QTR-Quadtone RIP

I won't go into the hours and ink it took to track this down, but here's a quick tip for 3800 users: when replacing carts, instead of enjoying the satisfying "snap" of pressing the release lever, and watching the cart pop out, my own experience suggest that one should instead press the cart in lightly, and then release the lever.

Here's what happened to me, and of course, YMMV.

I installed a set of refillable carts in a 3800 that had only 1300-ish prints run thru it. I bought the carts and the printer new, and I'd guess I'd replaced the yellow cart 2 or three times with OEM carts before moving to Piezography and its refillables.

Popped in the Piezo carts and got an error saying that the last three carts were not inserted.
So I did a one at a time test, replacing OEM with refillable. LM and LC worked fine, but as soon as I replaced the OEM Yellow with its refillable counterpart, the printer showed LM, LC and Y as all missing!

Putting back the OEM Yellow, and all three indicated good.  Something specific to the Yellow refillable cart.

Skipping several hours of trial-and-error, I finally noticed this: as I was inserting the refillable Yellow, and watching the 3800 printer display, I saw an indication of "good" (all carts recognized) -> as long as I was pressing in on the Yellow cart.<-

When I released my pressure, allowing the cart to spring out slightly, and the lever to catch it, the error of three missing carts appeared on the screen.

In short, the Yellow refillable cart was not being held far enough in, while the OEM cart was (far enough in.)

Now, one would think that if the catch lever itself was worn, both carts would display the same error.

So: to solve the issue, I built up the "forward" wall of the catch notch (which is about 1/2" x 3/8" approximately 1/2 way back) with a couple of layers of tape. Doing that caused resulted in the lever holding the cart a bit more forward, and all mysteries were solved.

Yes, of course, this could be unique to my situation, and likely is.

Equally it could be problem with the specs on the refillable cart; or a problem with the contacts being out of place.. or it could be wear and tear occasioned by the rubbing of the release lever on the cart (hence the tip at the  top.)

OTOH, if it's not; if others have seen this weirdness of a single cart causing anomalies, perhaps this tip and explanation will save someone many hours of grief.

hth

I won't go into the hours and ink it took to track this down, but here's a quick tip for 3800 users: when replacing carts, instead of enjoying the satisfying "snap" of pressing the release lever, and watching the cart pop out, my own experience suggest that one should instead press the cart in lightly, and then release the lever.

Here's what happened to me, and of course, YMMV.

I installed a set of refillable carts in a 3800 that had only 1300-ish prints run thru it. I bought the carts and the printer new, and I'd guess I'd replaced the yellow cart 2 or three times with OEM carts before moving to Piezography and its refillables.

Popped in the Piezo carts and got an error saying that the last three carts were not inserted.
So I did a one at a time test, replacing OEM with refillable. LM and LC worked fine, but as soon as I replaced the OEM Yellow with its refillable counterpart, the printer showed LM, LC and Y as all missing!

Putting back the OEM Yellow, and all three indicated good.  Something specific to the Yellow refillable cart.

Skipping several hours of trial-and-error, I finally noticed this: as I was inserting the refillable Yellow, and watching the 3800 printer display, I saw an indication of "good" (all carts recognized) -> as long as I was pressing in on the Yellow cart.<-

When I released my pressure, allowing the cart to spring out slightly, and the lever to catch it, the error of three missing carts appeared on the screen.

In short, the Yellow refillable cart was not being held far enough in, while the OEM cart was (far enough in.)

Now, one would think that if the catch lever itself was worn, both carts would display the same error.

So: to solve the issue, I built up the "forward" wall of the catch notch (which is about 1/2" x 3/8" approximately 1/2 way back) with a couple of layers of tape. Doing that caused resulted in the lever holding the cart a bit more forward, and all mysteries were solved.

Yes, of course, this could be unique to my situation, and likely is.

Equally it could be problem with the specs on the refillable cart; or a problem with the contacts being out of place.. or it could be wear and tear occasioned by the rubbing of the release lever on the cart (hence the tip at the  top.)

OTOH, if it's not; if others have seen this weirdness of a single cart causing anomalies, perhaps this tip and explanation will save someone many hours of grief.

hth

> I won't go into the hours and ink it
> took to track this down, but here's a quick tip for 3800
> users: when replacing carts, instead of enjoying the
> satisfying "snap" of pressing the release lever, and
> watching the cart pop out, my own experience suggest that
> one should instead press the cart in lightly, and then
> release the lever.


Thanks a lot for the hint(s). I can speak from an R3000 experience: the plastic frame holding the reservoirs (and the contacts) is not as stiff as one might think and thus some of the same symptoms might be observed. In my particular case only the inks at the right side exhibited the behavior you described. 

From my experience the refillable cartridges tend to have a rather lower gold plating quality of the contacts. In my case a bit of isopropylic alcohol, some cotton and wiping of the contacts area (both printer and cartridges) did help; make sure to let the alcohol dry for at least 5 minutes before putting the cartridges back. Anybody trying this for R3000 mind the fact that because the contacts are shortened by the alcohol the ink level will most likely get reset so fill-up before trying this!