Ricoh SP 311. On chips, toners and gauges

ricoh-sp311-01From time to time we see the posts about refilling of monochrome cartridges Ricoh sp311 in some specialized forums and conferences. But no one has a given a clear answer yet. In this article we will reveal a number of technical solutions regarding to refill and consumables for Ricoh SP311LE and SP311HE. As I said before new generation of printers and MFPs Ricoh SP311 is designed on the basis of Ricoh SP300/SP3510.

ricoh-sp311-1
New kind of chip is used in the cartridge

Accordingly the technology of refilling is the same but all the differences are in small but very important nuances. First of all, Ricoh SP311 is equipped with OPC drum with a big amount of gear teeth. The next important difference is in the chip. The print cartridge SP311 has the same chip as in Ricoh SP200. The difference is only in the chip reflashing, the process is quite easy. I must say that we won’t share the firmware in free access, in order to avoid prices dumping.

ricoh-sp311-2
Position of flag gear of toner sensor for empty toner chamber
ricoh-sp311-3
Here is the real toner sensor in the cartridge

On sensors. It’s not a secret that cartridges Ricoh SP300/3400/3500/311 are equipped with toner sensor. But no one has figured out the principle of operation and was too lazy to disassemble the printer. The sensor appeared to be extremely primitive, but very accurate. The gauge displays two states of cartridge: empty and full.

ricoh-sp311-4
Position of the bar for full cartridge

There is a bar inside the cartridge which can be in two positions, depending on the amount of toner inside. After filling with toner it’s enough to manually rotate the OPC drum a few times, to set the bar into the right position, signaling the device on the full toner chamber. The main criterion for the presence of any sensors in the cartridge is a chip. There are no reed sensors there. By the way, if you forget to cock the sensor the device will record this information to the chip and the resource of cartridge will be automatically reduced.

The same toner is used for all cartridges of the series Ricoh SP. The cartridges can be filled with the original toner Ricoh SP100 or toner for monochrome cartridges Samsung.

 

2 thoughts on “Ricoh SP 311. On chips, toners and gauges”

  1. Hello, this is very useful information, thanks! i’m trying to reflashing the chip of my printer Ricoh SP 311 but i dont have the original binary. can you guys help me with that? Thanks! (wdiaz.yomi@gmail.com)

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *