Homebrew PCBs

Hi Stefan,
    From my experience with HP spongless and sponged cartridges.  

The early  HP spongless cartridges used to have two little
sacks of air that were stretched over a spring stainless steel hoop. (A 
little like a tiny set of lungs.) The internal volume of the sacks was 
vented to the atmosphere and the pressure of the spring steel hoop would 
try and deflate the air sacks, thus maintain a slight vacuum in the ink 
reservoir.

As soon as a hole was breached in the cartridge to add new ink the 
"lung" would deflate entirely to due to the absents of a vacuum. Any 
attempt to refill the HP cartridge without first inflating the "lung" 
prior to sealing the cartridge with new ink in it resulted in the in 
simply draining out of the print head slowly.

However if the lungs were held inflated whilst the cartridge was being 
sealed, and once sealing of the cartridge was complete, the plug could 
be removed that was blocking the  lungs from expelling their contents to 
the atmosphere. The system once again came in to normal operation with 
the lungs holding a very slight vacuum in the cartridge, thus preventing 
the ink from draining out of the inkjet nozzles.

In fact the cartridge also has a small vent  path in a serpentine 
pattern underneath so if the vacuum became too large,  atmospheric air 
could be drawn up through the serpentine correcting the over-vacuum.


The problem you are describing sounds very much like the correct vacuum 
is not being maintained in the cartridge.  Think of it like a straw full 
of water with your finger over the top.  The vacuum in the top prevent 
the water draining out.


I do not know about epson cartridges however I guess that must have SOME 
form of vent to let air in as the is ink is used. I think the key you 
need to work on is refilling the cartridge and keeping a partial  vacuum 
in the cartridge to hold the ink from simple draining out.


For the HP sponge variety, cutting the cartridge open and taking out the 
sponge was not really all that successful. The sponge is replacing the 
vacuum in the cartridge by means of the surface tension of ink/sponge 
structure interface to hold the ink in the cartridge rather than have it 
all gush out the inkjets at the bottom.  (A bit like being able to 
'siphon' oil out of a oil can with only a fibrous jute rope, or lamp oil 
wicking UP the wick towards the flame)


Cheers,
David








Stefan Trethan wrote:
> On Thu, 15 Jun 2006 16:50:46 +0200, Steve <alienrelics@...> wrote:
>
>   
>> Or get a cheap set of 3rd party cartridges.
>>     
>
> Not so easy to get here, cheapest would be importing again, which can get  
> expensive.
>
>   
>> It's not so hard to refill sponged cartridges. It's actually better
>> not to remove them from the printer. A bulk ink system really is
>> -much- easier than refilling.
>>     
>
> Well, i tried the method on inksupply.com where you cut open the cart to  
> clean the sponge. Only all the ink has drained out of the sponge/cart  
> overnight for unknown reason. I'm not actually sure if this is still  
> happening or not.
>
> A bulk ink system would be best if you print often, but i think for my low  
> volume filling the cart inside the printer would be less effort. It seems  
> to me with spongeless carts this is possible.
>
>
> ST
>
>
>
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> Date: Thu, 15 Jun 2006 20:26:02 +0200
> Subject: Re: [Homebrew_PCBs] Re: Epson Direct Inkjet with Homemade CIS and autoreset
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> On Thu, 15 Jun 2006 16:50:46 +0200, Steve <alienrelics@...> wrote:
>
>   
>> Or get a cheap set of 3rd party cartridges.
>>     
>
> Not so easy to get here, cheapest would be importing again, which can get  
> expensive.
>
>   
>> It's not so hard to refill sponged cartridges. It's actually better
>> not to remove them from the printer. A bulk ink system really is
>> -much- easier than refilling.
>>     
>
> Well, i tried the method on inksupply.com where you cut open the cart to  
> clean the sponge. Only all the ink has drained out of the sponge/cart  
> overnight for unknown reason. I'm not actually sure if this is still  
> happening or not.
>
> A bulk ink system would be best if you print often, but i think for my low  
> volume filling the cart inside the printer would be less effort. It seems  
> to me with spongeless carts this is possible.
>
>
> ST
>
>
>
> Be sure to visit the group home and check for new Links, Files, and Photos:
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Homebrew_PCBs
>
> If Files or Photos are running short of space, post them here:
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Homebrew_PCBs_Archives/ 
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>   
>  -0-0-0- 
>