Digital BW, The Print

Richard,

>Could you describe what makes certain cartridges "refill-friendly?" 
>Is this related to "poppets" you mentioned in another post? 
>(And what are they?)

Take a look at
http://www.inksupply.com/index.cfm?source=html/c82refill.html and
http://www.inksupply.com/index.cfm?source=html/c84refill.html.

(Where the C86 picture says to drill a hole, they are now pre-drilled, and
there are little rubber "corks" that plug the hole until re-fill time.)

To fill or re-fill these carts, all one does is pull the cork, squirt 13 cc
of ink into the sponge-free reservoir, stick the cork back in, and re-set
the chip.  This is really easy and cheap.  So far it is working extremely
well with the C86 I'm using.  I don't know how long the carts will last, but
the system is essentially a CFS without the tubes.  The carts might last a
year or more.

(The latest version of Re-setter SK168 -- that turns from red to green -- is
the recommended resetter.  It has a plastic guide that needs slight
modification at least for the C86 carts -- 1 mm cardboard on the base to
raise the cart, 5 mm sawed off the side of the guide to allow for a bulge
the new carts have.  I've sent my recommendations to MIS.  With those
modifications, it has successfully reset 100% of the time with the C86.)

The poppet valve is similar to what Epson has had for some time, but the
third party carts have lacked the better outlet valve.  It's a spring valve
as opposed to the older simple rubber gasket.  It allows me to, for example,
switch between Eboni matte K and PK at will, with perfect nozzle checks
right off the bat.  Interchanging carts now becomes practical, it appears.
I just tape the outlet of the cart that has been removed.

So, these 2 advances, which affect the C86 carts (C84 included) and 2200
carts (C82 included), make life for these desktop units much easier and
cheaper.  I never liked the old re-filling, and I do not recommend bottom
filling because it puts any junk in the ink on the wrong side of the
sponge/filter.  With these new carts the built-in filters will always be
able to do their job, which might allow our desktop units to live longer.
 
Paul
www.PaulRoark.com 


__________________________________

> From: Paul Roark [mailto:paul.roark@...] 
> Subject: comparison hue of piezotone selen - UT-FSN
> 
[big snip]
> 
> The per-print ink costs when refilling the "refill-friendly" 
> carts with MIS UT ink is extremely low.  I do not recommend 
> bottom filling/re-filling of older desktop carts, but I find 
> my 7500 carts and the newest C86 and 2200 carts to be 
> extremely easy to refill.