Hi Tony, I've been biting my lip for a long time on this one as Jerry well knows.
This list serve functions both as an educational tool as well as a problem solving tool for the members who participate. I don't believe any one person pretends to know it all (other than Lee and Schoun who do know it all). I will be the first to admit (willingly) that I gained the bulk of my technical expertise over the years through solving customer's problems. I learned from their experiences. There is no formal training out there that can replace this kind of experience. And one can never learn enough. I continue to learn new things on a daily basis and I'm thankful for it. It may serve you well in the future to be more open-minded about member feedback and not engage in shear rhetoric when there is no basis for your arguments. As you have finally admitted, it may have been best to admit up front that you were "in the dark on this one" without the senseless arguments that were based on emotion and poor logic. There were no tech writers that got snowed on this one. Unbeknownst to you, Jerry is one of the most technically knowledgeable contributors on this list serve and he went out of his way not to flaunt it in your face and embarrass you. It was a senseless waste of time debated without knowing the facts. We do, however, wish to thank you for challenging Jerry about every aspect of cartridge technology as this forced him to divulge in detail many aspects of this technology previously unknown to the members who regularly participate, thus educating us all. Who could ask for more. Now Marta knows that HP stands for Hewlett-Packard and I think we all learned that sensing ink levels is not time based. Ward Oldham, MacDude MacTown 1041 Bardstown Road Louisville, KY 40204 502-485-1243 ward at mactown.us On Friday, January 3, 2003, at 10:44 PM, Tony LaFemina wrote: > Jerry Yeager wrote: > >> >> On Friday, January 3, 2003, at 02:55 AM, Tony LaFemina wrote: >> >> (portions cut out) >> >>> In order to correctly monitor a fluid level, there has to be some >>> kind of system that can sense the height of the fluid in the >>> cartridge. Otherwise it's purely guesswork. If they do have an >>> accurate system that can monitor the ink level, then it shouldn't >>> matter if the cartridge is removed from the printer or not. Once >>> it's installed, it should send the printer accurate readings. But >>> Bill said Epson advised against this, which tells me their system is >>> based on time. When a cartridge is installed into the printer, an >>> electronic pulse initializes the timer for each color. When a color >>> is called upon, the timer for that color is started, and stopped >>> when the cartridge stops emitting the color. Since they know how >>> much ink is in a new cartridge, they know how much time it will take >>> to empty it. However, if the cartridge is removed, the timers should >>> reset when you put it back giving erroneous data. This method should >>> always say there's more ink than there actually is. If the system >>> says there's less or no ink in the cartridge, then I call it >>> spitework and it verifies what I said about big business not caring >>> about the environment. >>> >> >> If you read some of the earlier posts, this was explained, but I'll >> repeat part of it again. Epson electrostatically charges the >> cartridge when it is inserted. Removing the cartridge and then >> putting it back wastes ink. Add to that the fact that in early OS-X, >> printers drivers in general were iffy (for all manufacturers, not >> just for Epson), and thus remaining ink levels on a re-inserted >> cartridge were not always reported correctly and you get the advice >> that Epson that gives out. The situation is vastly improved, and gets >> better with each update to OS-X, but still is not completely worked >> out yet. For example if you have certain new HP printers (which can >> give decent prints) then you are better off using Gimp-print than the >> native HP drivers, because the HP drivers still have bugs in them >> which cause them to take over most of the cpu effectively disabling >> the computer (Still happens even in 10.2.3 Apple and HP are still >> working on it). The latest update to OS-X went a long way to fixing >> this, but it is still happening to many people. >> >> Back onto the smart chips: all of the manufacturers use them in the >> new printers. In the older ones they are not there. My guess is that >> they will stay, but be changed to allow refilling. >> >> Jerry > > I have no idea what electrostatically charging a cartridge is going to > do for reading ink levels. I do know it makes your hair stand up, and > gives you one hell of a shock when you go for the door knob, but I'm > in the dark on this one. I don't know who came up with this stuff, > but it sounds to me like a tech writer got snowed by some engineers. > When I eventually buy one of these new printers, I guess I'll have to > start reading all about them like you guys did. Maybe then, we could > continue this conversation. > > Until then, I want to wish everyone a Happy New Year. May it bring > back the Mac! > > -- > Tony LaFemina > Major in Layout & Design Techniques > Minor in Software Fundamentals > http://hometown.aol.com/visitmacland/index.html > mailto:remacs at optonline.net > > > > > > | The next meeting of the Louisville Computer Society will > | be January 28. The LCS Web page is <http://www.kymac.org>. > > | The next meeting of the Louisville Computer Society will | be January 28. The LCS Web page is <http://www.kymac.org>.
