David Dudine wrote: >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 > > This discussion reminded me of a situation I had with my first printer. I was doing a big job that required a lot of yellow. When I got to the point I couldn't print the color properly, I used the cartridge for printing text documents in blue rather than waste the black ink, since they were only for my personal use. I'm wondering if this new setup will allow anyone to do that kind of stuff, or would it leave you stranded with a near full level of one or possibly two colors. It don't sound too good for the environment, but it does sound promising for a company who pops the tops and recycles the ink that was already bought and paid for. Sounds similar to a company who polutes a river, and then gets paid to clean it up. Presumably under a different name, of course.
-- 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>.
