Digital BW, The Print

----- Original Message -----
From: "Austin Franklin" <darkroom@...>
To: <DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Sunday, August 25, 2002 6:18 PM
Subject: RE: [Digital BW] Re: Epson 3000 opinions


> Ernst,
>
> > I don't believe the 3000 has direct access to the ink levels...though
the
> > hardware seems to support it...there is a lever that goes into the
> > cartridges, and I believe it does have some "idea" as to the link
> > level...much less when it believes it's out.  The 1160 etc. actually
count
> > the number of ink drops they print...so that's done in firmware, not by
> > actually measuring the ink.
>
> > > The plastic tab that protrudes from the 3000 cart when the ink
> > > pouche inside
> > > gets empty has to my knowledge no relation to ink status in a driver
> menu.
>
> I don't remember seeing any "ink status" in the driver menu on W2k for the
> 3000...is there?

There is  an "ink status" in the utility part of the W98 driver. Counting is
done in the printer itself, the results are transferred to the driver at
every start up sequence. Can't check it for the W2000 driver as it isn't
installed there but the 9000 has it in the W2000 driver as well.

>
> > > It only is used as a definite signal 'no ink left' and will not allow
> any
> > > printing from that cart then.
>
> There are actually two sensors for each cartridge, a "cartridge present"
and
> an "ink out".  I believe you probably can't print with no cartridge
present,
> but I haven't tried that, but you certainly CAN print when the ink out
light
> is on.  There can be quite a bit of ink left when the ink out light is on.

Right, two sensors apart from one another. One that is triggered by the cart
itself to say the cart is in, the other by the plastic tab when the cart
gets empty. Usually then about 20 ml remains in the cart. I may be wrong on
the observation that the printer stops when the light goes on, I'm
interpreting the 9000 behaviour as being the same as the 3000's.
>
> > On all the Epson inkjets ink use is
> > counted by
> > fired droplets in the printers
> > software. That information is kept in the firmware and/or on the cart
chip
> > when available.
>
> I do not believe the 3000 counts droplets, and as I said above, I know the
> 1160, 1270 etc. does.  The only counting I am aware of in the 3000 is
> cleaning cycles, where the reservoir pad becomes ink-saturated, and
requires
> replacing.

The 3000, 9000, 10000, 9600 etc etc all count droplets. Whether that is done
accurately is another matter.
The 9000 service signals for heads, waste ink pad etc are based on it as
well. I think all ink monitoring in the driver is based on droplet counts,
will check the 3000 service manual for it (not sure I got that one but I
have all
the SMs from 5 to 10K).

Ernst