Archive of the former Yahoo!Groups mailing list: Homebrew PCBs

--- In Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com, "fenrir_co" <fenrir@...> wrote:
...
> I studied refilling a lot before I actually did anything, and still
> managed to destroy two printers (MIS' ink for HP 1100d formed a huge
> dried out glop of ink on the printhead and InkJetCarts carts leaked
> into the printer). Both of these companies have extremely good ratings
> (Inkjetcarts provide superb instructions, far better than MIS), but I
> suspect the quality of supplies other than ink depends on 'whatever
> the cheapest deal from China they found'.

HP cartridges are another animal entirely. They carry a slight
negative pressure (ie, slightly under ambient pressure) or they leak
until they reach that slight negative. Not hard to do with the large
#15 and #45 style carts as it has a fairly simple bag (just don't
overfill, and purge all internal air), but it takes an extra step when
refilling the #26/29/33 style cartridges (hard shell, internal air
bags that must be vacuumed out).

Sponged cartridges have sort of a "virtual" negative pressure due to
the sponge. However, Epson print heads seem less prone to leakage if
you use a spongefree cartridge, as long as the pressure/level of the
ink is kept no higher than the top of the ink spike. The sweet spot is
between the level of the base of the ink spike and the bottom of the
print head. You can only get that pressure with a sponged cartridge, a
CIS, or the funky valving and hydraulics inside the C6x/C8x series
cartridges.

BTW, if you refill OEM Epson C6x/C8x series carts from the top, you
are doing it the wrong way and can never refill more than about half.

Steve Greenfield