Epson XP-600 and 800 series

[sandman55]

Thanks

 

[mikling]

The refill ink enters into the cartridge chamber through a small hole. The speed of the ink re entering the chamber is very high. This will promote mixing. I have refilled these cartridges possibly to over two years worth of normal useage and there is no problem with sedimentation. The only issue is what I have noted with physical wear and I have outlined how to best prevent or minimize this from happening.
It is a straight forward simple printer to refill. Change chips...simple mechanical process. Squeeze ink back onto the cartridge and it gulps it back readily. Put cartridge back into printer. Back in business. No drilling, no plugs. No special knowledge.

It's more complicated to drive to the store and purchase a new cartridge really. Literally child's play..but these days, childrens' games are more complicated actually.

 

[sandman55]

Would black dye mix with black pigment using the dribble method or is that asking for trouble?

 

[mikling]

If the T273 is empty, the dye will mix enough not to incur problems.
Do note that the pigment output produces much sharper text and is archival. Again you would not purchase this series for a ton of text. You can do better with the T127 based models.

 

[Smile]

So I did not get it, the refilling is as easy as stated in the start of this thread or you can locked out by not refilling early and thats major problem now?

Also how much ink do color / black ink carts have, on CLI-8 thats about 13ml.
I can get xp600 for the same amount as printhead for Canon 6700D, would it be worth it?
Or I should get P50 with 6inks?

I think L series printer would best option, more expensive but with factory CIS, and use can use any inks you like, no chips, reseters etc. (L300 is only a bit more than xp600)
I heard they removed the need to enter codes from bottles.

P.S. I have a spare 6700D with Pro9000 and tons of CLI-8 carts so the EPSON would be like comminting treason for me.

P.P.S would using these would be really bad?
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Au-Refil...rinter_Accessories&hash=item232cfa1436&_uhb=1

 

[rjgeisler]

If you allow an OEM cartridge to get to the point where it's sucking all of the ink out of the feeder section directly above the outlets, you will quickly find yourself with an air lock type problem. In the Pigment black this presented itself first on the non-chipped/blank/extension side of the cartridge before my attempts to resolve introduced air into the other side as well (Yay, me!... Not! )

I'm in the process of trying a few things to try and remove the air and re-establish the ink in the feeder section but it's going to be interesting to say the least!

I am having some issues refilling the T273 BK cartridge.

It will not fill, at all, using the dribble method. It draws in a little ink (a few drops) but not much. Although the Epson chip indicated about 1/3 ink was remaining I think it actually sucked the cartridge dry.

So, to fill it, I decided to drill the tank in the dummy side of the cartridge following mikling's procedure. That worked but it's still on the light side at just over 38 grams. Still not to XL capacity. I believe that is the weight of the Standard Capacity?

It appears that the mystery valve that opens when the cart is near empty, opened and did not close. When I tried to fill the cart, it would not draw in any ink. After I filled from the hole drilled in the tank, I had a small amount of ink leak from the air vent on the side of the cart. Hopefully that valve closes, although I am not sure it even matters? Printing just fine!

It took a few cleaning cycles to prim the BK cartridge. I think the printer knows when it is sucking air and not ink!
At this rate my bit bucket will be filled in no time!

Another issue is that the ARC's will not reset. I am still not sure what is happening yet!
The three color carts are all stuck at 50%, PBK is down to about 30% and the BK is at 10% or less and none of them reset.

I have a Epson XP-800 with firmware version: MB17D9 13.45

 

[websnail]

I've held off from posting on this topic as I haven't tested my theory on this yet but I strongly suspect that the original premise regarding refilling the OEM cartridges may actually be a lost cause or a blind alley we've stumbled down.

While it is indeed possible with the dye ink cartridges and will probably work out well with the 750 and 850 models, the pigment black situation is a pain in the *ss. CIS systems are undoubtedly an issue but compatible cartridges are not appearing to hit the same issues so I've started looking at refillable cartridges.


With regard to the current situation you have, it sounds distinctly like the cartridge has quite a bit of air in it and quite possibly into the outlet segment. That's the scenario I was getting into and unfortunately, while my situation was considerably worse (deliberately) such an air lock may well be causing you problems with ink flow.

If I'm right, you could be wasting your time with the cartridge you are having issues with and it may be time to consider a refillable as an alternative, or a new cartridge.


As I said, I'm looking at the refillables as an alternative option, probably this Thursday but priorities have a habit of re-arranging so we'll see. I'll update here when I have more information either way.

 

[rjgeisler]

With regard to the current situation you have, it sounds distinctly like the cartridge has quite a bit of air in it and quite possibly into the outlet segment. That's the scenario I was getting into and unfortunately, while my situation was considerably worse (deliberately) such an air lock may well be causing you problems with ink flow.

If I'm right, you could be wasting your time with the cartridge you are having issues with and it may be time to consider a refillable as an alternative, or a new cartridge.

I am certain you are correct. The air in the cartridge was preventing me from filling it using the dribble method. I was able to fill it! It still had a great deal of air in it and only filled as a standard capacity cartridge. It also took a few cleaning cycles to get it to print clean.

I am not sure if I will have the same problem again since I have not tried to refill again.

My problem now is finding a set of standard or XL chips that I can use with a chip resetter. Preferably without buying a set of OEM cartridges!

 

[websnail]

Sorry to skip over your latest post @rjgeisler but I've done some testing today using a set of refillable cartridges and... "Oh dear!" springs to mind.

The refillables are incredibly poorly regulated for ink flow, with the sponge allowing the ink to all but pour out so they're really not much good as ink, in some instances, can just drain. As a result they are more than a little prone to leaking which means blobs all over the printouts and more besides.

That said though, the use of the Pigment black refillable cart might help avoid the refill and reset problem you get with the OEM's and the XL ARC as the prism doesn't even exist in the refillable cart.

I'm testing that theory out now but it really is a toss up as to which option is the lesser evil.


So to summarise, it looks like the OEM Dye ink cartridges with chip swaps are your best options for the dye inks and the refillable cart for the Pigment black might be a workaround to the issues with the chip not resetting when used with an OEM XL cart.


But, that doesn't deal with any Firmware upgrades removing any chip compatibility so it could well be back to the drawing board.

 

[rjgeisler]

I have noted some interesting behavior!

First, I got the QE-888 Chip Resetter and the Engineer in me just had to try this on the 273i cartridges. I tried the BK (Pigment Black) and much to my surprise, it worked! I then tried it on the other four 273i cartridges and it did not work. I wanted to see if it truly reset the BK cartridge so I plugged it into the printer and it was reset.

When I plugged it in, it identified as a 273/273XL and gave me the disclaimer about using non OEM ink but after it initialized, it ID's as a 273i.

Something else happen when I plugged in that cartridge. My ARC's, which were totally locked up and would not show any level change at all, began to function.

I do not use a huge amount of ink as a general rule so it will take a while to see if the ARC's reset.

The QE-888 Resetter has 7 pins and this lines up with the 4 pins on the top row and the center 3 pins on the row with 5 pins. OK, what are the other 2 pins?