Valuejet being a brat

[Flame]

I'll just have to say, my Valuejet is a brat. It likes to throw away it's food before it's finished.

aka it will tell me i'm out of ink, when the cartridge is still full! On all colors except Black. So I have a stack of about 20 cartridges now that are half full, but can't use them because my printer thinks they're empty.

Any solutions? I've heard of this before but never found a solid answer. I used to always just chalk it up as part of printer cost, but when I did the math on how much money I've lost on half empty cartridges...UGH.

 

[MikePro]

you can buy new chips to make use of em, or buy resettable chips, but will take observation of your actual levels to avoid having the opposite problem.
as far as your machine goes, its most likely a worn trigger that feels for ink inside of the bag inside of the print cartridge. once the bag runs empty, the trigger has no resistance against the bag, pushing outward and into the cartridge to a point where it eventually tells the machine it must be empty. ...and then reprograms the chip to register as empty, for good measure.

however, the fact that you have ALL carts doing this, would lead me to believe that maybe your carts aren't sitting level when inserted into the machine?
is your printer on level-ground?
drop a heavy roll of vinyl on the row of inserted cartridges recently?

 

[player]

Once the problem is fixed could you use a hypodermic needle to suck out the ink from one cartridge and refill another to get only full cartridges?

 

[henryp]

Most likely due to the cap unit not sealing properly. What happens is each time the printer does a cleaning cycle, the ink count on the chips will reflect that (go low) but the ink is not being drawn out of the cartridges. The ink count on the chips eventually show empty even though the ink remains on the cartridges.

 

[chrisphilipps]

What Henryp said. Normally once the maintenance station is replaced it works correctly.

 

[Dovette]

You could replace the chip.

...Can I ask what brand of ink you are using?
The reason I ask is because some of the third-party inks have this same problem, and just need the chip switched out. Call your distributor and ask them if they've got some spare chips stowed away. I know we have some here just in case something like that happens.

 

[MikePro]

+1 call your supplier. they definitely want to keep you happy.
Fellers used to send me as many chips as I wanted/needed when I first converted over from OEM to Bordeaux, because random chips would expire shortly after delivery.

wait... printer degrades chip CC-count by amount fired/drawn through the printhead? i didn't think so, but my previous post regarding a "volume sensor" (like the jv3 has) and potential out-of-level cartridge seating is almost completely blown out of the water by Mutoh:

c/o Mutoh Knowledgebase:
The Ink Status is most often assumed to be the amount of ink in the cartridge but in one case it is not correct.
The main issue is with the first cartridge when an INK FILL is performed.
You are correct in that ink volume is subtracted for every cleaning function or printing operation. The exception is that the INK FILL process uses 50% of the cartridge (on a 220ml) just to fill the sub tank. Yet if you immediately read the INK STATUS menu it will still show 87% (48), 82% (64) and 77% (100). For the remainder of the original cartridge (after any INK FILL) the customer must subtract 50% to know how much ink is in the cartridge. Once the original is changed out then the new cartridge will read 100% and again start counting accurately or at least to the degree that the seal is working properly. With a second ink cartridge the INK STATUS will correctly display how much ink is in the cartridge.

The subtanks in the VJ16xx and VJ26xx series allow for cartidge changes without interrupting printing, the 1204 and 1304 series will stop printing when a cartridge is removed or when the 'empty' tab protrudes enough to activate the empty sensor. There are reports from customers: "I heard the beeping but I was told to keep printing until the printer stops printing and then replace the cartridge." Of course, this is poor advice and not the way the printer is designed. What can be confusing is the 'beeping' - it really means FEED ME NOW, not wait until I stop printing.

KEY POINT: The INK LOW tab comes out when ink is flowing from the cartridge into the sub tank. Ink flows into the sub tank when the solenoid valve is open. The valve opens when the 'low ink sensor' in the sub tank opens. So the low subtank wants to FILL and it sends the signal to open the solenoid. Once the solenoid opens, ink flows by gravity into the sub tank until the sub tank HIGH sensor closes. However, if the INK LOW tab of the cartridge pops out during the gravity feeding then the printer begins 'beeping' and should close the valve. When the low amount of ink in the sub tank is consumed then the printer will stop printing with an 'Ink End' message.

As the counter drops to a low point the printer will display 'ink near end x' and may start beeping as well. This would occur when the pump/cap are not pulling the full amount of liquid during the 'cleaning' cycles.

 

[Flame]

Using OEM inks. Capping station? I would have never guessed that one... gonna tinker with it.

I'll see if anyone has chips. Because this is out of control.