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ID03: Ink Low Indicator When Not Actually Low
The printer reports empty ink and refuses to print, but the cartridge still has more
than 7CCs remaining.
Cause
In order to trigger low ink, the low ink sensor must detect low ink in the prism of the
cartridge. The sensor can return false readings as a result of electrical noise, improper
cartridge placement or printer tilt. The firmware is designed to ignore readings that
appear to be due to any of these causes.
Solution
See Low Ink When Not Low. CMs have two avenues to adjust what happens between
ink low detection and ink out protection. First, the nvm flag) can be set to FALSE so that
the printer will only warn about ink out but will not error and prevent printing. Second,
the allowable ink after low ink detection can be set to a nonzero number, which will
enable most users to print a few more CCs of ink, but expose some users to the risk of
dry-firing the head.
ID04: Ink Indicated As Out Without Warning
Out of Ink often appears as light printing in a color, all the way across the page,
fading from full color to no printing at all within a few pages. Less often, the problem can
occur as deprime, which shows up as which streak that expands to cover the whole head,
often leaving "jellyfish" patterns on the page.
Cause
A sensor can fail to detect Out of Ink if the sensor is coated with sludge or the
cartridge is not properly inserted, or the sensor is broken. The light printing is caused by
excess backpressure. When there is no ink, the backpressure gets more negative and the
drops get smaller. When the backpressure gets to -900 mm H2O, the printhead is no
longer able to eject drops and printing of that color will stop. Waiting a short time will
allow some ink to flow across the filter, and a small amount of printing will be possible
again. Deprimes that start as a white streak and grow to cover the whole page are more
often caused by air injestion than excess backpressure, but pumping rapidly when the ink
is low can pull air through the nozzles and result in a deprime.
Solution
1. Test with a full and truly empty tank to ensure that the sensor is working.
2. Replace the ink cartridge with a full tank to confirm that the printer recovers.
ID05: Ink Coming Out of the Printer
Ink drools or puddles on the surface that the printer is sitting on.
Cause
This can happen if the printer is tilted or the clamshell left open with the valves open,
or if the printhead is pulled off without depriming. This can also happen if firmware
commands are run to abuse the system. (E.g., spitting more than 10CC into the cap,
without lowering it to drain) The ink could be coming from the maintenance module, ink
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