Also, the 3880 cartridges have computer chips in them. How do third party inks get around that?
The 3800, 3880, and the new X900 printers have very complicated chip readers. So these chips are very expensive to make. We do have some 7900 carts right now that are resettable, and we have some that reset themselves. Neither uses a resetter - but rather a sequence of events which causes the chips to reset. In the case of the 7900 carts that reset themselves, you push a button on the cart.
The 3800/3880 reset themselves but they require two piggy back custom chips which are used to cause the reset to all the others. We supply the carts with these custom chips.
For older printers such as the X880, x800 we supply resetters. For most our desktop printers - they now reset themselves...
Chip making is very sophisticated these days - but the Millenium Act prevents the making of a 100% compatible chip. So when these carts are inserted it triggers the Epson firmware to say that the carts are not 100% genuine...and that the use "may" void your warranty. If the carts were to destroy the chip reader, that would be a void of warranty. But the use of the inks will not void the warranty, nor will the use of the carts.
Jon Cone
InkjetMall