Epson R380: How do I refill cartridges?

[Caaw]

Hi,

First of all... great forum.

Does anyone have any experience refilling the T07 series epson cartridges?

I purchased some ink and a chip resetter but I can't seem to figure out how to refill the cartridge.

Total newbie at this but please help!

The refill kit came with rubber plugs. The hole in the cartridge that the plugs fit into seems to be the place that I'm supposed to puncture and fill... but when I use the hole my ink enters the cartridge and quickly drips right out of the top, beneath the factory label. So I guess i'm filling the wrong hole...

Could anyone tell me what to do / point me to a tutorial? I can't seem to find anything useful, or I'm too dense to see whats right in front of me...

Thanks for any help,
Ben

Epson R380
T07xx series Ink Cartridges

 

[lolopr1]

Hi,

First of all... great forum.

Does anyone have any experience refilling the T07 series epson cartridges?

I purchased some ink and a chip resetter but I can't seem to figure out how to refill the cartridge.

Total newbie at this but please help!

The refill kit came with rubber plugs. The hole in the cartridge that the plugs fit into seems to be the place that I'm supposed to puncture and fill... but when I use the hole my ink enters the cartridge and quickly drips right out of the top, beneath the factory label. So I guess i'm filling the wrong hole...

Could anyone tell me what to do / point me to a tutorial? I can't seem to find anything useful, or I'm too dense to see whats right in front of me...

Thanks for any help,
Ben

Epson R380
T07xx series Ink Cartridges

Hi, I will like to welcome you to this great forum. Unfortunately a chip resetter for the Epson R260/R380 & R580 is not available at this time, the good news is that you can find refillable cartridges on ebay for these printers. Here is the cheapest seller on ebay.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...MEWA:IT&viewitem=&item=140100626675&rd=1&rd=1

Good luck

 

[Caaw]

Appreciate the quick reply and the information.

You confirmed the little suspicion I had growing in my mind --- I had stumbled onto those refillable carts while snooping around and they seemed to be the way to go. er. Better than what I was doing, at any rate!

And just for the record: I bought the R380 to print on DVDs and it does a great job at it (especially when printing on Taiyo-Yuden media, mm)... but this business with their ink carts really makes me hate Epson.

Thanks again!
-Ben

 

[InkMon]

I chose an Epson for two reasons their colour reproduction and the fact that they can produce photos with 4 colours that takes up to 6 on others also my model scans transparencies. But this thread is about faulty cartridges. I have 4 carts that I refill and a chip resetter does work and The monitor although not accurate does not allow me to run out of ink.

If you choose to use a alternative supplier for either ink or carts then go for the best. I would surgest before you stuff your printer you invest in a set of original carts and do a thorough clean then print a few photos that exercises just about all of the nozzles.

Just printing out single colours allows the printer to set the nozzles for one type of output. a few different photos exercises the nozzles to a greater degree. I have had to restart carts for many years and I have used cartridges over and over again. They are made of tough plastic with copper terminals and I suspect the Epson has ceramic nozzles so give them a good clean. If they do not work whats to loose.

 

[mikling]

To illuminate a little on what InkMon has stated.

The newest Epson printers utilize a different chip layout on their cartridges. For some reason, no chip resetters are available for this cartridge at this time. Either the chips are not resettable like the Canons or the manufacturers have not bothered to make one, despite there being auto-reset chips for this family of cartridges. So the method of communication and protocol is known so I will guess that the chips on the original are a one time use. But this is a guess.

For readers of this thread, the worst thing for an Epson printer is ingestion of air into the printhead. Numerous claims of epson clogging are often but not always this air in the nozzles scenario. The symptoms are similar... no printing or missing colors or streaky colors. Refilable cartridges that are simply filled and popped into the printer will require that the printer "suck" ink through the head to prime it. In this process, it will have to suck the air that is in the passages of the cartridge into the printhead. If you are unlucky, some air will get stuck in the printhead and require multiple head cleanings to clear. This will waste much ink. Once the refillable cartridge is primed and air removed from the passages, one should not let them go empty or else the whole prime routine is repeated and ink is wasted again. The best way to prime any cartridge is by a deep vacuum ( 25+ inches Hg) just like all the OEM manufacturers do.

 

[InkMon]

Funny you mentioned vacuum, My supplier "Inkbank" sent me a vacuum syringe it has an internal cylinder. It is supposed to fill all the cracks and crannies in my Epson's ink tanks. I have found that a thin needle injecting the ink very very slowly avoids bubbles and fills the cartridge just the same.

One point of interest, I did try plugs to seal the hole but now use hotmelt which works great. I wrap the filled and reset spare cart in tissue with the hole down to detect leaks.

Epson shot itself in the foot with my RX530, the tank has a self sealing valve as does the print head for each colour and the hype is that it prevents air blockages. Add to that that the Epson monitor works on refilled carts.

Reports say that a comparable Canon has superior speed and in the colour spectrum the photo version is slightly better for print quality. but that is with two lite colours plus the pigment black.

My only comparison is old photo's taken with my film based Pentax SLR and the Epson's prints are nearly as good.

A printer using a digital input seems to loose depth of field, unless you play with a paint program.

Hmmm! there I go again rambling as usual

Terry

 

[ustilago]

The newest Epson cartridges that I have seen (69x series IIRC) have a 9 pad interface. Our 7 pin Epson chip resetter does not work with these cartridges.

 

[firegurl08]

I know where you can get the best epson instructions for your ink refill process i believe its called inkreloaded.com