When to change the ink cartridge?

[Andy D]

I'm used to bulk ink systems, the only cartridge printer I have used was a Mimaki, which had two cartridges per color and would draw from one cartridge until it was empty and then switch to the other. For some reason my Roland VS-540 has two cartridges per color but draws from both of them at the same time.
Is there a way to change this? If not, what's your method of figuring out when to change them?
VersaWorks will throw up a warning when there's still plenty of ink left, so I just keep shaking them
trying to figure out if I still have enough ink and have been lucky so far.

 

[Baz]

Always have a spare set of cartridges on hand. Change them when the printer stops and tells you to.

 

[flyplainsdrifta]

i dont think there is a way to change that unfortunately. i used to try to run them down as low as we could but you do it too much, you could suck air into your lines which is never fun. The chips can also sometimes make that impossible. its a tricky game. as baz said, keep a full spare set on hand. dont run it down unless youve got one on deck.

 

[Solventinkjet]

As long as your pack end sensor is working properly, the machine should tell you when it's actually empty and just change it when that happens. These sensors are pretty finicky however. Take a flashlight and look in each cartridge holder and compare to each other. Sometimes you can see that one or more of the sensors are out of position or flat out broken. The sensor is towards the back, right, bottom part of the holder and looks like a little black plastic lever. If the cartridge flag can't touch that lever and trip the sensor or if it's too far out and hits it too early, it will give you bad readings when the ink is empty which leaves ink in the cartridge or flags too late and causes ink starvation.