Please clarify what you mean by soak?
When you’ve got a channel that nothing is coming out of, like C, or virtually nothing, like PK, then there are two options. Yet another head clean, or pushing some flush through the channel, which generally will trigger a head clean depending how you do it. A variation on the second option is to swap a flush cart in and then back out again a while later, which will mean two head cleans. How did you choose to do the “soak”?
With a slightly filled syringe with the cleaning solution and the dummy cartridge, I put them over the nozzle and pushed through some solution and just left everything in place overnight.
Interesting approach. There are several ways to do this. As it happens, I’m trying yet again with my own R2880. I’ve had some of your issues (including the red flashing lights). I may need to try this trick on one channel. So how did you do it? Did you move the head to the ink exchange position and pull the plug? Or some other approach?
Brian S, about right. After pressing the ink button on the top, getting the print head in the right position, turning it off, positioning printhead to the left, putting power towel down, moving printhead back to the right, I then pulled out a cart, took the loaded syringe with cleaning fluid and the dummy cleaning head and puth them over the nozzle, pushed a bit of fluid through and then left it there for about 8-12 hours. Sorry for the poor sentence structure.
Update. BAD NEWS. I was almost there. I was down to one nozzle not printing properly so I put it through a cleaning cycle. Something I had been avoiding as it uses so much ink. Now I am back to the two red blinking lights. Any advice???
If it was single nozzle on a single channel, then you’d almost never see that in a print and I would have left it, of perhaps have printed a single channel purge pattern to try and clear it. It probably would have cleared itself.
When I had the flashing red lights last night, which I think were the same as yours (paper and ink buttons), I followed the instructions that showed in the Epson s/w and turned it off for several minutes. I also disconnected it from the power. When I reconnected it, it did a head clean and off it went. The Epson s/w did say to remove any obstacles, of which there weren’t any. This has happened to both of use after a full clean, and like you I felt I was very careful, but despite that I wonder if flush has gotten in somewhere.
Or do we have faulty heads? I’m not convinced that I haven’t still got a leaking PK cart. It’s only 14 hours later, but I think I see more black on the capping station that I should. That’s been the first sign in the past. Time will tell. But I need time to hurry up and tell me soon. There’s a cashback on the R3000 until 31 Jan, and while I really don’t want a colour printer with ink lines, I’m well and truly over fighting with three different printers that I’ve used (or tried to use) for colour work.
Next chapter. I pulled the electrical cord out of the outlet. Put it back in, turned it on and no blinking lights. I ran a nozzle check and I get a black smear that shows a lot of ink on the paper. Any thoughts?
I can’t figure out how to attach a file to the reply. I want to show a scan of the nozzle check printout.
I received this response to the printout, “Your pdf nozzle check is due to the golden flat pin of the printhead cable is not inline with the golden pin inside the printhead. Unplug the printhead cable from the printhead and re-insert the cable to the printhead, ensuring the white printhead cable golden flat pin is well inserted deep inside the printhead pin slot.” Does this make any sense?
A reply from whom? It sort of makes sense to me - they want you to unplug and replug the cable to the print head, which I think is a ribbon cable. Not something that I’ve tried. I wonder if flush has gotten into somewhere where it shouldn’t, which is another possible explanation. If you’re game you could try the cable. You may find it’s wet. There was one report here of someone who had drowned his printer in flush and hard to take the print head apart to dry it out. Tyler Boley did something similar with his R1900 (same printer physically but with different OEM inks) and he had to wait many months for it to dry out.
That scan is not a clog or leak issue. There’s something physically wrong with the printer, IMHO.
I am not comfortable trying to unplug and plug the printhead cable. On the printerknowledge forum, someone suggested printing out a specific color file (at this point the exact file is irrelevant). I tried printing and it started to print and then reverted to the red blinking lights. I turned it off, then turned it on and pulled the plug, to be able to move the printhead. In the process, it ejected the printed paper that then had an enormous amount of ink on it. Any suggestions anyone?
It may be possible that one of the carts is leaking. I have extra carts. I am going to replace the three black/grey carts and see what happens.
It’s your printer and you’re welcome to try, but my view is that the scan you posted indicates that there’s a physical fault somewhere, perhaps an electronic one, and until you fix it you won’t get the printer working.
That nozzle check printout is showing an electrical error, which I suspect may be caused by the print cable being wet.
I would remove the print head (I believe it’s 3 small screws), and carefully remove and dry the ribbon cable and where it plugs in on the head. If you see this area is wet, it may be good to use some canned air to blow out the plug in area to dry it out. With the head removed, I would also look at the bottom to see how it looks, and if needed- carefully clean it with PiezoFlush or distilled water and Q-tips, making sure not to get anything too wet, but a gentle moist wipe down of areas won’t hurt anything. I always use a dry Q-tip to dry as much moisture off areas before reconnecting everything and testing the machine.
Best of luck~ Dana 
I will try that and report back in a few days.
Ok, I hope everything goes well. Please do keep us posted!
I don’t see how to remove the printhead. I have removed the ink guide and removed the cable holder. Do I have to remove the ink guide on the other side to get at the two other screws? I can’t find a description of how to remove the guide. Am I doing something wrong? I want to make sure I don’t force anything. I don’t see how I get to the end of the cable to see the connection. Please advise.
The response you will get probably is that IJM isn’t a printer servicing consultancy, although they do occasionally offer a few tips. They sell ink, paper and cartridges. At some point you need to get a service manual, or professional help. The service manual for R2880 is not that expensive, and not that hard to find for free on the internet. I’m not going to post a link, since I’m not sure that it’s legal to simply post online, but if you Google on “epson R2880 service manual” then you’ll find a site of Tim Taylor which has it. If this is the same document that I have then the material you want is section 4.4.3 on starting on page 96. Note: I have no experience in doing this, but there are others here who have who may be able to advise you.
p.s. This may look complex, but it is about complete disassembly. I think you only need the bits that relate to removing the print head.
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