Homebrew PCBs

--- In Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com, "Steve" <alienrelics@...> wrote:
>
> --- In Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com, "fenrir_co" <fenrir@> wrote:
> 
> > After much experimenting and the destruction of a C88 I've found 
> > that
> > refilling in the printer can cause the carts to flood ink into the
> > printhead, making you have to run a cleaning cycle anyway to make 
> > the
> > squeegee clean off the head.
> 
> If I hadn't mentioned that before, I'm sorry I didn't. With things 
> as
> they are meant to be, the pressure of the ink is as if the level of
> the ink is just above the level of the ink spike. But with the plug
> pulled from the cartridge, now the pressure of the ink matches the
> actual level of the ink in the cartridge. So an overpressure causes
> ink to leak out the head.
> 
> Same thing happens if there is -any- air leakage around the refill 
> plug.

Actually I think you did mention this, I was responding to the other
Steven who said you should not take the cart out to avoid getting air
in the system. While I think this may work for some people if they do
it really quickly, I  find that it's generally a bad idea. Plus, you
can't really see how full the cartridge is if it's not one of the end
ones. There's really no way to get around having to turn the printer
on/off or using the ink-replace button, as even Epson chips require
that the printer be turned off and on again to 'notice' that it's been
reset.

The little silicone plugs MIS offers with their cartridges seem
entirely too flimsy to seal well. I ordered a dozen extra ones, but I
may look for a better way to open/close the carts, possibly some kind
of small screw and O-ring combination.

> > On a whole I've found the whole refilling business to be more 
> > hassle
> > than it's worth, except for the fact that the last run of prints I 
> > did
> > would have cost $156 taking them to Staples for 39c copies, or 
> > near
> > $300 in OEM cartridges. If you are /not/ doing massive print runs 
> > of
> > color copies, it's more trouble than it's worth (buy a Canon 
> > IP4200
> > which has nice, big ink tanks, or a HP Deskjet that takes 96/97 
> > carts)
> 
> That's why I use bulk ink systems in my printers.

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'. The MIS blanks I bought work
perfectly but I've seen reports that people have had MIS blanks leak
ink into the printer as well. I'm looking into converting Epson tanks
to refillables, but now I'm seeing recent posts that even the OEM
cartridges have air/ink flow issues or possible poppet valve 'sticking'.

> 
> BTW, the right auto reset chips should -not- reset to 100%. If they
> do, the printer assumes you've slipped new carts in while it was off
> and runs a heavy cleaning. The correct chips reset to 99%. No way
> around turning the printer off and on again, but that's not so bad, 
> is it?
> 
> Steve Greenfield
>

The auto-reset chips supposedly reset to 95% and I seem to remember
that they /did/ do this on the C88, though I was spending more time
figuring out how to stop the ink leakage inside the printer rather
than the chips themselves. The replacement was a C88+, which goes to
100%, it may not be totally compatible with the auto-reset chips (Many
auto-reset chips failed to work at all in the R220/R340 despite being
the exact same cartridge number, Epson messed with the firmware a
little). I'm trying to switch to manual resetting so that if the
printer gets low on ink and I refill it, I can reset it rather than
having to wait for it to print down low enough to reset on its own
(since these do not reset with power on/off, which seems to be the
case with MIS' current chips as well according to their message board).

I recycle the waste ink back into the black cartridge (make sure you
have a well sealed waste ink container with air and waste tube holes
on the sides and not the top), so far it seems to be working - the
printer purges more black ink than color ink with each cleaning cycle,
after nearly 450 prints and three recycles the black ink still looks
perfectly black for text. I suspect if I tried to print a photo it
would look weird.