Digital BW, The Print

Here are a couple of points that may help those of us using self-
resetting chips.

1) There are two types of self-resetting chips - those that reset 
when you cycle the power (usually the oulder type) and those that 
reset themselves when they go below a certain level.  If you have the 
later type, disable the Espon status monitor or else you printer may 
stop printing when the INDICATED levels get too low.  Disabling the 
Epson monitor will allow you to print throught the low level 
indication until the chip resets itself.

2) You cannot mix OEM, self-resetting, or manual reset chips.  All 
chips installed should be the same type.  The printer will usually 
report a bad cartridge or "cannot recognize cartridge" message if 
chips are mixed.

3) Because self-resettng chips reset themselves, you never need to 
remove the cartridge from the printer and risk getting air in the 
jets.  Just refill the carts in the printer.  This is the biggest 
reason to use this type of chip.  I had more problems with air in the 
R1800's jets than the 1280, C84, and C86 I also have owned.  By not 
having to remove the carts, the problems went away.  However, you 
need to keep track of how many pages yu've printed and refill before 
the carts go dry.  That is the down side.  Once you've done it a 
couple of times, you get used to it and it's no big deal.  In fact, 
it's faster than refilling and reinstalling carts unless you keep 
extras on hand.  But if you remove and reinstall, you risk getting 
air in the jets...

4)  The Espon Status program is disabled as follows from the driver 
preferences window: from the Maintanence tab, click "Speed and 
Progress", then check the "Disable Epson Monitor 3" box.

My source of information is Ross Hardy at InkJetCarts.us who is very 
helpful.  They are also a good source of refillable carts and ink.  
They sell Image Specialists inks.  Ross claims (and my experience 
verifies) they are interchangable with Epson and MIS inks.  I use the 
Image Specialist R1800 matte black interchangeably with Eboni black 
with no mixing problems.  As far as the carts go, I have not found 
any source that ships 100% good refillable carts for the R1800.  
Considering they all come from the same place, I am not surprized.  
After all, consider baby food, pet food, children's toys, etc.  The 
problem is not who sells them.  I must say, MIS's carts for the R1800 
seem to be the most robust of any I've seen.