What is a cartridge chip?
Cartridge chips may come in a variety of sizes,
shapes, colors and appearances, and may be located in a number of
different locations on the cartridge, some chip locations being more
easily accessible than others. In essence, however, a cartridge chip is
a memory chip strategically located on an inkjet or toner cartridge. It
communicates with the host (i.e the printer), either through a direct
electrical connection (typical of most Epson inkjet printers which
incorporate chips) or via a wireless connection (such as the HP Color
Laserjet 4600 and 4650 color laser printers).
What is the purpose of the cartridge chip?
Cartridge chips serve a number of purposes,
however, the purpose differs depending on who you’re asking. From the
point of view of the OEM printer manufacturer, the cartridge chip serves
as a method of storing information about the cartridge: ink or toner
color and type, date and location of manufacture and serial number.
Additionally, they see it as a way to provide consumers with a somewhat
accurate estimate of the remaining toner or ink left inside the
cartridge, as well as other additional pieces of information, so that
users don’t out of ink or toner and potentially damage printer parts
and components by running an empty cartridge.
For the OEM printer manufacturer’s, the
cartridge chips also have some additional "useful" features.
The first, and perhaps most pertinent, feature, is that it further
pushes consumers to buy only OEM consumables for their printer, fax or
copier. In additional to the chip adding to the consumers’ fear of
damaging their machine with a non-OEM product (which would have a
non-OEM chip), they have made it hard to copy the cartridge chips.
Compatible replacement chip manufacturers have to work around the threat
of patent infringements on the OEM chips’ software, while still
providing a compatible chip that functions appropriately.
The chips can also be "useful" for the
OEM printer manufacturers, with the chance that small errors in the
counting routine could result in premature low toner messages. A
cartridge chip could indicate that the toner or ink was out, when there
was still ink or toner remaining in the hopper or ink tank. We have had
enough reports from independent users in the field, that a cartridge
chip can and will report a cartridge as empty, even when very little or
no toner has been used from that particular cartridge. The story that
stands out in our mind is the gentleman who printed only in black and
white with his color laser printer, but continually purchased chips for
his practically unused color toner cartridges so that he could continue
printing his black and white documents.
From our point of view, the cartridge chips do
serve some useful functions. The cartridge chips do provide alerts to
users when they toner or ink is running low and stores some other useful
pieces of information, such as the number of pages printed with a
particular cartridge, however, we are firmly of the belief that users
should have more control over how the cartridge chips are used and how
these cartridge chips affect their printing patterns.
How do cartridge chips work?
Simple: imagine that you have a big barrel of
virtual paint (or toner or ink, if you prefer). Every time you send a
print job to your printer, the printer first reads the virtual level of
the paint from the chip and calculates the amount of paint it will need
for the print job. It then deducts the calculated amount from the level
it retrieved from the chip and then stores the new paint level
information back on the chip.
Why does the chip report that the
cartridge is empty, even when its not?
It is actually very difficult to estimate
accurately how much ink or toner is used per page. The amount used may
vary depending on environmental factors, how recently the printer last
printed, and the condition of the printer’s parts and components
(drum, rollers, gears, transfer roller, fuser and so on). When designing
the software and algorithms that run the ink and toner monitors, the OEM
printer manufacturers use conservative estimates. They want to be sure
that if the cartridge chip says there is ink or toner left, that there
is ink or toner left in the cartridge. They definitely do not want to
run into a situation where an OEM cartridge chip says there is ink or
toner left, when the cartridge is in fact empty, as such an occurrence
would create considerably more problems than solutions for them.
Is there a way to bypass the cartridge
chip?
It varies from brand to brand and from model to
model within a brand. Some printers do offer users the option to disable
the chip functions, however, it is usually not advisable since users
derive no benefits from doing this. But, it may sometimes work out that
they have no other option; if there is toner left in the cartridge,
contrary to what the chip is reporting, the only thing to do is turn off
the chip and use the rest of the toner.
Why don’t you make a cartridge chip with
a higher programmed yield , or one that resets itself automatically?
Creating such a chip would defeat the whole
purpose of having a chip. The printers that use cartridges with chips
expect certain behaviors within certain parameters from the cartridge
chip. If we alter the properties of the cartridge chip, the printer may
not function properly or at all. In this area, we must adhere to the
requirements of the printer in order to have a functioning and usable
product.
My cartridge is rated for 7000 pages at 5%
density, however, after installing a new cartridge and printing 4100
pages, the printer is already reporting that the toner is out. I removed
the cartridge and can clearly see that there is toner left inside. What
is the deal?
This is a classic example of how OEM printer
manufacturers rate their cartridges. The standard measurement of page
yield in the industry is five percent coverage at a certain
"normal" intensity (the presumption is that "normal"
intensity is the lightest print setting). If you print your documents at
a darker print setting than "nornal" and / or have a coverage
of more than 5% you will get less overall pages out of one cartridge.
For example, a full color photo has 100%
coverage, but generally only about 80% coverage per color, since the
page won’t be covered completely in all colors. At 80% coverage, you
will get about 16 times less pages from a single cartridge than from the
standard measurement of 5% coverage. If your cartridge is rated for 7000
pages at 5%, you will only get about 300 to 350 full color photos. It’s
a drastic difference, isn’t it?
