# Waiting for the Form 2 to realize there is no more resin in the cartridge
**URL:** https://forum.formlabs.com/t/waiting-for-the-form-2-to-realize-there-is-no-more-resin-in-the-cartridge/20490
**Category:** Form 2
**Created:** [September 19, 2018, 5:01pm UTC](https://forum.formlabs.com/t/waiting-for-the-form-2-to-realize-there-is-no-more-resin-in-the-cartridge/20490 "2018-09-19T17:01:55Z")
**Posts on this page:** 9
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Olivier\_Suire](https://forum.formlabs.com/u/Olivier_Suire)
#### Post date: [September 19, 2018, 5:01pm UTC](https://forum.formlabs.com/t/waiting-for-the-form-2-to-realize-there-is-no-more-resin-in-the-cartridge/20490/1 "2018-09-19T17:01:55Z")
I have the exact same problem as this user :
> [@Waiting for tank to fill](http://forum.formlabs.com/t/waiting-for-tank-to-fill/8845):
>
> So my Tough 01 cartridge is finally empty. But there’s still a nearly-to-the-fill-line load of resin in the tank. All I have now is Tough 02, and I don’t want to mix. But I do want to use up as much of the remaining resin as I can. I think the tank holds about 100ml when filled to the line, so I’ve kicked off a print than needs 50ml (my tank is a little below the line). Now, I’m waiting for the printer to realize there’s no more resin in the cartridge. The temperature is up to 32ºC while the pr…
It’s a shame that, to years later, we are still struggling to print with the remainder of the resin left in the tank.
I should be able to print to the last drop if I so wish !!!
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### Author:  [@Sculptingman](https://forum.formlabs.com/u/Sculptingman)
#### Post date: [September 19, 2018, 7:06pm UTC](https://forum.formlabs.com/t/waiting-for-the-form-2-to-realize-there-is-no-more-resin-in-the-cartridge/20490/2 "2018-09-19T19:06:46Z")
Can’t you just switch to Open Mode and it will stop checking the level and assume you are topping off by hand?
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### Author:  [@DKirch](https://forum.formlabs.com/u/DKirch)
#### Post date: [September 19, 2018, 7:12pm UTC](https://forum.formlabs.com/t/waiting-for-the-form-2-to-realize-there-is-no-more-resin-in-the-cartridge/20490/3 "2018-09-19T19:12:08Z")
Hey there @Olivier_Suire,
Thanks so much for taking the time to post! I absolutely understand your frustrations regarding not being able to completely empty a cartridge via the printer’s normal dispense.
To be perfectly open about things, this is a _really_ difficult feature for us to implement safely. The specific reason for this difficulty is that we don’t have a way to make sure the cartridge is actually empty when a user hits “empty completely” or whatever the option would be called. At this point, we prefer to keep a human in the loop. At HQ, we empty the last remnants of resin from a cartridge directly into a resin tank, and that way you’ll know that you’ve gotten all the material you can out of it.
As long as the resin level isn’t significantly above the upper fill line you should be totally safe to pour it in, insert a new cartridge and then start your print. The printer will sense the level of the resin right at the beginning and it will know that it doesn’t have to dispense more resin until the level drops a bit due to the material being used.
Alternatively, if this method makes you nervous, Sculptingman above me suggested switching to open mode just to finish that cartridge off, which is a perfectly good option as well.
We understand that this isn’t an ideal answer to your concerns, and we’re certainly going to keep investigating potential adjustments. Thanks so much again for the feedback.
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### Author:  [@Olivier\_Suire](https://forum.formlabs.com/u/Olivier_Suire)
#### Post date: [September 19, 2018, 7:23pm UTC](https://forum.formlabs.com/t/waiting-for-the-form-2-to-realize-there-is-no-more-resin-in-the-cartridge/20490/4 "2018-09-19T19:23:45Z")
Hi DKirch,
I know for a fact, because I sent my printer back for an exchange realted to faulty sensors, and because I read many complaints about it in the Forum, that you are struggling with that whole sensor business.
Randy Cohen’s suggestion still makes plenty of sense to me :
If the printer, after 10 minutes of trying to sqweeze a miserable drop out of the cartridge still doesn’t start or resume the print, then it should display systematically a message allowing the user to over-ride.
I can’t see how this is difficult to implement or how it could lead to any trouble apart running dry, which the user is perfectly aware of since he knows the cartridge is empty.
As Tesla realized with the Model 3 production line : **too much automation kills automation**.
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### Author:  [@Olivier\_Suire](https://forum.formlabs.com/u/Olivier_Suire)
#### Post date: [September 19, 2018, 7:26pm UTC](https://forum.formlabs.com/t/waiting-for-the-form-2-to-realize-there-is-no-more-resin-in-the-cartridge/20490/5 "2018-09-19T19:26:31Z")
Yes, I know, but this defeats the purpose of buying a 3000 $ printer.
The last 100 ml can translate into many prints depending on the parts and workflow specifics.
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### Author:  [@jupille](https://forum.formlabs.com/u/jupille)
#### Post date: [September 20, 2018, 5:18am UTC](https://forum.formlabs.com/t/waiting-for-the-form-2-to-realize-there-is-no-more-resin-in-the-cartridge/20490/6 "2018-09-20T05:18:18Z")
The really simple solution would be that once you post the first “low resin” warning the user would hit the “override” button and from that point until the end of the print just don’t even try to fill, essentially a no-op for the bite valve.
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### Author:  [@Sculptingman](https://forum.formlabs.com/u/Sculptingman)
#### Post date: [September 20, 2018, 5:37pm UTC](https://forum.formlabs.com/t/waiting-for-the-form-2-to-realize-there-is-no-more-resin-in-the-cartridge/20490/7 "2018-09-20T17:37:44Z")
I’ve never yet had the printer stop a print run when the resin runs out…
I get cartridge running out of resin warnings all the time- but I just estimate the amount the print will take versus what’s been printed out of that cartridge and if the resin in the tank should be enough to complete the print I just let it run.
Are you guys saying that the printer will STOP a print if it detects the resin in the tank getting too low?
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### Author:  [@JohnHue](https://forum.formlabs.com/u/JohnHue)
#### Post date: [September 20, 2018, 7:14pm UTC](https://forum.formlabs.com/t/waiting-for-the-form-2-to-realize-there-is-no-more-resin-in-the-cartridge/20490/8 "2018-09-20T19:14:03Z")
> [@Sculptingman](#):
>
> Are you guys saying that the printer will STOP a print if it detects the resin in the tank getting too low?
I once encountered this situation on a very big print. It may have been that the printer didn’t know the cartridge was low (maybe because we manually poured some resin out, which is something we don’t typically do but it could have happened), and it seemed to have realized it when the resin level wasn’t rising after several refilling attempts.
In this situation the printer threw a “cartridge empty” error and stopped. This was several months ago.
EDIT I just read that “end-of-print” errors due to level sensing and resin dispensing are being worked on and a first pass on these issues was released with the Aug 2018 update
> [@Toggle to ignore resin low warnings](http://forum.formlabs.com/t/toggle-to-ignore-resin-low-warnings/17237/45):
>
> Hey everyone, Thanks so much for taking the time to contribute to this thread. We hear your frustrations and agree it’s time to offer some clarification on some of the issues raised throughout the conversation here. Regarding the “Cartridge Low” warning appearing too late, our software team has been made aware of the issue and they are evaluating what it would take to adjust some of the system logic in the Form 2 to move this warning. Our primary goal (and roadblock) is making absolutely cert…
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### Author:  [@system](https://forum.formlabs.com/u/system)
#### Post date: [September 27, 2018, 7:14pm UTC](https://forum.formlabs.com/t/waiting-for-the-form-2-to-realize-there-is-no-more-resin-in-the-cartridge/20490/9 "2018-09-27T19:14:09Z")
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