epson Pro 3800 cartridges + resetters

[pharmacist]

Crazy me has ordered several Epson Pro 3800 refillable cartridges and a direct chip resetter. Because in the past there have been some minor arguments whether brand A or brand B is the better one, I will test all the major aftermarket cartridge makers at this particular moment.

Also some tips & tricks to refill, maintain and to solve problems using these aftermarket carts.

They will include:

-the ones I am using now (available at: www.gemini-colours.com and www.colordroplets.com), using tuning chips + resetter
-the refillable cartridges from efillink.com (same as the ones from www.inkjetfly.com), using tuning chips + resetter
-the Inkrepublic.com Pro 3800 i-fill system (available at: www.inkrepublic.com), using 2 control chips
-the particular direct Epson Pro 3800 chip resetter

I hope this will be an exhaustive test and Rob of this forum will allow me to upload extra pictures and will creat some storage space for me, because this item will be as important as my introduction of the German Durchstich Refill method (all credits to: defcon2k).

Be patient: this topic will increase continously as more test data will be available...

 

[websnail]

Oh boy... You do have someone pretty on hand to dab your fevered brow so you don't smear it with ink in your enthusiasm don't you?

Will await with interest...

 

[pharmacist]

A quick update: A few days ago I received the Inkrepublic.com cartridges, but there was an issue with the maintenance tank chip and I am still waiting for a solution from Inkrepublic.com. The cartridges seems to be very well made, even better than the ones I now have. I am quite impressed by the service and feedback from Amanda of Inkrepublic.com.

 

[JDime]

Hello,

I am very interested in your test results. I have been looking for a refillable solution for months. Can you tell me if you have any experience with the Cone Color refillable carts for printing photos? Maybe you can include Cone in your tests?

Thank You,
-J

 

[pharmacist]

Hi Jdime,

The Cone system is actually the same as the Inkrepublic.com system (as do the ones from inkjetcarts.us). I am now testing these cartridges and I am quite excited with the results till now. I hope to post the first results on this topic in a few days time. I am now waiting for the other cartridges (efillink.com) to arrive and give them a test too.

 

[pharmacist]

As promised here an impression of the refillable system for the Epson Pro 3800 purchased at inkrepublic.com (Epson Pro 3800 I-fill system). I find the system rather expensive, but still acceptable compared to buying 9 new cartridges from Epson and this system is the only capable to reset the maintenance tank as well.

This is what included in the package:

-9 refillable cartridges with two of them attached with a specially designed control chip + 2 extra spare cartridges in case you will need to exchange a faulty cartridge.
-9 bottles of ink (100, 250 or 500 ml depending of the package you have ordered)
-a switch key to fool the printer that the ink door is closed, because the cartridges are pretty large and will stick out your printer
-tape to seal of the fourth pin of the original chips of the cartridges not having the two control chips and the maintenance tank.
-manual on paper and CD. Quite rudimentary english with some important warning that you must not install the cartridges, without having the chips installed, as this can destroy the chip reading pins when you pull out the cartridges.
-a spare switch key in case you loose this essential piece of plastic, a pair of gloves, and some spare O-rings to seal replace the ones on the refill hole of the cartridges.

The next picture shows the high quality of the ink outlet port of the cartridges. Very sturdy and made from high quality material, unlike the cartridges I am currently using in my Epson Pro 3800:

This outside material of the cartridge. From the look and feel of the material I have pretty much the impression these cartridges are designed for long time usage without having problems:

Another look at the impressive building quality of the ink outlet port of the Inkrepublic.com I-refill system:

Take a look at the following cartridges. Although the present refillable cartridges installed in my Epson Pro 3800 are working well, albeit with some minor flow problems, I am a bit shocked how these cartridges were manufactured. The Epson Pro 3800 uses a pressurized system to push the ink into the tubing system of the internal CISS-system to provide a constant ink flow towards the print head.

The next picture is showing the 3 cartridges in a row: Colordroplets refillable, Inkrepublic refillable, Epson original. Take a careful look at the ink outlet port. The Inkrepublic.com is extremely well made and seems to be even beter than the original Epson cartridge. The left cartridge by Colordroplet uses a simple rubber seal, which does work well, but rubber tends to starve and crack on the long term and by inserting the cartridge repeatedly into the printer might damage the delicate but essential seal (risk of massive leaking, when the printer putting pressure in the cartridge !!!).

Hmm, discovered this today of the Colodroplet cartridge: the side panel can be removed and ....the ink is kept within the cartridge boundary only by a thin piece of plastic sheet. It seems to be very strong, because although the system is pressurized, the ink is still be kept inside the cartridge, but it scares me off how long this ink will be kept inside the cartridge and will not leak out with force from the cartridge.

A side image of the plastic foil sealing the the cartridge. Quite scary indeed...:

Next time: testing the cartridges inside the printer using the specially designed Epson Pro 3800 native chip resetter and with the tuning chips been removed from the system, to see if the chip resetter is doing it work as I have found out in an earlier test.

 

[pharmacist]

Since there were some problems with one or both of the tuning chips supplied by Inkrepublic.com giving that constant error "No maintenance tank installed" and after determining that the original Epson chips are 100 % OK, I decided to give the particular resetter I onced ordered to reset the maintenance tank (see this link: http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=4712)

Since the Inkrepublic.com I-refill system is using the Epson OEM directly, without using tuning/bridge chips like the ones from Colodroplets.com and Inkjetfly.com I remove the two supplied control chips from the cartridges and have them replaced by the original Epson chips and reset them with this particular resetter: all nine cartridge chips + the maintenance tank.

Here is the result of this test:

The first image shows this particular resetter and having the two control chips (faulty ?) removed from the cartridges and having installed back all the original OEM chips without the necessary tape-off of pin nr. 4 of the chip, necessary to having it working with the two control chips:

The two control chips removed from the system:

The printer have been powered up and this the result of using the resetter: All chips are showing full, accept the LBK cartridge and this chip was giving the message: not enough ink, please install new cartridge... The resetter does give a green light after trying to reset it, but it seems something inside the chip made it impossible to reset the chip when this ominent message is showing on the printer LCD screen:

Again, the LBK chip not being able to be reset by this particular resetter, so I think this has to do with the resetter only be able to reset the chips when it is not below 4 % (which is the amount shown by the printer LCD screen before resetting). All other cartridges were only registered as low (5 % or up). This is something to take into account when you want to use this resetter: it does work but presumably only when it does not register below 4 % and giving you the warning "not enough ink, please install new cartridge":

Next time: How to remove the printer lid to estethically house the large cartridges of the Inkrepublic.com I-refill system.

 

[avpman]

It is important to note that the Epson chips (with or without the tuning chip) will always register empty when they think the tank has delivered approx 80ml of ink (like the OEM cartridges). Therefore, I do not see the benefit of the larger InkRepublic tanks as you will never use all the ink because the chip will still signal empty at approx 75ml. Once you pull the tank to refill it and reset it, the InkRepublic system will reset ALL the other tanks to full regardless of the ink level in each tank. So to insure you never run a tank empty, now you must refill ALL cartridges. So I do not see the benefit of their system.

Also, you have the OLD design of the Colordroplets tank. A new design is coming a couple of weeks after Chinese New Year holiday (Feb 14-21). I am testing their cartridges.

 

[avpman]

Would you be so kind as to tell us where you got the Epson blue resetter you mention in several of your posts?

Thanks!

 

[pharmacist]

Hi avpman,

yes that is the disadvantage of this system: reset is for all cartridges at a time. It would be nicer if you could reset one cartridge at a time, not all cartridges together. However, since there is so much ink inside (about 110 ml) you could easily give it a reset when one cartridge runs empty and refill after the printing job.

The design of the cartridge makes it very easy and quick to refill. Wait a few minutes for depressurization of the cartridges, carefully give the plug a twist, wait a minute before opening and pour your ink in it and the semi-transparant wall will help you to determine how much ink you must pour in. If the cartridges are completely made of a dark material this would be impossible to achieve.

The resetter is especially designed for the Epson BD500DN/B300DN printer, but works also for the Epson Pro 3800 original cartridges chips (if they are not below 5 %) and the maintenance tank chip. Be warned: if the level of the chip falls below 5 % it can NOT reset the chips !!! I did discover it with my LK cartridge (light black) which prior showed the warning: "not enough ink, exchange the ink cartridge". All other chips were only showing low and were flashing on the printer display screen. Eventually you could obtain these cartridges and use it with this particular resetter and forget the two control chips if you want to reset and refill one cartridge at a time when it runs low, but be aware this must be done when it shows low only, not empty.

You can purchase it at: http://www.szmegacolor.com/sdp/1042...ter_for_Epson_3800_3850_3800C_OEM_cartri.html

Unfortunately it is quite expensive.