[QUOTE=walkerblackwell;11839]What I think is happening is you are getting cross contamination in the channel walls of the print-head. Often this looks like a combination of clogs and then half of one shade will actually print a mixture of itself and a shade next to it. This can happen with this printer if it’s old, but it is rare. I have one in lab that actually does this but I use it every day successfully: Basically you need to empty your carts and refill from the correct bottles. Reset them and place them back in the printer. It will do 1 cleaning. Do one more cleaning and let the printer sit for an hour. Then print a nozzle check. If the nozzle check is good, print an image to see if all is well. If the check is bad do one more cleaning and let sit.
If cyan is clogged, you very well may have in-advertently gotten a particle in the ink inlet. Put the small format flush kit over that inlet (with a small amount of piezoflush primed through the flush device) and suck up instead of pull down. This can dislodge gunk that got partially into the inlet. I down this so do the first procedure first.
best,
Walker[/QUOTE]
The cross contamination went away after many of the cleanings. I had emptied the carts and refilled with the correct bottles, reset them and placed them back into the printer where it did one cleaning (that is when I did 2 more cleanings prior to my print). I am going to try the cyan cleaning as per your recommendation as it is now printing about 2/3rd’s of a pattern after many cleanings. I will follow your directions thoroughly. Thank you.
Brian…Thank you as well for all of your input. I had dropped a cart prior to putting it in. I did tap it, but it probably had the air gaps as you mentioned. I had waited prior to that, but probably dropping caused the issue of leaks.
I had gotten the printer as a refurbished a while back, but it could have been an extended warranty one.
The cartridge is most likely damaged beyond usability if it has been dropped. Inside of the cartridge is a small plastic film holding the ink in! If a drop happens it will leak.
I recommend a new LC cartridge if possible.
If you have an extra cartridge of another color that is empty you can simply put your LC chip on it and use it in the LC slot.
I had done that (replaced the cartridge just in case it had been damaged from the drop). I replaced all the carts with new ones. Filled them and put them in where it did a cleaning and I did a second cleaning. I did the nozzle check and there was cross contamination. Waited an hour and I did another cleaning and nozzle check and the contamination seemed worse. In the process now of waiting another hour. UPDATE: 3rd cleaning no contamination, but some of the nozzles didn’t check out (Cyan -2 and Magenta-5, 4th cleaning more of the same (except different nozzles didn’t check out (Black-1, Cyan-2).
Like I said, I had perfect nozzle checks prior to me doing any maintenance. Is there anything I could have done during maintenance that caused the walls to fail? Any way that I can correct it if I had (other than wasting ink). TIA
[QUOTE=walkerblackwell;11842]The cartridge is most likely damaged beyond usability if it has been dropped. Inside of the cartridge is a small plastic film holding the ink in! If a drop happens it will leak.
I recommend a new LC cartridge if possible.
If you have an extra cartridge of another color that is empty you can simply put your LC chip on it and use it in the LC slot.
5th cleaning is again cross contamination! After that, I see that the head is not clearing with basic cleanings, so I again had the heads go over a paper towel soaked in Piezofluid and again flushed the heads with Piezofluid and sucked them all up with the maintenance cart and syringe. My questions… Should I continue to flush the cyan head as suggested (that is what is giving the contamination leak) where I continue to suck up the ink and try to clear it.
Like I said I had a clean nozzle check before doing any maintenance.
Another option if I cannot get that nozzle to clear is bypass it all together and use the system as a K6 / Glossy. I don’t do any matte at the moment anyway. I will have to be advised to where to look to change the curves and carts. This has been very frustrating, but a good learning lesson.
The last nozzle check seemed “close” so I printed a QTR-Rip Calibration page and it didn’t look good. Magenta seemed to have cleared, but it is leaking into the yellow (didn’t seem to show cross contamination in the nozzle check). However, when printing a nozzle check right after the QTR-RIP Calibration page with no cleaning of heads in between showed a cross contamination in the nozzle check between Cyan and Yellow.
UPDATE: It was the Magenta that has been cross contaminating. When I went to take out the carts, Magenta was empty while the others were only half empty (telling me that it is leaking to other channels. This could be the problem all along as my Magenta is almost out; however I did have good nozzle checks. I simply was assuming that I put the wrong ink in. Maybe when I put the cart in when it was empty, it began to leak onto other carts; hence the bad results.
I now did what was recommended with the Magenta channel (piezofluid and lift out). When I did that to the cyan, it must have cleared the channel. I will give an update on how it worked. I am now in the middle of waiting for an hour before my next cleaning. Like I said, maybe I will bypass it all together and go to a K6 glossy format and switch the curves if I cannot get it to stop cross contaminating.
In short, two years ago I also bought a second-hand R2880 for colour work with ConeColorPro inks. I only print colour intermittently, and so wanted an easy-to-maintain printer and one that I could easily hibernate. Like you, the one I bought appeared to be in excellent condition and the WICReset utility indicated that it was fairly low mileage. The bottom line is that I never got it to work to my satisfaction with refillables. I came close, but not quite. It currently sits under my house with flush carts in. In part I was unlucky, as the first set of IJM refillable carts I used had a faulty magenta cart (shipped back to IJM and confirmed as faulty by Kelly). If you read the second thread, you’ll see how far I persisted. This printer was one of several that lead me to write that “lessons I have learned” post:
Thank you Brian… I really see some of the same struggles you had with your r2880. I’m going to buy more Piezoflush and a waste ink dispenser.
My initial prints were wonderful! But I also have to get back to work. So I am going to get more flush and a waste bottle (and not do so many cleanings anyway). I will read more, but I have to punt on this for a little while and have my prints done at the lab as I have done for years. I just wanted true B&W for my customers. I’ll continue to read your threads you gave me… Just a little bug eyed right now. Thank you again.
[QUOTE=Brian_S;11851]Al, since you’re doing a lot of research, you may be interested in a couple of other (long) threads. Most of the action is in the second thread:
In short, two years ago I also bought a second-hand R2880 for colour work with ConeColorPro inks. I only print colour intermittently, and so wanted an easy-to-maintain printer and one that I could easily hibernate. Like you, the one I bought appeared to be in excellent condition and the WICReset utility indicated that it was fairly low mileage. The bottom line is that I never got it to work to my satisfaction with refillables. I came close, but not quite. It currently sits under my house with flush carts in. In part I was unlucky, as the first set of IJM refillable carts I used had a faulty magenta cart (shipped back to IJM and confirmed as faulty by Kelly). If you read the second thread, you’ll see how far I persisted. This printer was one of several that lead me to write that “lessons I have learned” post:
Thank you Walker … I am also going to purchase more flush and a waste bottle kit as well. I do question if this has all been worth it. So far I have 20 or so great prints and have gone through over half my ink! I’ve literally been flushing it down the waste pads now (soon to be bottle). I hope so because I really love B&W and have a niche market to sell my product. Hopefully someday I will be able to take these classes you offer, but not at the rate I am going lol.
[QUOTE=walkerblackwell;11852]AlCheech. Sorry. Didn’t get to this until just now. Was finishing up Piezography Pro all day (on 2 R2880s no less).
I think it’s the carts. Will get you an RMA Monday.
just one word Walker: " WOW", I 'm looking forward! the Al Cheech’s post made me smile, I felt less alone (My current problem is to solve this “pink” selenium print, even after complet cleaning with flush…)
Definitely the carts worked, but then I had issues as soon as I ran out of ink and did cleaning (cross contamination). I was hoping that by changing the waste bottle that it would solve the issue, but I am still not getting perfect lines on my check and the more cleanings then the cross contamination to the yellow channel. However, if I wait a few hours, I think the capping station dries enough so it works properly (with no cross contamination). When I print a few calibrations and then a nozzle check, it works. I bought a R2000 without the head to replace the capping station (but the folks at my UPS store gave the printer to someone else and I am not getting it until Monday - unbelievable!)
I am “hoping” the capping station solves the problem as I no longer have soiled pads to worry about. If it doesn’t, I am going to go K6 and put pflush in the yellow and switch the curve (PK and MK) so PK is where MK is. I thought by buying a refurbished machine I wouldn’t have issues. I think the whole time it was the capping station that is giving me the issue. I could have had multiple issues though as I didn’t print calibration checks and can’t find some of the nozzle checks I did so I could compare (where I possibly put the wrong ink in one cart.)
Let me know if these are the right procedures to continue to do.
Change capping station
if doesn’t work, use K6 with Pflush in yellow channel and switch the PK and MK curve in the K6 (will have to learn how to do that). I print glossy right now. But if I print matte I would simply use switch the PK with MK and use the Cone K6 regular curve and Also, glossy runs out after around 15 prints. Is that normal?
Also, I get a hairline when using Epson Fiber Gallery paper about 4 inches down all the way to the end of the page (right where the plastic catch is). The Cone paper indents a little but seems to have more “give” so to speak where it is not noticeable. With the Epson paper, it is not bad, but when putting the glossy overprint it is noticeable in the light at times…doesn’t look like a perfect darkroom print. Any help to avoid?
After working with it the last few days, all seems “pretty well.” I’m not getting any cross contamination (possibly because of the waste bottle…don’t know if that helped the situation)… Perfect Nozzle checks. My issue with the bad carts went away as well. My only issue when I print multiple GO is lines in the GO (more than just on the top and bottom 1" it seems) any reason for that. fortunately I am printing 8x8’s and don’t have any issue with banding on the actual picture itself.
Question, what is good “cheap” matte paper for testing prints (that are supported). Seems like there are much more papers supported for matte than for glossy. Thanks everyone (Brian & Walker)
Epson Enhanced Matte, although I think it’s been renamed to something like ultra premium presentation matte paper. There are a number of papers with very similar names, so make sure that you get the right one. This paper is somewhat cooler and brighter that many of the rag papers, but you can allow for that.
What resolution/speed are you printing the GO w/. If banding appears I always go to 2880 UniDirectional. If it’s still there then you have a nozzle issue there.
I have Epson - Ultra Premium Photo Paper Luster (that may be the one). I also have Epson Exhibition Photo paper (which is for the glossy, and that gives me a little hairline about 4" down all the way to the end of the print that you can see if it is at a particular angle). After my shade 7 depletes I think I am going to go with a K6 system with no ink changes. Does the PiezoDN use the curves of P2 (K6?) I see that PiezoDN is for sale for the r2880, but it says it is still in development when looking at the PiezoDN literature (which may be behind). It was one of the reasons dedicating a printer for all B&W. Boy is it nice getting perfect nozzle checks now!
Walker, I was doing the printing at 1440 bidirectional, I am going to try 2880… Like I said, it is perfect for a few prints and then it gets the banding. Also, the banding currently is not on the print area 8x8. Thank you for the suggestion.
I had exactly the same problem with my R2000 when I started printing with it a few weeks ago. New printer, new carts, first prints with Piezography. When I printed the GO at 1440 bidirectional I had bands everywhere.
The first thing I tried was 2880 unidirectional. I had no bands. Then I tried 1440 unidirectional (much faster) and I also got no bands.
I have two hypotheses: one that it’s caused by bidirectional printing; the other that the GO cart had air bubbles at the beginning, so the nozzle was not firing completely and then they went away and it fixed (I experienced a similar banding when I ran out of GO during a print, so it may be that the ink was not flowing properly). Checking the GO nozzles isn’t easy because you see the pattern only if you print on glossy paper; so to do a nozzle check you have to waste a sheet of expensive glossy paper, but it may be worth to ensure that it is firing properly.
So, double check that the cart is not low on GO, do a nozzle check on glossy paper, and try 1440 unidirectional.
Also, I have good news. I successfully recovered the prints with banding by printing again the GO layer on top once the issue was fixed. So, don’t throw them away, just print again the GO and they will look perfect.
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