Revisiting Resetter problems for Epson 3880 - And related stuff.

Roy Sletcher

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Have been using my Epson 3880 for some seven months now and am mightily pleased with it.

I have been conscientiously following JToolman's videos, especially with regard to printing, refilling original carts, harvesting OEM Epson ink, and a host of related topics. They are excellent - Thanks Jose.

Now this - There seems to be a problem with the North American Supply of resetters for theses cartridges. Don't know if this is Epson playing hardball, or more likely a bad batch of resetters imported from the Chinese exporters. Bottom line is I am going to need to refill soon as I am nearing the end of my second set of OEM carts which I want to refill. I can't afford the OEM route.

Anyone know of a source for a good, reliable and working resetter for this printer?

If I can't find a working resetter, is the best solutions to use OEM ink in third party carts, and are there any differences is quality between the various vendors? My preferences would be (1) Precision Color carts, or (2) Cone Inks carts.

Any ideas or thoughts on the matter?

rs
 

jtoolman

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All of them! LOL
Roy I truly don't know what is happening with the resetters. So far the ones I do have, work of the carts and chips that I have. Do they work on the latest chips? I have no idea and suspect something could possibly be going on.
Now as two Refillables. The CONE carts are supposed to be "Better" if you believe the hype. PrecisionColor may be offering the same exact ones for less. CONE uses the claim that even though carts may look alike, there's are better because they have better welds. Well..... I've NEVER had a "Weld" give out! No cart has exploded inside the printer from a rogue pressurizing pump over pressurizing the cart seams like a balloon. So feel free to take all of that with a very large grain of salt.

The biggest and ONLY difference that would cause me to choose between on or the other would be the type of Controller Chips they use. They will all require your original chips, regardless. But some controller chips actually do monitor ink levels and some simply do not and they show full 100% of the time. Those of course would never need resetting compared to the ones that do. They would have to be removed and reinserted to reset them. The less times you have to remove a cart, specially a refillable cart with much lower quality inlet seals, the better it is in my book!

Joe
 

mikling

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Yes, something is up. I got a batch of them as well. The good news is that I have maintenance tank resetters that double as cart resetters. I will have these up on my site as I catch up. The trick is to unplug and then repower for the reset to occur. Also....my PCK3HD inkset is here and not listed on my site as yet...After over a year of my own testing and sampling. Something I now feel is at the top of its class. Having diverged from the Image Specialist fold, I had to make sure that any inks I have had to function properly and these really do.

As far as welds? The printer never puts enough pressure on the cart to cause bursting. However, I can see if you prime the carts using the vacuum created by a syringe, then you can damage a weld that was weak. On the 3800/3800 carts I have always advocated using the syringe without a vacuum to prime. Heck, the aftermarket 3800/3880 carts HAVE priming ports just for that! These carts are made in the Far East and no manufacturer will produce a "stronger" weld on a custom basis. There is an amount of energy that must be applied to the plastic film to bond to the frame. Yes, variances can occur, so some will be defective. Of the thousands of induction seals that we perform on bottles a similar weld some are defective and you won't know until it leaks. Can too much energy or welding t cause problems?...sure can. The first months of the T252 cartridge last year from the Far East flooded the world with welds that melted too much of the labyrinth causing blocking and then air not to enter and make these carts malfunction. I described this months ago....and yes, eventually it was fixed.

I'll also make a video this winter about how refillable carts actually work. Seems there is a lot of hogwash floating around about these and there are some fundamental things people should know from an engineering standpoint....of which I belong to that brotherhood...,,or personhood. These videos will be similar to the Canon ones I did. I'll explain the functions of the two valves etc. It will take the mysticism away from these things.

Given the choice, refilled OEMs are better but more work is entailed to get the best. I'll have both options.
 

Roy Sletcher

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Hi Mike,

Good to see you back on the PK forums with your inciteful observations.

Do I understand correctly that you will shortly have an Epson 3880 cartridge resetter THAT WORKS?

I have recently had miserable experiences trying to purchase one. Even when guaranteed by the seller there were problems. To date I have spent more on return postage than the cost of a resetter, and am currently taking a hiatus to lick my wounds on this issue.


Roy Sletcher
 

Umberto Gladys

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Some of the eBay sellers will guarantee a reset on the maintenance tank (assuming you have a second new tank to swap in and out as this is the prescribed way to reset a used unit). But none of the sellers will guarantee a reset on all 3800/3880 ink cartridges. I continue to have issues with LM, LK and LLK. None were ever taken below the 15% threshold. One was right out of the box.
 

mikling

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Well a small mess on my hands. I have been running the new inkset on my 3880 and using Joe's refill method for OEM carts. The ink leaked out from behind the plastic retention rings on a couple of them.

Joe, since you've taken these things apart, any idea why it might be doing so?

Roy, Yes, as best I can tell it appears to work based on another customer who is currently using it. I've not used the 3880 much as a lot of work has been going on with the Canon pigment machines and I also needed to "flush" out the P600 and R3000 to accomodate the new PCK3HD inkset. Can you believe on a R2880, even after printing about 8 full pages, a proper swap is NOT done. This caused me quite a bit of confusion. Quite a bit of ink "sticks" to the surfaces and takes a lot of flow to get it out.

Maintenance tank reset with a swap is reliable. The chip situation is trickier.
 

Roy Sletcher

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But none of the sellers will guarantee a reset on all 3800/3880 ink cartridges.

Actually several DO GUARANTEE a reset of the cartridge chips.

Unfortunately the GUARANTEE is good only for a refund, because so far the two I have purchased did not work as advertised. This was following messages the vendors sent assuring me they would work on the cartridge chips. I still have to pay the return postage, and in my case the total return postage to date has cost me more than the the cost of the resetter,

I am in contact with a third eBay vendor who assures me his will work, but I am somewhat leery given my recent experiences and costs.

rs
 

Roy Sletcher

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Actually several DO GUARANTEE a reset of the cartridge chips.

Unfortunately the GUARANTEE is good only for a refund, because so far the two I have purchased did not work as advertised. This was following messages the vendors sent assuring me they would work on the cartridge chips. I still have to pay the return postage, and in my case the total return postage to date has cost me more than the the cost of the resetter,

I am in contact with a third eBay vendor who assures me his will work, but I am somewhat leery given my recent experiences and costs.

rs

Mike,

Sorry to here about your recent problems. Guess that comes under the R&D budget.

Somewhat disconcerting to hear about the 3880 OEM cartridge leaks. Will be interesting to he hear Jose's opinion on that.

I am starting to really love my 3880 following a recent frenetic spate of printing. The ABW driver takes B&W to a new level for me.

I am probably 4-6 weeks from needing to start refilling on the 3880, and if you don't find a solutions or a cause of leaking OEM carts, AND I can't find a reliable resetter, will probably purchase your third party carts and start refilling them with Epson OEM ink.

This is more or less in line with the first advice you gave me when I purchased the 3880 around March of this year, and I am consequently assuming you figure this should be trouble free.

As always thanks for any advice and insight.

rs

PS - made this post public as others MAY find the subject matter useful.
 

jtoolman

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All of them! LOL
I have not had any leaking modified T58 carts yet.
How did you mod the carts, the lengthy way, dissassembling the valve unit and drilling or popping off the rear cap on just one corner?
The ink can not leak out if the poppet valve is properly sealing the exit point right behind the outer retainer ring. One side is flat ( the sealing end ) and it seals agains the gray rubber O shaped port seal. The other end is rounded and that faces towards the inside of the cart and bears against the valve spring.
If reverved my mistake, that is, if you disassembled the valve, then it would not seal and the cart would leak.
Another very possible reason is. you may have damaged the little "CROSS SECTIONED" support where the spring and poppet reside against inside the valve assembly.
If that is damaged, then the spring will not sit properly and not would provide the required pressure against the poppet valve and IT would not seal.
That is the only thing that keeps the ink from flowing out whether the cart is pressurised in the printer or even out side the printer and unpressurized.
There isn't really too much going on inside the valve body. It's a very simpole yet efficient way to creat a one way valve. I am not sure whether it even has an operational function during printing other than maybe preventing backing up of ink and thus succking air into the damper if there was a back up of ink.
But I have not expereinced that at all and it's been over a year I've been using these carts.

On the reseting side, all of a sudden about 6 months ago I've been have to reset the chips twice in a row or they will not be seen as full if I only do it once.

Joe
 
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