One of the enduring complaints with pigment inks is head clogging when the printer is not exercised often enough. The obvious solution is to have the printer run a print every day automatically.
On the Mac we have Automator which can set up an iCal action to do just that - sometimes. Automator has an action recording feature that mimics the operator’s steps to make a print. In my case, I have a modification of the ink sep. file that prints an extended stripe of all 8 channels on the R3000, and I use that to manually exercise the printer (with copy paper) whenever I won’t be printing images for keeping.
I’ve use Automator in the past to do this task (in the middle of the night) on a daily basis. Unfortunately, no one (including the geniuses at Apple) seems to know how Automator actually works. And now I can’t get it to work without generating an error message. There is no documentation.
So, is there anyone on this forum who has created an automatic “Daily Print” routine (in Automator or other script) that he is willing to share? It would be a real service to the community. In fact, I’m certain that most of us would be willing to pay a modest fee for the software.
Come to think of it, why doesn’t IJM get involved? Is there a product lurking here, Jon?
[QUOTE=hlockwood;2622]One of the enduring complaints with pigment inks is head clogging when the printer is not exercised often enough. The obvious solution is to have the printer run a print every day automatically.
On the Mac we have Automator which can set up an iCal action to do just that - sometimes. Automator has an action recording feature that mimics the operator’s steps to make a print. In my case, I have a modification of the ink sep. file that prints an extended stripe of all 8 channels on the R3000, and I use that to manually exercise the printer (with copy paper) whenever I won’t be printing images for keeping.
I’ve use Automator in the past to do this task (in the middle of the night) on a daily basis. Unfortunately, no one (including the geniuses at Apple) seems to know how Automator actually works. And now I can’t get it to work without generating an error message. There is no documentation.
So, is there anyone on this forum who has created an automatic “Daily Print” routine (in Automator or other script) that he is willing to share? It would be a real service to the community. In fact, I’m certain that most of us would be willing to pay a modest fee for the software.
Come to think of it, why doesn’t IJM get involved? Is there a product lurking here, Jon?
Harry[/QUOTE]
It’s difficult to believe that not a single member of this forum is interested enough in this subject to make a comment.
Why don’t you study up on using the Automator on Mac OSX and contribute this to the forum? There are several books out on making Automator and Applescripts, etc. I am sure that there would be a lot of people interested in this - but may not have the expertise to tackle on their own.
Why don’t you study up on using the Automator on Mac OSX and contribute this to the forum? There are several books out on making Automator and Applescripts, etc. I am sure that there would be a lot of people interested in this - but may not have the expertise to tackle on their own.
Jon[/QUOTE]
Jon,
No one at Apple has been able to point me toward any kind of documentation. If you know of such, please share.
Search for Automator at Amazon and it will bring up some recipe books and how to’s that will give you a working understanding and set you on your own to create something.
Thanks for the suggestion to study up on the problem and to get a book. What I have learned from a forum on the topic is that there is a significant number of people who share my pain in getting a reliable iCal workflow. The best suggestion I got was to proceed by trial and error, and by gum, I was successful. I’ve run the program for several days now, and it appears to be stable.
The remaining problem, in the background, is a power failure sufficiently long to cause a restart. And yes, Jon, I am looking into uninterruptible power supplies.
The only question I would raise would be whether printing a sparse pattern like a nozzle check is sufficient to prevent clogging. But the ad does say that the software can be programmed to run multiple times per day, so that may not be an issue. The big advantage of that software, however, is that it will survive a power failure to print another day. Not true for the Mac; when power returns, the Admin has to enter his/her password and the apps (including iCal) have to be manually reopened, hence the need for an uninterruptible power supply.
Of course, if you have Parallels and Windows on your Mac (as I do), then naming Windows as the startup OS may circumvent this problem. I haven’t tested that approach.
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