In light of what you're telling me Ward, all I can say is, My condolences to anyone who owns an Epson. Like I said before. What's the big deal if the ink runs out? An H-P printer will drop lines, and that's it. It sounds like the good engineers at Epson have seen one-too-many James Bond movies. For the owner's sake, I hope the printer don't self-destruct if the cartridge is out of ink and it tries to print.
Getting back to monitoring the fluid level in a cartridge, I can't see it being anything but time. Otherwise, if it had some way of viewing the level in the cartridge, it will always be able to return accurate readings to the printer when properly seated, no matter what you do with the cartridge. My first printer had fixed rollers for paper advance. I think the maximum paper weight allowed was something like 35, and I eventually destroyed them because I was pushing heavy stock through it for printing business cards and invitations. After a while, 20 weight paper would skew going through. I managed to temporarily fix the rollers by cleaning the paper dust off of them. That printer lasted 6 years in spite of my abuse. The printer I have now has spring-loaded rollers (I think), because it takes just about any weight stock. To me that was a change for the better. From what you're telling me, the older Epsons didnt have all that electronics on their cartridges, and the newer ones do. It sounds to me like you could yank the cartridge out of an old Epson without creating any problems, but now you can't. To me that sounds like a change for the worse. For now, I'll stick with H-P. Tony Ward Oldham wrote: > Tony, > > There really isn't much baffling at all. It's very cut and dried. > > You will find two basic categories of printers that Epson has produced > over the years; those with ink cartridges fitted with electronic > sensors and those that are not. Any Epson printer of a somewhat > recent vintage will have ink cartridges fitted with electronics (the > contacts are visible on the outside of the cartridge). The purpose is > as Jerry described. (it sounded plausible to me!) > > The printer makes one basic assumption about an ink cartridge when it > is inserted. it assumes it is new and full. Premature removal and > reinsertion will discombobulate its proper operation and its ability > to correctly read the volume of the remaining ink. But it isn't just a > simple problem of the cartridge relaying incorrect information about > current ink levels. Also remember that when a cartridge hits empty, > the printer will refuse to print period. So there's more to the > electronics built into the cartridge than even what I'm relating to > you. (this is my best attempt in layman's terms). Rest assured, > there is nothing about these cartridge sensors that is based on time. > > Now you want to discuss an interesting manufacturing philosophy? > Epson's print heads are built into the printer. HP's are built into > the cartridge. Which is the best approach? Throw that one out to the > group. > > Ward Oldham, MacDude > MacTown > 1041 Bardstown Road > Louisville, KY 40204 > 502-485-1243 > ward at mactown.us > > > > > > On Wednesday, January 1, 2003, at 10:24 PM, Tony LaFemina wrote: > >> Sorry I took so long to respond to this Jerry, but the more you guys >> tell me about Epson printers, the more baffling it gets. I don't know >> why anyone would be concerned about when the printer runs out of ink. >> The worst that could happen is a few sheets of paper have to be >> thrown out if the ink is used up before a run is completed. (At least >> that's what I'm thinking). But, I have a sneaking suspicion there's >> more to it than that. >> >> The thing that bothers me is, if what you say is true, then their >> system for determining fluid levels is probably based on time rather >> than actually measuring fluid levels. If that's the case, they'd do >> better to eliminate the system and reduce the price of their printers. >> >> Tony >> >> Jerry Yeager wrote: >> >>> You can take the cartridges out prematurely, but you generally want >>> to avoid doing that. Epson uses the electromechanical approach to >>> squeezing the ink out. So each time the cartridges are replaced the >>> new ones have to be electrostatic-ally charged. This wastes ink. In >>> addition, with the old versions of OS-X, printer communications >>> were, shall we say a bit tenuous, so sometimes the printer would not >>> report remaining ink levels correctly (this tended to be true with >>> most ink-jet printers), which sometimes would make an old, used >>> cartridge look full when it was on its last legs. >>> >>> Jerry >>> >>> p.s. If you were using this for photos, check into the 2200. It is >>> really good. >>> >>> On Saturday, December 28, 2002, at 09:44 PM, Tony LaFemina wrote: >>> >>>> Bill Rising wrote: >>>> >>>>> On 12/28/2002 1:09, Tony LaFemina wrote >>>>> >>>>> [snip...] >>>>> >>>>>> Have you tried replacing the cartridges? >>>>>> >>>>> >>>>> I've wanted to avoid that, because epson makes all sorts of dire >>>>> warnings stating that taking a cartridge out makes it unusable >>>>> forever (even if it is still pretty full, as the ones in my >>>>> printer are). So... this'll be the very last step, after I've >>>>> tried everything else. >>>>> >>>>> Bill >>>>> >>>>> >>>> Thanks for that bit of information Bill. I've only had 2 H-P >>>> printers, and am not used to that kind of stupidity. Are you >>>> allowed to at least wiggle them to maybe try to reseat them? I'm >>>> not familiar with Epson's setup, but couldn't there be a condition >>>> where the cartridges aren't seated properly? It sounds like these >>>> guys went out of their way to come up with that one. >>>> >>>> I wish you the best. >>>> >>>> -- >>>> Tony LaFemina >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> >> -- Tony LaFemina Major in Layout & Design Techniques Minor in Software Fundamentals http://hometown.aol.com/visitmacland/index.html mailto:remacs at optonline.net | The next meeting of the Louisville Computer Society will | be January 28. The LCS Web page is <http://www.kymac.org>.
