Epson Cartridge's Chip Communication Hack - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / beginners

author: Mechatrommer
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 30, 2016, 02:25:45 am
content: as the original epson ink supply is shorted and i have urgent need to continue to print, so i need new/hacked chip with full ink counter to continue to work, power cleaning and all... long story short. the chip interface is 9 pins... 2 pins is just connected by a resistor, another 2 pins is just a short, all 4 pins are not connected to the on-board (glued) chip. leaving 5 pins to hack.. further another 2 pins to the chip is power supply Vcc and GND, so leaving 3 pins for communication... sort of EN, CLK, DATA... its like i2c, but not following the rule, ie during idle all comm lines are low, real i2c should be high... further, data line is bidirectional, sometime host (printer) will emit data, at some other clock, client (cartridge chip) will emit data... so its not SPI with MOSI and MISO on separate lines, this is more like a hybrid (bidirectinoal data) between i2c and spi...i have googled and found this...http://www.eddiem.com/photo/CIS/inkchip/chip.htmlquite similar protocol, but since its 7 pins interface and for another printer model, so i suspect there will be differences in data format, my printer model is Epson SureLab D700... and the guy only went up to hacking some specific aspect of it, ie ink counter, without knowing/documenting the rest. i wish to understand all (or at least deeper if not all) including chip id, how to reset/save new counter etc.. protocol is about the same so it can be a good reference...below is capture of the comm, the suspect chip is likely a eeprom? or worse a custom chip on board from epson. can anybody give a clue? if this is another off-the-shelf (standardized) communication/chip? or worse, a custom made protocol/chip by epson... thanks for your time...

author: Falcon69
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 30, 2016, 03:06:34 am
content: I personally have stopped buying Epson printers because of this. It's stupid that when the "ink Pad" has reached it's end of life, the printer stops working completely. The Waste Ink Pad can easily be taken out and replaced with a hose and portable tank to catch all the waste ink from cleaning the heads, etc. But Epson forces you to buy a new printer. Freakin stupid in my opinion.I will never buy another Epson Printer.What' sucks even more is the cost of ink. You can usually buy a NEW printer (which comes with ink cartridges), than you can buy a full replacement of colored ink and black. Printer companies I understand make alot of money off their ink, but seriously, people are throwing away perfectly good printers and filling up the landfills, simply because it is cheaper than buying the replacement ink.Hotzone360.com is usually where I go to buy a continuous ink system. They work pretty good. though the color quality is usually not as great as the factory ink...it's MUCH MUCH cheaper way of buying ink.

author: Falcon69
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 30, 2016, 03:20:25 am
content: You can usually do a search and find a firmwarre update for your specific epson printer that will reset the timer, but it only works once. when the waste ink pads reach it's end of life (usually based of the number of prints done and calculated that way buy the epson internal circuitry), again, the printer is bricked.

author: amyk
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 30, 2016, 03:53:10 am
content: It's a serial EEPROM. Google for patents from Epson with keywords "printing material container". Here's one:http://www.google.com/patents/US7590026

author: Falcon69
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 30, 2016, 03:53:28 am
content: I've never had a problem with the printer leaking ink...from the waste pad...from the print heads, yes.If epson were smart, they would design their printers so the waste ink pads would come out easily and be replaced with new ones (available for purchase)...but no, they want it so you buy a new printer, either from them, or from Canon, Hp, etc. I just find it extremely stupid that there are solutions to these problems, but manufacturers insist on doing it the way they currently are, and all it ends up doing is contributing to the landfill issues by people just throwing out the printers which otherwise still work perfectly fine.I did notice that Epson came out with a new tank ink system, I think they finally caught on that they were losing money because people were buying these continuous ink systems and retrofitting them to their printers. But, those printers are very expensive, and the waste ink pad problem is STILL not fixed. Printers still crap out after so many prints, regardless of whether or not the printer is actually broken.

author: Mechatrommer
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 30, 2016, 04:47:55 am
content: why are we discussing ink leakage? if you dismiss Epson, you'll miss its golden and durable piezo head technology. i'm done with Canon with its ever burning thermal head. most Epson (and other brands) have been hacked and reset waste ink pad and reset ink counter have available from China. its just my printer model is too recent and rare i guess, so i cant find cartridge reset chip for it, although i've found resetter for its waste pad, but its from unknown or unreliable to me sources like taobao or alibaba... and my waste pad counter still a long way to go...Quote from: amyk on November 30, 2016, 03:53:10 amthanks Amyk for the patent link, i'll try to digest that...btw, just recently, i'm dismissing my Brother (consumer/office) printer to my kids, with its very badly unrepairable colors clog and buy a new Epson L360 consumer/office printer. so all my 3 color printers are now with "Epson" tag on it, i'm a proud Epson user

author: BravoV
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 30, 2016, 05:25:55 am
content: Quote from: Mechatrommer on November 30, 2016, 04:47:55 amYou have to understand and realize that Epson printers like your L360 with refillable tanks (official) are not available in developed (read:rich) countries. Most of them have to live with the "cartridge" types, hence the bad reputation like HP , Canon etc.Just try visit various official Epson's web sites, with different countries settings, they have different models, these refillable models basically don't exist at rich countries.In Asia and developing countries (read:poor), these models basically made a deep wound in 3rd party refillable ink businesses and quite success.

author: CJay
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 30, 2016, 07:03:08 am
content: Quote from: BravoV on November 30, 2016, 05:25:55 amEpson have been marketing 'EcoTank' printers with refillable ink tanks for a while now in many countries outside Asia including UK, US, Australia and many more.Hardly 'developing' or 'poor' countries (even if it does feel like the UK is regressing)

author: Mechatrommer
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 30, 2016, 09:28:11 am
content: Quote from: BravoV on November 30, 2016, 05:25:55 amit will be a surprise if Epson doesnt expand this to "rich" countries. but its not a wonder either, "business strategy"... pulling any possible juice a company can from rich people buying OEM cartridges. if most "rich" users buying from China 3rd party, not from OEM, i'm sure Epson (and other brands too) will change strategy as well similar to "poor" country. but i cant blame Epson, since "rich" people wont bother to realize a fact that.... refillable ink (EcoTank) is the most economy and configurable way and should be the way to go... and "rich" people continue to support OEM cartridges. "poor" people will find a way to survive to get the same result as the richerhence enjoying refillable config. afaik Brother did it first (chipless refillable tank) few years ago with my earlier (dismissed) printer DCP-J315W, Canon and Epson follow, so if we want to blame one brand, inevitably we should blame all now. off topic hat off, now get back to Chip Serial Communication :|

author: Brutte
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: November 30, 2016, 10:25:49 am
content: SPI or not, EEPROM or OTP, you won't reverse-engineer it without interrogating anon-lockedoriginal chip. IMHO.BTW, first google "Epson+chip" and then buy.OT:My Samsung internet connection agreement.

author: BravoV
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 30, 2016, 11:36:19 am
content: Quote from: CJay on November 30, 2016, 07:03:08 amOh .. I didn't realize that, I guess it was just recent ? A similar discussion about 3 years ago in this forum ->HEREthat I pointed out it was not available at that time, and 3 years ago this EcoTank printer had been around for maybe 3 or 4 years if I'm not mistaken.Quote from: Mechatrommer on November 30, 2016, 09:28:11 amYep, agree on the Epson's nozzle, they're quite reliable as long its never dried. I have one running for almost > 3 years without any problem, and its wifey's, placed near kitchen. I guess the humidity around there slow down the drying.Also the printer's internal counters like ink tanks level, waste tank and etc all can be reseted by 3rd party app.

author: CJay
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 30, 2016, 12:03:03 pm
content: Quote from: BravoV on November 30, 2016, 11:36:19 amDon't know, they were launched in 2010 apparently but appear to have been a bit of a niche thing, I only discovered them earlier this year when I was asked to look at one that was out of warranty, I think it had a three year warranty.

author: tooki
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 30, 2016, 02:08:10 pm
content: Quote from: Mechatrommer on November 30, 2016, 04:47:55 amWeird, my experience was 180 degrees opposite: I had constant clogs with Epson's non-replaceable piezo heads, and zero problems with Canon's replaceable thermal bubblejet heads (which never needed replacing after all).I wrote off Epson literally over a decade ago, after having two of them (a Stylus Color 800 from 1996 or so, and a Stylus Color 740 from 1999) develop unrecoverable clogs (only ever using original Epson ink). Maybe they've improved since then, but back 10 years ago, the Epsons seemed to do just fine if used on a daily basis, but could not handle sporadic use, like at home.The Canons never gave me any trouble, from the first one I used in 1992 (an Apple StyleWriter, which is a Canon BJ-10e rebadge), to my Apple Color StyleWriter Pro in 1994 (which used the BJC-600e print engine), to the i850 I got in 2003 (which then went to a friend who used it until 2015), to the MP970 I got in 2008 and still use now.I sold dozens of Canon inkjets when I used to work in computer retail, and my customers gave me very positive feedback on them. (Unlike the customers who ignored my advice and bought the cheapest HP and then regretted it.) Of course, these days color lasers are cheap enough for consumers to afford, and they handle sporadic use far better. But back then they cost too much.

author: aandrew
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: December 01, 2016, 12:54:42 am
content: I have a 10 year old Canon Pixma MP530 that has had nothing but refill ink since its "trial" tanks ran dry. It's one of those all in one that has a duplexing sheet feeder and duplexer output, which is why I bought it. It's been an *amazing* printer for me, but it recently started to have with its head and I wasn't able to diagnose it. Replaced it with an Epson Workforce WF-7620, which is the same thing but can also do 11x17 sheets which is important for me (schematics).So far, so good. I bought something like 6 full sets of ink from amazon so we'll see how it fares. It's on its first set of clone ink so far. My god, have inkjets ever got fast over the last decade. :-)The one thing I do look for in printers is that they support a continuous ink system. Not because I need one, but because it means that they're targeting higher volume printing and that their chips either support refills or are open/hacked enough to not have to worry about.

author: Mechatrommer
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 01, 2016, 08:33:56 am
content: Quote from: tooki on November 30, 2016, 02:08:10 pmif you seldom print, nozzles will be introduced with air pocket, normal or heavy cleaning will recover the nozzles.Quote from: tooki on November 30, 2016, 02:08:10 pmlucky you except in my place, 2 sets of Canon ink (black and colors) about ~10ml cartridge per color (with built in thermal nozzles) is already the price of a printer.

author: tooki
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 04, 2016, 11:22:46 am
content: Quote from: Mechatrommer on December 01, 2016, 08:33:56 amI said unrecoverable. I mean unrecoverable. No amount of deep cleaning cycles fixed them. Hence my frustration with those wretched things.Quote from: Mechatrommer on December 01, 2016, 08:33:56 amWell that's what you get for choosing an entry level model with that type of cartridge. I haven't owned a printer with that type of cartridge since 1994. It makes more sense to spend a bit more up front on the printer, in exchange for much cheaper ink down the line.

author: amyk
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 04, 2016, 03:53:49 pm
content: Someone from Switzerland, and someone from Malaysia having very different experiences --- could it be related to the humidity (or lack thereof)? Also, I believe Epson uses different ink composition (pigment vs. dye, water or other solvent base) by default.Cleaning cycles that are built-in to consumer inkjets are quite weak; if they made them any stronger, the cartridges they came with would be emptied completely. They also don't help with ink that has hardened --- you need to actually remove the printhead and soak the nozzle end in solvent or boiling water (depending on the type of ink) for that, as is done with large industrial units.

author: Mechatrommer
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 04, 2016, 07:48:21 pm
content: i've looked further into communication protocol/format, so far the conclusion is... its not compatible with patents back then circa 2001-2006, so i think this is newer patent not available yet...fwiw...

author: CatalinaWOW
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 04, 2016, 08:05:22 pm
content: Environment matters a lot, as does usage pattern. When I lived in the US Southwest with extremely low relative humidities, and did most of my printing on a B&W laser printer I had continual problems with nozzle clogs. Often non-recoverable with the solvent and hot water approaches available to me. This problem occurred across several brands (Epson, Cannon, Brother and HP are ones I remember). I swore I would never again buy a brand that didn't have the printhead in the cartridge. Increased the disposable costs, but lowered overall cost of ownership.Other usage patterns and environments will get different results. I have since moved to a wetter climate, and with the aid of my family, increased the usage of the ink jet printer. No problems whatsoever since.I can certainly sympathize with Epson's concerns about the discard ink. Anyone who has taken apart or service a well used inkjet printer knows what a mess is left in the cleaning area. Certainly technical solutions could be developed, but it is a real issue.

author: tooki
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 05, 2016, 03:37:43 am
content: Quote from: amyk on December 04, 2016, 03:53:49 pmWhen I had the Stylus Color 740, I was living on the east coast of USA, where humidity is very high, without air conditioning. So that's not it. It was just shitty technology. At the time, the Epsons were notorious for unrecoverable clogs.Back then, consumer Epson inks were all dye. (In fact, the Canon I got then used pigment black, with dye colors.)

author: Falcon69
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 05, 2016, 06:14:57 am
content: not just then. I had all 3, Epson Artisan 830, 835, and 837 (newest one I had), each and every one of them dried out and could NOT get the print head to unclog or print again. The problem I noticed with these printers is the cartridges do not sit right above the print head, instead, they sit away and all ink feed through rubber lines into the head. Well, It clogs in the head as well as the lines, ink dries up if the machine sits longer then a few days to a week. Also, The 830 and 835, both crapped out on me as well because I tried cleaning the head too much to get it to work again... 'Waste Pad has reached it's end of life!). The 837, i didn't even get through the first set of cartridges before it dried up on me.I even shoved Isopropolyne alcohol through the lines to try and unclogged, it worked for about a week, then they clogged up again. :/Poor design these printers have. I bought them for their printing ability onto inkjet CD's. Never again will I buy another Epson Printer. I've had too much bad luck with them. I've got an HP now, and have had it for about 8 months now. So far no troubles, and still on the ink cartridges it came with (I don't print much nowadays). It's an Officejet 8610. Ugly thing, but works good so far.

author: Mechatrommer
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 09, 2016, 06:08:25 am
content: few days ago i got a full ink set and did power cleaning. new disaster came, the printhead (nozzle gluing below) is bursted beyond repair, suspect is over pressure in pressurized ink line to the nozzles during power cleaning. afterthese 2 yearsonly 1 year of operation less than 7K printout. so fark i need to order new printhead at 1/20X the cost of overall, but i still love this printer, Canon hasnt come out with such a printer line (volume printing at sub $4K) and i still dont trust Canon's thermal head, they only good at cameras, lenses and speedlites. as for Epson, be the suck arse the printhead (manufacturing or design defect i guess for this model) it is, i still have more luck with it in term of revenue vs cost. i cant make out anything professional grade out of Canon printers at a cheap. so back to the topic, i'll continue hack the chipset comm line when i got time, i already saved all sniffed comm transactions possible using new full tank chip (during startup, cleaning, printing etc) there must be id, ink counter, manufacturing details etc in there, i just need time to decode them and find the right patent. for now i concentrate on ordering new head and then print the overdue job... this saturday i will be out of site (my beloved lab) for 2 weeks, so i need to sort all these out first..

author: Mechatrommer
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 09, 2016, 06:38:16 am
content: here's more, due to 2MB attachment limit...

author: CJay
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 09, 2016, 07:43:26 am
content: Quote from: Mechatrommer on December 09, 2016, 06:08:25 amI'm a little weirded out by that statement as Canon were one of, if not the inventer of the inkjet roughly 30 years ago, ditto they pioneered the colour injet copier?

author: Mechatrommer
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 09, 2016, 10:21:23 am
content: Quote from: CJay on December 09, 2016, 07:43:26 amwell personally thats just me. your experience may differ. actually i have a feeling that they are all the same, design to be crapped soon, but i made a decision, from my earlier experience with Epson entry level consumer grade printer that i made professional result for more than 3 years using 3rd party ink from the beginning.

author: tooki
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: December 09, 2016, 11:38:30 am
content: I've had a 100% failure rate on Epsons, 0% failure on Canons. Even with aftermarket ink on the first one.

author: RonaldMiranda
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: February 05, 2025, 05:41:32 pm
content: Hi, we are working in Epson communication with chip, please could you send me an email ronaldgmiranda@hotmail.com. There I will explain better