HP invented the smart chip technology. Epson adopted it. Buy a new HP
printer and it is that same story. The printer is cheap, the refills
are expensive.
Jerry
On Thursday, January 2, 2003, at 02:17 AM, Tony LaFemina wrote:
> 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>.
>
>
>
| The next meeting of the Louisville Computer Society will
| be January 28. The LCS Web page is <http://www.kymac.org>.
