Jack in the box capping station

InkjetMall Customer Support Printer Maintenance & Cartridges
1

Hello,

I’m just setting up a K7 ink set the first time. This printer has been in perfect running condition for 10 years. Just prior to installing the cartridges I had a massive ink leakage for some unknown reason and was attempting to clean the printer and verify its condition before converting it. The only possible relationship to the K7 ink set that I can think of was that I installed the cartridges a couple of weeks ago, , discovered that I had a defective PK reset chip and had to order another after which I removed the K7 set and replaced the original Epson cartridges. The printer was flagging a 90% full maintenance cartridge but perhaps the insertion and removal of the reset chips duped it into thinking it was less full then it thought.

Anyway that’s not why I’m calling. I received the reset chip yesterday and was trying to clean the printer and verify its condition before installing the Cone ink set. I watched the tutorials and thought I was careful, (I’m not much of a tinkerer and was hoping beyond all odds that that wouldn’t be too much of a problem converting this printer to K7 but… that was probably naive of me). There was so much ink that 24 hours after it sent out a print with a large puddle of ink all the way up the edge closest to the tank, there were still gobs of wet ink on and around the wiper and capping station.

It looked as though I had succeeded, the Q tips were coming back relatively clean and I could clearly see the pattern on the capping station. I installed the ink and ran the first power clean, and halfway through, heard crunching noises, then got the 1127 service error.

The capping station is now loose, popped up like a jack in the box. I’ve been attempting to re-position it, thinking that it has just come off its catches, but I haven’t been able to secure it back in place.

If a capping station is loose does this automatically mean something is broken? If not, can anybody help me get this back in place? And if it is broken does anyone know if official or unofficial Epson service centers might be able to fix this for less than the price of a another printer.

Any help would be greatly appreciated

thank you

Paul

2

I should probably start another thread but the history of this issue could be important.

Here are updates to this problem :

I resolved the capping station repair. I wrote this earlier:

OK I just got this and I’m replying to my own post encase there are others like me who need a lot of detail to figure things out.

After hours of delicately re positioning this thing on springs through all of the permutations of four corners and lateral positions at all the various depths , without being able to see beneath the station. I finally figured out that that black protruding dowel with cross formed end is a key that fits into a hole you cant see far below the station. There is a white plastic box structure to the extreme right of the capping station position at the bottom of which there is a hole large enough to fit this cross form into.

If you can gently push the station down far enough on this side once it has been secured on the left side it will go in the hole and slide up into position being held in place by this white plastic structure.

hope this helps anyone else who, like me isn’t very mechanically minded

I discovered another problem; the print head wasn’t depositing ink on the paper.

I did succeed in securing the capping station (see description above) . Immediately afterwards I reinstalled K7 set and jumped for joy when the printer accepted the cartridges. I executed 2 power cleanings, held my breath and made a trial print.

The print was blank. I sent it through again, again blank. The print head moves across the paper but its doesn’t deposit any ink. I sent a print command from Photoshop, directly from the printer panel ( nozzle test) , through Microsoft word and QTR, all blank. I interrupted an Auto nozzle check because , the printer was caught in a loop and the chip on the maintenance tank was adding ink every time it retried.

Update of this problem

I repeatedly cleaned the underside of the print head as instructed in the tutorial, thinking that maybe ink dried there since the head hasn’t been docked for more than 24 hours. For more than an hour I was getting jet black, vibrant crimson, cyan, and bright yellow ink on the towel. I decided to let the power cleaning run its course and it finally ended with a "cleaning error push reset " message.

I realized that the blank prints had been of a greyscale image so I couldn’t be sure all the cartridges weren’t printing. I sent the QTR calibration target to see exactly which cartridges were blocked. After manual print head cleaning and partial power cleaning at present the yellow cartridge seems to be the only one fully operational, PK MK LK and cyan cartridges are getting though faintly but with severe vertical banding. Both magenta cartridges are completely blocked . Also the print out had intense yellow and cyan as well as black ink in the gloss wedge indicating that the 2 power cleanings have not been enough to purge the Epson ink as yet.

I stored the K7 cartridges over the two week period i was waiting for the reset chip, they were in a zip lock bag but could this explain this problem ? I am reluctant to order new ink and cartridges if the problem is with the printer and has nothing to do with the conversion.

any help would be greatly appreciated

Paul

3

OK I finally got this and I’m replying to my own post in case there are others like me who need a lot of detail to figure things out.

After hours of delicately re positioning this thing on springs through all of the permutations of four corners and lateral positions at all the various depths , without being able to see beneath the station. I finally figured out that that black protruding dowel with cross formed end is a key that fits into a hole you cant see far below the station. There is a white plastic box structure to the extreme right of the capping station position at the bottom of which there is a hole large enough to fit this cross form into.

If you can gently push the station down far enough on this side once it has been secured on the left side it will go in the hole and slide up into position being held in place by this white plastic structure.

hope this helps anyone else who, like me isn’t very mechanically minded

Paul

4

This partially in reply to your other thread and partially in reply to this thread.

You have verified the first (easiest variable to head problems) which is priming the cartridges (and testing with OEM).

The most likely explanation is that your current maintenance unit (flush box, capping station) is miss-aligned and letting air into your nozzles during a clean. It may have been damaged beyond repair when it hit your head.

The second explanation is that your head was damaged during the aforementioned crunching episode described above.

The third explanation is that it’s the damper assembly that is miss-aligned. This is the thing that is on top of the head. This could have gotten jostled during its crunch moment. Evidence of a leaking damper shows up (often) has black leaking into other channels (aka, yellow channel) as ink is actually pooling at the inlet spikes (under the ink lines but above the head).

All of this can happen easily to a 3880 behavior if/when the cleaning assembly gets miss-aligned and strikes the head.

Related to the maintenance tank (other thread), the carts have no bearing on the chip of the maintenance tank. That said, it is very simply to reset these tanks and just take the cotton wadding out and put paper towel back in. This saves money in the long run.

Sorry for not replying in longer form this weekend.

all the best,
Walker

5

Walker,

Thank you for your replies.

I’m assuming print head would not have hit the cleaning station (suddenly after ten years) unless there was physical damage or displacement during the cleaning just prior. So logically your first and second scenario come back to the first, neither is possible without damage or misalignment to the capping station, in the first case preventing a vacuum seal and in the second case causing a fatal accident. This seems reasonable to me and corresponds to my perception of the evolution of the problem. I think I’ll go with misalignment; the critical event is clearly the manual clean and /or the knocking out of position of the capping station during the power clean. Everything worked before, nothing worked afterwards. But, if as you say the carts have no bearing on the maintenance tank chip, the reason for the massive black ink leakage is still a mystery and may point to the true origin of this problem.

Is there any way that you can verify that my description of replacing the capping station corresponds to proper positioning? I’m asking because if the cleaning station is in the wrong position I will want to correct this and I would greatly appreciate knowing how. How will I know when the capping station is correctly positioned? As you can see in the above post, I played with this box on springs for a couple of days before I was able simply to secure it in place.

I am intrigued about “dampers” I am just now learning about them, another part of the 3800 anatomy that I was completely impervious to. I am watching videos and trying to assimilate all the information. I have read the service manual and found out where the two screws are that detached it from the print head. For me this is like a vertical learning curve. I watched a video this afternoon of someone who removed the damper and cleaned the exposed nozzles by injecting and retracting cleaning fluid. Would that help this situation?

But as you say, if the damper is misaligned how do I realign it, do I… unscrew it and screw it back in, or take it off and bang it with a hammer?

I have to say it appears as though my problems are with the printer and not with the inkset so I am outside of the responsibility of Inkjet Mall, although we both have so much to gain if I could ever make this work.

Thanks for your help

Paul

6

Dear Paul.

What I suggest is to read the service manual, unscrew the damper assembly, place it back down and screw it back in (carefully and not over-tight). Then do the same for the cleaning assembly (take it out and put back in).

Your procedure for fixing your capping station was correct from your written words, although it’s hard for me to verify that it was done exactly to spec.

-Walker

7

Walker,

I detached and reattached the damper housing. Completely cleaned and repositioned the capping station. I found a tiny spring lying on the cleaning assembly, no idea where it belongs. I flushed cleaning fluid in and back out of the 8 printhead nozzles, there was no ink in the syringe afterwards making me believe the print head is not clogged. For me this is brain surgery so there are a million ways that I could have screwed up taking the printer apart or putting it back together. At present there is absolutely no ink of any kind from any nozzle reaching the paper. The cleaning assembly remains clean, and the printhead appears to be completely dry. I have the feeling no ink is being drawn from the cartridges. I was able to execute a power clean, but I doubt very much that one actually took place. I also appear to be able to execute black ink changes.

The printer seems normal except for a screechy sound it makes during black ink change and power clean.

Anyway just to say. I’m giving up. I’m reluctant to invest more in this printer. Perhaps I’ll try again to convert a printer to K7 whenever I replace my P800.

Thank you for your help and patience

Best Regards

Paul