Lee Larson wrote: > From: leelarson at mac.com > Reply-To: macgroup at erdos.math.louisville.edu > Date: Tue, 7 Jan 2003 20:26:22 -0500 > To: macgroup at erdos.math.louisville.edu > Subject: Re: MacGroup: Epson cartridge contacts > > The Epson cartridges have a small circuit board in the ink cartridge > that has a few bytes of RAM. The RAM contains an estimate of the amount > of ink remaining in the cartridge. When a cartridge is inserted into > the printer, the RAM is read into the printer. As the cartridge is > used, the printer "guess"timates how much ink has been squirted, and > periodically writes a new estimate of the remaining ink to the RAM in > the cartridge.
This is the basis of my question about the contacts. The cartridges have no contacts to relay the information. But I see a graphic every time I print which shows the levels for all four colors. The levels start full and gradually go down. But, do they go down with time, or with ink use, or both? I haven't noticed. Sometimes I go weeks without printing anything. Maybe the Epson software is telling me that the cartridges are becoming empty when they are not, based on time. I haven't paid attention to that. If a RAM chip in the cartridge is guessing the ink levels based upon use, how does the information get out of the cartridge? I think you all care about this conundrum more than I do, (except for my desire not to throw away a half used cartridge). I have found it, and I leave it to you to sort it out as you wish. Not Looking For Trouble, David Dudine | The next meeting of the Louisville Computer Society will | be January 28. The LCS Web page is <http://www.kymac.org>.
