Theoretical new concept for Canon ink level monitoring

[pharmacist]

My Canon IX4000 large format printer still has the optocoupler (that little oval black thing on the rail with several lenses on it, is that the one ?) and this is a total new design, unlike the ip4x00 series and I think this must be true for the latest models as well.

Last time (April 1st !!!) I heard about a hoax that a Japanese guy sent his printer back to Canon to have a problem repaired and discovered that suddenly the flashing light from the carts were disabled. It seems that Canon upgraded his firmware were the detection method from the chips was disabled and was relying completely on the optical ink sensor. The german drukerchannel.de made this their practical joke and offered this firmware on their website and warned that this might only work with printer with a cardreader on board. Well: many guys were disappointed, but truely a funny practical joke !

Although it is a total hoax, the underlying theory might be true: a firmware or driver upgrade should change the ink monitoring from (a combination of) nozzle fire counting plus optocoupler to optocoupler alone completely.

 

[gteyeballs]

I'm new to the forum and an owner of an ip4300. Just at the point where I have to refill, which I have done on other Canon printers for a while. Question.. what is the actual sequence of events that occurs between optical sensing, writing information to the cartridge chip and is the 'used cartridge' control in the printer firmware or the PC software? I would suspect the printer firmware as it will likely error even if not connected. In either case can the firmware /software not be recoded to ignore the issue by someone with programming knowledge? Just thinking in black and white