Epson 875 INK MISUNDERSTANDING (I THINK!)

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I might be missing something, but all the reviews of the Epson 870 series photo printers refered to separate color ink cartidges which could be monitored and then just a specific one could be changed. However I have tried to purchase these color cartridges and I only find the 5 color-in-one color cartridge that came with the printer.

Is there something obvious I am missing? Thanks. Gary

-- Gary Krider (gbkgbk@earthlink.net), June 17, 2000

Answers

Hate to tell ya but there are no seperate cartridges in the 875, 870 or 1270. One black and one color cartridge, thats all... They are actively monitored to give reasonably accurate ink levels and they can be removed and replaced at a later time (within reason). The pre- 870/875/1270 printers used the old monitoring system in that you couldn't remove the cartridges and later put them back in without totally screwing up the ink level indicators. Now they are accurate at any time and for a large print, you can pull out the low ink, replace it with a new ink to make the large prints, and save the old one for a few small pictures until you use it up. Refills are out of the question for now but who know what will happen down the road. Epson is cracking down very hard on people who kill their printers with aftermarket inks so I suppose its an effort to keep warranty repairs down. Anyway, you have a great printer so enjoy... (by the way, Canon uses seperate inks and its not more economical in the long run and the prints don't last)

-- Cris Daniels (danfla@gte.net), June 17, 2000.

As Chris said "Epson is cracking down ... on aftermarket inks". I asked a seller of aftermarket ink cartridges why he had none for 870's and he explained that there is a chip inside the cartridge and while they can make a cartridge with no legal hassle they run into big problems if they duplicate the chip. I guess they'll have to put a bunch of monkeys in a clean room and retro-design a chip before they can produce for the after market.

-- bill (this_old_house@pobox.com), June 19, 2000.

Perhaps the chips will turn out to be reprogrammable(doubtful), or someone will use a similar memory chip to perform the same function? My guess is that if someone does, they'll either be fairly expensive or it'll be the old "mail it back to us and we'll refill it for you(and reset the chip)" deal of the old days. Everyone seems to be clued into the idea of "return business". :-)

Give it a couple of months and somebody will have insomnia one night and figure out how to hack one or replace it. Then you'll just have to wait for the ink... :-)

-- Gerald M. Payne (gmp@francomm.com), June 19, 2000.


reset your epson chips every time you want with the file in http://alvin93bjcv.tripod.com.co/inklevelarchive/

-- ezequiel (eleze14@usa.net), November 05, 2002.

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