Canon chipped cartridges - can anyone confirm or deny this?!

[fotofreek]

We don't know if the prism is responsible for telling the chip that the cart is low or out of ink or if the chip keeps some sort of count on ink used. If the prism signals the printer which in turn sets the chip on the cart to show low or empty then the solution to the whole chipped cart issue is to visually check ink levels and refill before the ink gets down to the level where it exposes the prism. Anyone out there who has just bought a chipped cart Canon and intends to refill? Try refilling when any cart gets down to less then half full and see if you ever get the ink low or out signal. You won't if the chip relies on the prism to reset to a "dead soldier."

 

[websnail]

We don't know if the prism is responsible for telling the chip that the cart is low or out of ink or if the chip keeps some sort of count on ink used. If the prism signals the printer which in turn sets the chip on the cart to show low or empty then the solution to the whole chipped cart issue is to visually check ink levels and refill before the ink gets down to the level where it exposes the prism. Anyone out there who has just bought a chipped cart Canon and intends to refill? Try refilling when any cart gets down to less then half full and see if you ever get the ink low or out signal. You won't if the chip relies on the prism to reset to a "dead soldier."

I can confirm that the prism is definitely involved somewhere in the process because of the following observed behaviour.

1. The prism is still part of the design (and yet they've changed the cartridge design itself) so it must have a function
2. The cartridge will trigger on an empty cartridge (if it's emptied manually)
3. The printer will not allow you to continue to print if the cartridge is actually empty so if you refill, it then changes its mind and displays the 3 warnings re: warranty, etc.. The only way it could know you've refilled is via a sensor which the prism is and I refer back to point #1.

Of course I could actually be wrong and they've left it in as a false flag but I'd lay a $100 bet that Canon aren't that stupid.. it's there for a reason.

As to whether you can disable it.. I haven't tried yet but it's on the cards.. That wouldn't stop the chip calculating the nozzle firings and declaring the cartridge "empty" anyway as I've found with my CIS kit (ie: carts all full but being declared empty after a certain amount of work).



What is completely unknown is how the printer interprets different situations and reacts.. At present it's apparent that Canon have done something that uses the Prism and chip in a way to make refilling very difficult if not impossible over the long term but as Osage pointed out recently it all comes down to applying inputs (scenarios) and seeing how the printers react to understand how to circumnavigate their little tricks.

 

[fotofreek]

My point is that if no cart was permitted to have the ink in the reservoir area get down to the level of the prism and the user would refill way before the prism was exposed, would the chip get the message that the ink was low or out? If the chip relies on the original prism/LED/sensor system to signal that the ink is low then this would prevent the chip from knowing that the cart was used until 75% empty and refilled. Just a hypothesis to test. This would require that a person who has the intention to refill never let any cart get emptied to the point where the prism is exposed.

 

[headphonesman]

This would require that a person who has the intention to refill never let any cart get emptied to the point where the prism is exposed.


I tried this several weeks ago ............I started to refill all the carts (except the large black).........and started to run a few prints....most a4 colour prints..........and a test each day...........carts have never been allowed to go below half........currently I have a usage showing in INK status window that the cyan and the magenta are very low .........they are also flashing slowly.....the others are steady.......the registry reading says that they are level 10..... the others are 100 , except a black which is 40. ALL the carts are 4/5 full and always have been. I can only presume the firing count has been faithfully recorded by the chip.
As regards the prism.......if i took a syringe to the Magenta and sucked all the ink OUT.......I wonder what would happen ?...........I may try that sometime.....but according to latest theories the prism would kick in and say you are empty.......at least i hope it would.

 

[websnail]

Well my direct experience with the iP4200 is with two CIS systems I build myself.

The cartridges were at least 75% full when I converted them and at no point (with the exception below) has the ink ever gone below 50% in the actual cartridges themselves but in every case the ink level indicated in the status monitor has dropped gradually over time until each has been declared empty.. doubtless because the chip is kicking in.

I seem to remember that on one of the printers I did actually let the ink run out naturally because I wanted to get a look at the then unquoted error message it came up with. I remember distinctly wondering why the damned thing wasn't letting me continue printing when it dawned on me that I hadn't refilled the cart with any new ink. That was when I hypothesised that the prism was still very much in the loop. Sure enough as soon as I put a few CC's of ink into the cartridge, up popped the warranty warning and after warning #3 I was able to continue printing.

That whole routine convinced me that prism was alive, well and very much involved...

Since then I've had one of the ip4200's "run out of ink" (well only in the printers/chips world) and declare dire warnings of hellfire and brimstone 5 times before finally shutting up and allowing me to print. The only thing I've done to it since is remove and re-prime the cartridges (with the power off) so that I could be sure they wouldn't run out and *touch wood* they haven't stopped or error'd in any way since..

I guess you could say that a CIS is going to be the perfect way to see if refilling to ensure a constant 50% or more ink level actually works or is still liable to some kind of time or usage triggered lock up... We'll see..