I'm trying to troubleshoot an error with an HP ink jet printer (Photosmart 3210) that says "Ink System Failure". All other components seem functional. In the printer there is a small PCB with a few soldered components that appear to sense ink flow or pressure. It is in series with the pump output. How does this work? Are these 6 LEDs and photodiodes? Just detecting the presence of ink doesn't seem likely. Wouldn't movement or pressure be what is detected? What does this PCB do and how does it do it?Thanks.

Upon closer examination:it looks like the printer controller is testing for continuity of the ink. Could this be a simple presence / absence of ink in these tubes? I suspect that some ink residue has built up on some of these tiny probes which may be indicating no ink and generating this error. Ideas?Thanks.

Is this an ink flow sensor? (Ink Jet printer)

Jan 28, 2010 24 Replies

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DaveC 16 years ago

No diode effect measured. Resistance between each of the 6 pairs of "probes" is 100K ohms. This, of course, is the measurement of the parallel SMD resistor.

Note, there is only one sense conductor per color, and one Vcc (or Gnd -- haven't delved into the assembled and powered printer to determine this).

So, heaters are out of the question.

Would a centimeter of ink be in the neighborhood of 100K ohms? This, in parallel with the SMD resistor, would create a 2:1 change in the voltage across them when ink flows in the tube.

Just measured tap water, submerging DMM probe tips in a beaker: 300K ohms across ~0.75 inch (~2 cm). (Don't have any ink lying around to measure.)

I'm tempted to just add 50K ohm resistors parallel to the probe connections and see what happens.

Ideas?

Thanks.

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DaveC 16 years ago

A correction: R1, R5, R6 measure 100K; R2, R3, R4 measure 200K. This is true of 2 different PCBs (the "subject" printer and a used spare), both from printers with the same error code.

Maybe a manufacturing error (ie, these were supposed to all be the same value)?

Ideas?

Thanks.

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whit3rd 16 years ago

True enough. If the printer gets set in 'photography' mode, the black hues get printed with an excess of color ink, sometimes. I had a LONG session getting a printer reset after that happened, the menu selections were demonically incomprehensible. And, of course, it used three expensive color inks instead of the cheap black ink, until the problem was fixed.

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Slang 16 years ago

DaveC ha scritto:

Hi. In that printer there is a sensor that can verify the presence or air bubbles in the ink circuit. I don't know if your piece is that sensor, but there is. I am trying to fix a C6180 with the wll known ink system failure problem: i can't find the service manual but i think i can have a failure of the pump motor or of the circuit that control this motor. The pump is located (in my case) in the left side of the printer (facing the control panel) and (my thought) there is no sign of life of the related motor even if i switch off and on the printer. I am not sure about that: maybe this pump works only when a new set of cartridge is installed in the printer (initialization) but, in my case (following the instructions found on the net), i was not able to force a cycle to eliminate trapped air. If you have any solution, please, msg to me. Thx Slang

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DaveC 16 years ago

Check your mail.

Dace

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