Epson Stylus Photo 2100

  • Thread starter Thread starter JGS
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JGS

Hi,

I use an Epson 2100 Stylus Photo printer. Great images but I get warning
lights on the printer for low ink volume for one or two of the seven inks.
On removing the cartridge it appears that there is plenty of ink left. This
could be a cynical comment but are Epson just making extra bucks on
cartridges and thus misleading me? or is there a good reason for this.

I had a Canon printer prior to this and this was by far more economical than
the 2100. Removing reported empty cartridges revealed that they really were
empty!!

Any thoughts appreciated.

Regards

JGS
 
JGS said:
Hi,

I use an Epson 2100 Stylus Photo printer. Great images but I get warning
lights on the printer for low ink volume for one or two of the seven inks.
On removing the cartridge it appears that there is plenty of ink left. This
could be a cynical comment but are Epson just making extra bucks on
cartridges and thus misleading me? or is there a good reason for this.
Click to expand...

I have the same printer and also get great images.

The heads on this model are built into the printer not the cart so if they
get blocked or dry out when the ink runs out you have a big problem. That's
one reason Epson don't want you to run out of ink. However you don't HAVE to
change the cart when the low ink warning appears - you can wait until the
status monitor tells you it's empty and refuses to print - but even then
there seems to be ink left in the cart.

Note: The cart doesn't actually have a level sensor in it - the printer
takes a guess based on the amount of ink it thinks it's printed since the
cart was changed - at least that's my understanding.

The main thing is....never leave a cart out and go on holiday.

Colin
 
Canon and Epson use different methods of determining how much ink is in
the cartridge. Canon uses an optical sensor which actually determines
when the cartridges is out of ink.

Epson uses a microchip which is written to each time you turn the
printer off. The system monitors the approximate ink usage with each
ink cleaning, printing, etc, and once the numbers indicate the cartridge
is near empty, it write the chip as near empty, and then empty.

The flashing light is to warn you that you will be needing to replace
the cartridge soon, but you probably do not want t o actually remove the
cartridge to replace it until printer stops working, at which pint you
need to replace it with a new one. Usually that process does not harm
any print that is in the midst of being printed, so you can just
continue printing after replacement.

It is true that Epson is quite conservative in their "empty". In part,
it is to protect the head from getting an air lock, which can occur if
the ink were to run out in the cartridge. As much as 10% of the ink can
be left in the cartridge when it reads empty.

Some people collect this ink and add it to that of other cartridges to
use it up. To do so you will need a chip resetter (either in hardware
or software) to reset the microchip on the cartridge to read full.

I don't their is much doubt that Epson considers ink sales a major
profit maker and that as such they use designs that hinder refilling and
use up ink. It appears Canon is more concerned with sale of their
printers than their inks.

Art
 
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