Discover something interesting about a resetter for the Epson Pro 3800

[pharmacist]

Today I received a resetter for my Epson Pro 3800 maintenance cartridge. At this moment there is no working alternative to reset the maintenance cartridge, accept for the Pro 3800 i-refill system: its advanced chip algorithm resets the maintenance cartridge too, but all the cartridges are set to 100 % full, even the cartridge is 25 % physically full.

This resetter resets the maintenance cartridge back to 100 %, but needs strangely enough a second maintenance tank to get rid of the memorized data of the previous maintenance cartridge. I had two maintenance cartridge, one at 21 % and one which I kept, believing it could be revived once again. So I reset the one at 21 % back to 100 % and then put the old empty (or full, depending from your point of view: it is full of ink, but the ink level is at 0 %) maintenance cartridge to get rid of the stored date of the previous (21 % full) maintenance cartridge. It gives an error code (because it is full), but the data from the previous maintenance cartridge has been removed. When I put this reset maintenance cartridge back, it says: 100 %

So it works and and I am happy .

I think it is a good idea to recycle the maintenance cartridge for environmental reasons and actually it has nothing to do with printing quality at all, so it is a good idea even for consumers of original OEM-cartridges. Less plastic is a nowadays a very important aspect for saving the environment and refilling cartridges is good way to achieve this and saves money.

There is something else I tried, because the resetter does indeed reset the Epson Pro 3800 maintenance cartridge: when you put the resetter over the chip it flashes several times red and then it turns green permanently, marking the chip has been reset.

Hmmm, maybe it also can reset the other chips on the ink cartridges of the Epson Pro 3800. Well it worked on my maintenance cartridge, so I tried an old magenta cartridge with the chip still on it and which is certainly empty (both physically and registered as empty by the printer). I put the chip resetter on the original Epson Pro 3800 magenta chip, it flashes a few times red and......it turns green !!! I could not believe it, because the resetter is said only to be able to reset the maintenance cartridge !!!

To be sure if the chip is reset back to 100 %, I put this empty cartridge back into my printer, closed the cover and wait a few seconds and the printer registered the magenta cartridge be 100 % full . I was amazed that a resetter, not specified for this purpose can actually reset the ink cartridges of the Epson Pro 3800

For years the engineers has been trying to reset the original Epson Pro 3800 chips and till now, none was able to do this. Either using tuning chips like the present refill cartridges I am using now, which acts like a bridge chip between the printer and the original Epson chip or with control chips like the Inkrepublic's Pro 3800 -refill system. No current Large Format Printer (LPF) resetter for the Epson Pro series was able to reset the Epson Pro 3800. Before I got my Epson Pro 3800 refillable cartridges I tried several resetters to experiment if the chips can be reset and none was able to do so.

 

[websnail]

Interesting... specifically because it handles the maintenance cartridge but good news about the other part too...

I wonder if the cartridge chips have to be reset before a certain point though...

Either way, could you email me the resetter provider... Will be useful if someone asks me for a recommendation in the future.

 

[pharmacist]

Hi Websnail,

The cartridge(s) I tried to reset are all registered low or empty by the printer prior before I tried to reset them and all have been reset succesfully to 100 % full. The only strange behaviour is the maintenance cartridge: when you reset this cartridge and put it back the printer will tell that you are using a none genuine cartridge and is asking if you want to proceed and that Epson can void your guarantee, blablabla..... Therefore you have to insert a second maintenance cartridge into the printer to get erase the data of the previous cartridge and when you put the first reset cartridge back, the message has gone.

I think the major advantage is that cartridge manufacturer can now make cheaper and better refillable cartridges without the need of a tuning chip: just attach the original empty chip on these cartridges, reset and print !!!

Sadly enough it is almost impossible to refill the original Epson Pro 3800 cartridges, because of the one-way valve that do not allow ink to injected into the ink bag. Therefore I would be happy if someone has a special syringe that could overcome this one-way valve.....

 

[websnail]

The cartridge(s) I tried to reset are all registered low or empty by the printer prior before I tried to reset them and all have been reset succesfully to 100 % full. The only strange behaviour is the maintenance cartridge: when you reset this cartridge and put it back the printer will tell that you are using a none genuine cartridge and is asking if you want to proceed and that Epson can void your guarantee, blablabla..... Therefore you have to insert a second maintenance cartridge into the printer to get erase the data of the previous cartridge and when you put the first reset cartridge back, the message has gone.

Ah I see... So they anticipated people actually resetting their maintenance cart with a simple, single "previous chip" memory. Nice of them to be so profit minded.. :/

I think the major advantage is that cartridge manufacturer can now make cheaper and better refillable cartridges without the need of a tuning chip: just attach the original empty chip on these cartridges, reset and print !!!

Sadly enough it is almost impossible to refill the original Epson Pro 3800 cartridges, because of the one-way valve that do not allow ink to injected into the ink bag. Therefore I would be happy if someone has a special syringe that could overcome this one-way valve.....

I think you'll find that it has a a non-return/check valve which no special syringe will be able to resolve... As with all things it's often better to just dump the stupid Epson (over-engineered to protect the profits) cartridge and get a 3rd party one with your chips on... Gotta be better than bashing your head against a brick wall IMHO

 

[pharmacist]

For those interested in my latest youtube video (also in HD quality):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOzQYXIGIG0

Sorry for the clumsy try at the end making me to redo the reset on the second cartridge.

 

[34Ford]

Interesting.
I have seen these advertised for well over 200 US Dollars and wondered why someone hasn't opened up one of these up and made cheap copies or posted the schematics.
A battery inside?

 

[avpman]

Hi,

I am interested in where I can buy a resetter for the 3800 waste tank. Can you tell me where you bought yous (the blue one)?

Thanks!