Hi: I ordered and received the Piezoflush kit for my Epson 7890 yesterday and did an INIT FILL in preparation for leaving the country next Monday (1/12/15) for 2 months. In addition I had a persistent LC nozzle check which was missing 3-4 lines in the middle. It is now >12 hours since the init fill and I ran a nozzle check and found the same LC problem as well as a new C nozzle problem. Did a routine cleaning and this persisted.
Question: Should I leave the printer power off for another 24 hours to let the flushing solution dissolve clogs and then do another INIT FILL? I am also thinking of doing the other procedures recommended by you guys such as cleaning the flush box, capping station, viper blade etc… with Piezo solution before departing. Should I be trying anything else to resolve the LC and C nozzle clogs at this time? BTW all the channels show pink except for C, PK and Y (faint color trace present). Also what about the MK channel? Should I do an ink change from PK to MK before the second INIT FILL? Thanks for any help you can provide. Happy new year to you all!
Natraj
Hi Natraj~
Yes, I recommend letting the printer sit with PiezoFlush for 24hrs, then do 1-4 regular cleaning cycles with nozzle checks between each. If it’s not better, I suggest doing one power clean cycle (or a paired power clean cycle) before doing another Initial Fill. Yes, I recommend manually cleaning the capping stations, wiper blade, flushing box and bottom of the head following our instructions, here: http://www.inkjetmall.com/tech/content.php?133-Printer-Cleaning-and-Preventative-Maintenance
The Init Fill flushes ALL channels at once (including both blacks). If you still see color in some channels, then you may ant to do 1-2 power clean cycles to purge remaining color and get pure PiezoFlush flowing thru the head.
I hope this helps!
Warmly~ Dana
Thanks! Will do as advised and report back tomorrow.
Natraj
You’re very welcome, I hope it helps! 
Hi: Yesterday (Friday) I tried everything you suggested-- 2 regular cleanings, 1 power clean, paired LC/VLM cleaning and then a second initial fill all 30 minutes apart. After this I did a manual cleaning of the flush box, capping stations and viper blade with piezo solution as well as the procedure to “shoe shine” the print head with piezo-soaked bounty strip. As a result all the ink channels now are pink and am happy about that. However the LC channels on nozzle check is still showing the missing middle bands (3-4 lines). Meanwhile I looked thru the thread “Epson 9890 light cyan problems” started by Allen Walsh and my problem seems eerily similar to his as well as another more recent poster. I am leaving he country monday (1/12/15) and will be back in March at which time I hope to benefit from any additional advise you can provide and act accordingly. I really, really, really don’t (lack the technical know how) and cannot afford to replace the printhead. Please Help!
Thanks for the update. I’m glad to hear you were able to get all channels printing pink PiezoFlush, but sorry to hear the LC channel still has missing nozzles. Since you have flushed the printer, and manually cleaned the internal part, before leaving for the next two months. You may be lucky, and return to find the LC channel working well again after it sits with PiezoFlush, but if the head is permanently clogged, worn out or damaged, and doesn’t fully return, then you will need to replace the print head to resume color printing, or can repurpose this printer for Piezography printing, changing the curve structure to make use of your good working channels.
I hope you have a good trip, and please let me know how things look when you return in March.
Warmly~ Dana
Hi: I am back and checked the printer. The LC channel is still missing nozzles. I am ready to take your advise and re-purpose the Epson 7890 for Piezography. Two questions: (1) What should I be purchasing from you guys to get started on Piezography? Please also suggest appropriate reading material (2) I wish to continue to print in color also and will settle for a 17" printer. Since I don’t want to have clogging problems again (!) what printer model would you suggest? An Epson 3880 or should I go for Canon as I am hearing that they are clog-free and the head is easily replaceable? Thanks for any advise.
I’m sorry to hear your LC channel still isn’t fully printing, and am happy to help you repurpose it with a custom Piezography setup.
Are you interested in setting this printer up for matte only, or do you want to print both matte and gloss? Keep in mind, these model printers have a sensor that makes GO printing inconsistent- sometimes it works and prints over the whole page, but sometimes it stops short, which is frustrating, and unfortunately the only way around it is to use a different printer, such as a 7800/9800 or 7880/9880 (which don’t have this annoying sensor) to print GO.
What paper(s) do you mainly print on?
Please let me know and I’ll follow up with shade placement and let you know how we can handle curve modification.
Best regards~ Dana
Hi Dana: Before I answer your question(s) let me read the New Piezography Manual and educate myself. Otherwise I will be wasting your time. Cheers
Hi: Just to follow up (1) Even though the LC channel (and maybe the C also) are blocked I was able to print some beautiful pictures of flowers from a botanical garden in Singapore. Of the 34 pics only 2 showed banding (areas of sky with cyan). Pictures of people were also not affected (to my eye). I am going to continue printing in color for a while until the cone colors I have are exhausted. Most of the carts have only 25-30% pigment left and so this should not be too long. (2) Meanwhile I have read the New Piezography manual and getting the hang of the thing. Since my Epson 7890 has 2 defective channels (LC and C) I have 7 perfect channels which should make K7 printing possible. I won’t have a spare for Gloss media and as you point out GO printing on a 7890 is inconsistent making GO printing is a “no-go” for me . Perhaps I can spray gloss manually? Hence the choice would be to set it up for matte printing on perhaps Hahnemuhle photo rag which I have heard great things about for BW work. No personal experience with this paper (I have been using Epson Enhanced Matte paper rolls -24" for BW prints so far). (3) I have downloaded the QuadRIP and print tools from the site you recommended and learning about them. (4) On an unrelated note if I have to stop printing color on the 7890 I would like to purchase a smaller desktop pro printer like 3880 for color work. Since you make Cone inks for it and have experience can you comment on the dreaded clogging problems , ease of changing print heads (if the same thing that happened to the 7890 should recur) etc…
At this point can you clarify if I am making sense and what should I do going forward. Thanks!
Natraj
Dana has been very busy with Studio work this past month, so I will chime in here.
Yes, your understanding of re-purposing your 9890 to a Piezography K7 printer is correct, without the LC & C channels you will have 9 available channels. You are also correct in the fact that these X9XX printer models are not reliable for printing GO. SO, you would have the perfect printer for our K7 matte system. We would recommend that you have an extra printer on hand for the GO process if you decided to go that route, applying GO by the spray method is not uniform like applying with a printer through QTR and you will not achieve consistent results.
As for the 3880 question, this would depend on what size papers you will be printing on. These printer models do NOT have the same clogging problems as the X9XX printer platforms, because my understanding is the heads are made up differently. We have great success with the all the desktop models, our favorite is the 2880, but this only does papers up to 13" wide. The 3880 will print on 17" papers. This will be your deciding factor, the 3880 has internal ink lines & dampers, essentially a smaller X9XX printer with a different head design. The R2880 does NOT have internal ink lines, making it easy to switch between ConeColorPRO and Piezography, you can even use it for GO printing. Depending on what size papers you need to print on for color, deciding between the R2880 & the 3880 should be an easy decision. You will not be able to use the 3880 as a GO printer if you are using it for Color work, you will need all your channels for color and because there is internal ink lines, it will use up a lot more ink to switch over to another ink set. Hope this helps answer your questions, it looks like you are on the right track!
Kindly,
Kelly
Hi Kelly: Thanks for the response. You make a compelling case for 2880 as opposed to 3880. I think I will be happy with 13" prints and smaller footprint of the 2880. Your statement “The R2880 does NOT have internal ink lines, making it easy to switch between ConeColorPRO and Piezography, you can even use it for GO printing” leaves me puzzled. Since this is a 9 color printer (K3 vivid cone color) in 9 cartridges where is the place for gloss overlay for GO printing in color that you refer to? Thanks!
Natraj
You use the LLK channel of your R2880 for GO printing. This happens when using Piezography workflow, this is already part of the set-up by using the LLK cartridge as your dedicated GO channel.
If you have CCPRO installed you can replace the LLK cart with the GO cart and do 3x cleaning cycles and obviously verify a good NC, voila you are printing GO. Same if you have Piezoflush carts installed (which we recommend if your printer sits unused for more then 2 weeks), replace the LLK cart with the GO cart, 3xcc’s and again, you are printing GO! SO, you see you have options with the R2880 that you wouldn’t with the 3880 if you don’t need to print over 13" wide.
Hi Natraj~
Sorry for not responding sooner, I have been out for the past several days with a stomach bug, so am finally back in the office and catching up on emails.
The 9890 printer has a total of 9 cartridges, but only 8 print channels (only one black prints at a time), so if your C and LC channels aren’t printing well, you’re left with 6 useable channels, which is just enough for a custom K6 matte setup (as long as all other channels are working well).
With a bad C and LC channel, I would like you to set up the Piezography ink shades in the following order:
MK= Neutral shade #1
PK= PiezoFlush (unused)
C= PiezoFlush (unused)
LC= PiezoFlush (unused)
M= shade #4
LM= shade #5
LK= shade #6
Y= shade #2
LLK= shade #3
With Piezography ink shades in the above order, I can make you up to five curves modified from existing curves for your shade placement, or two custom curves for your specific printer and ink setup. The cost of either five modified curves or two custom curves is $100.
Please let me know if you have questions or there’s anything else I can help you with.
Warmly~ Dana
Hi Dana and KellyC: I was getting ready to buy an epson R2880 as suggested by KellyC for both color and piezography work when I came upon the announcement from Epson about the SureColor P600 which replaces it. Epson is also having a 15% off sale until May 28 on the P600 and I can get for $679.99. My purchase of same will depend on availability of non-OEM ink availability. Without committing yourself can you give me a rough idea of whether you guys are working on formulating suitable inks and cartridges for it in the future? For the time being I am shelving repurposing the epson 7890 for Piezography work but may return to it in a few months. Thanks for all your help
Natraj
We don’t yet know if the P600 or P800 will be supported with refillable carts and QuadTone RIP to run Piezography, but our cartridge manufacturing company is working on it, and we’ll make an announcement as soon as we know more.
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