Went to print today and the resin cartridge was showing as “locked out”. The auto dispenser has been non functional for years now, and I fill it as necessary manually. Zero issues there. But it needs a cartridge in to print. So I’ve had an empty one in it, also for more than a year. Now it says “cartridge has been locked out as the cartridge has dispensed the maximum amount of resin it holds”. This cartridge ran out during a print and halted the process. According to the dashboard, it had more than enough resin to keep printing. I had not been manually filling it. Soon after this the auto dispense failed, halting another print, and I started filling manually from there on. I kept the old cartridge and put it in so it would continue printing. This holding onto cartridges thing might be paying off.
This speaks to a larger problem of the measurements just not functioning properly. Resin measurements within cartridges are often inaccurate as is. And it can’t detect when a cartridge is empty (which is fair, that’d be some crazy sensing technology). It’s so random however, and now punishing whenever it finally decides a cartridge is empty. It’s workable at least. A far cry from HP’s printers refusing to work at random. But it does make me question the purpose of such a chip drm based system. I know the purpose, but if it isn’t doing it every time, there’s gotta be something better right?
I seem to recall an issue being the calculation doesn’t account for resin in the tank. But that I’m really not understanding why that is important. Isn’t there a necessary operating amount in the tank, and it dispenses to reach that amount? I’m sure technical limitations means that number dispensed isn’t sensed or logged, but then I have to wonder how it’s calculating the amount in the cartridge at all?
If this is a new feature it has me concerned. Anything where suddenly I can’t keep doing the thing I’ve been doing comes off concerning. If it’s always been there and I’ve never seen it? I’m still concerned but for some different reasons.