Roland Status, No Ink, plenty of ink in the cartridge.

[theprintlabtx]

My roland xc-540 is saying that I am out of LC but the cartridge has quite a bit left. I don't want to drop a couple hundred on new ink when there is plenty. Is there anything I can do to reset the chip or anything? I would rather watch the printer for the ink to drop out rather than waste all the ink I have.

 

[J Hill Designs]

if your definition of 'plenty' is approx 10%, then: http://www.signs101.com/forums/show...-all-throwing-away-hundreds-of-dollars-a-year

 

[Solventinkjet]

You can try to shim the cartridge so that it is slightly tilted towards the needle. This will allow the ink to fill that part of the cartridge more and should allow the ink flag to stop hitting the "no ink" sensor. Some Roland models don't use the chip to tell if the ink is low and I think your model is one of them so that shouldn't be a problem.

 

[Nat]

I also have the XC 540 pro 3 and have noticed the same thing. I'm not saying that this is the correct thing to do. Its just what I do. I ignore the Low ink message. Something I noticed on my printer is that the ink cartridges (440) seem like they aren't level they tip away from the front of the cartridge. When the printer stops printing and says its out of ink I pull the cartridge tip it forward to see if there is any ink left in it and to let it all settle in the front of the cartridge . Then I prop up the rear of the cartridge ( Slightly ) as I slide it back in. usually get a couple days or more out of it, depending on how much of that color we are using. Even with doing that there is ALWAYS ink left over in the 440 cartridge but not with 220 cartridge.

 

[hapycmpr]

Dont print with dry heads!!

I have that same printer. So you have four options. One is make sure that the flag on the side of the cartridge is not stuck in the "out of ink position". This also means make sure the sensor is clear inside the printer. Two - if this isn't the problem then I have cut open the cartridge and inserted bubble wrap on the non or-face end of cartridge to force bag to appear to be more full to trick the cartridge so it will tell sensor there is ink.
WARNING!! you don't want to be printing with dry heads unless you want to buy new heads, so only continue reading if you take risks. The third is to remove cartridge, then remove chip and reinsert cartridge without chip. Versaworks will now read 100% full. I have done this on both my SC-545ex and my XC-540. I then go into menu and tell it to keep printing even if it shows to be out. WARNING!! you don't want to be printing with dry heads unless you want to buy new heads. Fourth and BEST is to have a new set of cartridge siting on the shelf in case you run out. But that takes some cash.

 

[theprintlabtx]

Yeah I would say that when I get the "Out of Ink" there is about 1/5 of the ink left. However, after the comment about shimming the cart up, i noticed my machine isn't level with a lean that tilts ink away from the machine. So I leveled the machine out, but I still have the low ink warning. I may try the opening the cartridge thing, I cracked them open to see how much was left anyway. So would I just roll up the end like toothpaste or something?

 

[bulldozer]

This happens pretty regularly on my AJ1000, my solution has always been to put it in service mode then reverse the supply pump for about 10-15 seconds, then refill it. works every time. not sure how well that would translate over to your machine though.

 

[Shaninanigan]

I'm pretty late to the game here, but I have the same issue and your same machine. I found this post looking for a solution to your (our) problem. I took apart the cartridge (the plastic pops right off once you cut the stickers) and inside there is a baggie filled with ink. I pressed the bag (like you would to get all out of a tube of toothpaste) and taped it inside the cartridge to keep all the extra ink at the top. BAM machine liked it, and printed for me!

 

[ams]

The trick is to put tweezers, flathead screw driver, something behind the tab and pull it out, take a knife and cut 1/4" off the tab and stick it back in. It will continue printing the last bit of ink.

If you let it keep printing, two things can happen.

#1. If you cut the tab perfectly, it will stop and tell you that you are out of ink when it's fully dry.
#2. If you tab too much, it'll dry out the lines and it's a pain to pump back in.

However start with a 1/8" cut to be safe, you will get used to it. I've printed two 4' X 8' banners after cutting the tab, then changed inks and everything worked perfectly still. So you can get quite a bit more out of them. Roland stops it early to ensure you don't run it dry, but there is still 10% or so left in it. Get 7% or so out of it, then throw it away. You can also pause the printer and swap inks as well, so if you feel it's been printing too long or you forgot to change it, that works.

 

[ocean502]

Dont print with dry heads!!

I have that same printer. So you have four options. One is make sure that the flag on the side of the cartridge is not stuck in the "out of ink position". This also means make sure the sensor is clear inside the printer. Two - if this isn't the problem then I have cut open the cartridge and inserted bubble wrap on the non or-face end of cartridge to force bag to appear to be more full to trick the cartridge so it will tell sensor there is ink.
WARNING!! you don't want to be printing with dry heads unless you want to buy new heads, so only continue reading if you take risks. The third is to remove cartridge, then remove chip and reinsert cartridge without chip. Versaworks will now read 100% full. I have done this on both my SC-545ex and my XC-540. I then go into menu and tell it to keep printing even if it shows to be out. WARNING!! you don't want to be printing with dry heads unless you want to buy new heads. Fourth and BEST is to have a new set of cartridge siting on the shelf in case you run out. But that takes some cash.

THIS WORKED FOR ME!! Thank you. I had a full cartridge, printer saying out of ink. folded bubble wrap 3 times and put toward front of opened up cartridge. It worked!

 

[Biggermens]

I can do to reset the chip or anything?

I Can reprogram ink chips. PM me if you like