Solved: Communication Error. Epson Adjustment Program

InkjetMall Customer Support Printer Maintenance & Cartridges
1

Hi,

I am trying to flush my Epson R3000 with piezoflush prior to charging with K7 inks.

I’ve filled and installed the refillable cartridges for the R3000. I have installed Parallels Desktop Version 8 on my mac and downloaded the Epson Adjustment software. It doesn’t seem to have any instructions or installer so I have run it from it’s location on the hard drive and it runs o.k.

However when I try to run any of the functions of the Epson Adjustment software I get a communication error;

Communication Error!

Error Code : 20000101

I must admit I am finding windows pretty confusing. I have to use a Windows PC at work but I haven’t used one at home since I got a Mac in 2006 so this may well be a simple configuration issue but I’m a little stumped. Can anyone help? I know Jon uses Parallels for Windows RIPs so maybe he knows where I’m going wrong.

Thanks,
Neil.

2

Hi Neil~

I’m sorry to hear you’re having an error with the Adjustment Program, but that’s not something we support. I recommend you contact 2Manuals.com for assistance with the AP (assuming you got it from them).

Just one quick thought- to use Windows on a Mac, you need to install both parallels, and Windows OS- did you install both, or just Parellels?

Best regards~ Dana

3

Hi Dana.

Yes I’ve installed both.

4

I’m sorry I don’t know the answer to this. I have used the Adjustment Program with our R3000 thru Windows on a Mac thru Parallels, so I know it works, but don’t know what’s causing your error and suggest you contact the company you got the AP from for assistance.

Best regards~ Dana

5

Hi Dana,

Thanks for your replies. It is helpful to know that you have successfully used the adjustment program from windows via parallels running on a Mac. Knowing that, I’m hoping it’s just some sort of silly issue with the printer driver under windows. I’m going to check that out today.

If I don’t get it working how many pages do you think I would have to run through of the QTR purge file which prints 100% through each channel, in order to see the piezoflush come through.

(I can’t help but think that would have been quicker than all the time I’ve wasted trying to set up parallels, windows and the adjustment program :wink: )

Thanks Dana,
Neil

6

Hi Neil~

The difference of the two methods is sucking ink thru the lines and head when doing an initial fill or power clean cycles, vs. pushing the ink thru by printing the purge sheets. To flush all nine channels, it is best to do an initial fill cycle thru thru adjustment program. Have you checked to see if you can connect to the R3000 printer thru the regular Epson utility from Windows, to do a nozzle check, etc? Often when testing inks in our R+D room, I will print a purge image I made from the Ink Separation image, which prints pure strips of 100% density of each ink, and I print on large sheets of paper to test ink flow, etc… With the R3000, you can print up to 13x19 paper size. I estimate it would take about one full letter size sheet of pure ink to purge a channel, so you may be able to do two channels at once with a 13x19 sheet (and use both sides!).

Best regards~ Dana :slight_smile:

7

Hi Dana,

Thanks for your reply. I actually replied at length previously but lost the page when being prompted to log in. That was the final straw and I had to walk away and count to ten…. :wink:

I have tried everything I can think of to get the adjustment program to work but I just constantly get that communication error. I’ve not sought help from the suppliers of the Adjustment Program or from the makers of Parallels yet as I have this feeling that they will both have me chasing my tails for days or weeks and I decided I just can’t waste that much time getting it working if there was another option i.e purging the ink by printing.

So I started printing the ink purge file but it is taking a lot of pages and I’m not at all sure I’m doing this right as neither you or Jon seem to mention it taking this many sheets.

Here’s what i did.

Fill refill carts with piezoflush and install
Then the purge file. Following the instructions on your ink install document online;
Downloaded the purge file
Opened it in photoshop
Message pops up asking me if I want to use the embedded profile
I answer NO, Discard the embedded profile
Go to the Edit menu in photoshop
Select Assign profile
Chose sRGB IEC61966-2.1
Go to File menu and click print
Select the QuadR3000 K7 printer
Click ‘Scale to fit media’ as I’m printing on A4 paper
Under Colour Management I select ‘Document’ (Profile sRGB IEC61966-2.1)
Select Photoshop Manages Colours
Select Printer Profile sRGB IEC61966-2.1
Relative Colorimetric
Black point compensation checked
CLICK PRINT
Select Calibration mode in the QTR dialogue with ink limit 100%

Then I have just let it print in batches of 25 sheets

The ink seems to be very slowly transitioning from the colour inks to the piezo pink dye

I think the online documents mention needing to print over a hundred pages and that doesn’t worry me but I have so far printed nearly 300. !

This seems at odds with your last comments where you talked about only needing several large sheets of paper, so I’m a little worried that I’m not doing this right. I’m worried that I’m not setting the parameters correctly and instead of the ink channels each printing at 100% they are not and the ink is moving through much more slowly as a result. Is that why the piezo flush is mixing with the colour inks? I realised that the printer has dampers at the end of the ink lines and I didn’t expect a sudden change from colour ink to flush but the changeover seems incredibly slow. I almost find myself imagining the ink still in the lines being pushed back and forth by the hydraulics of the printer causing it to mix in the lines (I’m just being paranoid right? :wink: )

Am I doing this wrong? Could you let me know?

Clearly while all this is going on I need to figure out why the adjustment program is returning the ‘communication error’ as this is not a great way to switch between ink and flush for storage… :wink:

Hope you can help.

p.s Thanks for the R3000 refill vid. I watched it again prior to filling. All the carts installed without a hitch.

Best wishes,
Neil.

8

Hi Neil~

If you are printing the standard inkseparation image thru QTR calibration mode, this will take forever to flush all the lines- because it’s only printing thin strips of the inks at graduated densities. To flush a channel using this method, we recommend making a flush image that is pure color of the 100% density patch from the inkseparation image, then print this pure color sheet thru QTR’s Calibration Mode to print a full sheet of pure color from one channel. I have done this for various reasons and using slightly different flush images depending on my needs- if I need to only flush one channel, I will make a flush image for that specific color to focus on that one channel- but if I had to flush all channels using this method, I would use a flush image that includes strips of 100% density ink from the 8 channels to flush them all equally. The 8-channel flush image I use is attached. For your Mac OS, you will need to follow our instructions by assigning sRGB for it to correctly print pure ink from each channel.

I still recommend the initial fill cycle thru the Adjustment Program as the best way to flush all the ink lines at once, and have done this with our R3000, so know it works, but don’t know why you’re having communication trouble, and suggest 2manuals can help you sort this out.

Best regards~ Dana :slight_smile:

QTR-ALL Channel flush.tif.zip (10.2 KB)

9

Hello Dana,

Thanks for replying.

To clarify. I did as follows;

I read the start of the ‘New Piezography Manual’ from here;

http://www.inkjetmall.com/tech/content.php?130-The-NEW-Piezography-Manual

up to the point of referencing installation of the new inks in the printer. I followed the link in the manual (below) to the ink installation instructions for the R3000;

I followed the instructions as follows and downloaded the QTR Purge Ink target;

Download the QTR Purge Ink target by clicking here. Launch Photoshop. Open the QTR Purge Ink target. Do not color manage while opening this RGB file. The target is printed using different color management settings in Photoshop according to the version of Photoshop and Mac OSX. Please refer to this document on how to print this target. The target (although RGB) will cause each of the inkjet heads to print 100% ink out. It may take 100 sheets before you see inks without stain.|

MAC:

[ol]
[li]Open the inkseparation file in Photoshop.[/li][li]Assign Profile > sRGB[/li][li]Print - Photoshop Manages Color, Print Profile - sRGB[/li][li]QTR - select Calibration Mode, Ink Limit: 100% and Resolution either 1440 or 2880dpi — this will work for Snow Leopard (10.6) or Lion (10.7) — if you’re still using Leopard (10.5) you must use AdobeRGB instead of sRGB in both places.[/li][li]Continue printing this target until the inks are printing without stain[/li][/ol]

The instructions say that the ‘ink purge’ file is the one to download and print to flush the inks. Is that not right? I thought that printing this sheet from photoshop was designed to cause the printer to print all channels at 100%. Looking at the file in Photoshop I can’t see any graduation in density in the ink columns.

I carried on printing the Purge file whilst waiting for your reply and after several hundred pages (I haven’t counted them but it must be well over 300 now, I am still seeing some K3 colour ink staining present in the piezoflush output so I made some new files in photoshop and using the colour dropper tool to sample the RGB colour values in the columns of the ink purge file I filled the page of these new files with the same colour as some of the ink purge columns, for example the yellow column and then printed them using the same settings. I assign profile of sRGB and then print to the R3000K7 printer. I select sRGB as the document profile and ‘Photoshop Manages Colours’. I think Relative Colorimetric and Black Point Compensation were selected and I left them at that. When I get to the QTR driver dialogue I make sure I am selecting Calibration mode and the ink limit is 100%.

This seemed to work well. I could see a change in tone which looked like most of the remaining colour stain going. I think I saw for example the yellow channel indicator go from full to about half full in about 10 almost full sheets of A4 paper.

So it seems that about 20 sheets of paper should be enough to go through a full cartridge when printing one channel. So by that reckoning it would take about 180 sheets to do all the channels allowing for the photo to matte black switch. So I’m still not sure why it has taken over twice that number when printing the purge file sheet itself ? To be clear I am talking about the purge file NOT the ink separation file. It has columns labelled from Black to yellow and the columns have no gradation from top to bottom. (There is text on the top of the page saying that it should be printed with Calibration Mode)

I did contact the suppliers of the Epson Adjustment Program but they’ve not been any help so far. I’m considering installing Windows XP as a bootable partition on the mac in order to remove the variable of running Win XP through Parallels Desktop.

Neil.

10

Hi Dana,

Sorry but I forgot to say I am working on OS X Mountain Lion, not Lion or Snow Leopard.

11

Hi Neil~

The R3000 and a few other pages need to be updated for changes in new OS and workflows. Since the R3000 instructions were written (which was prior to 10.8, so doesn’t mention that OS), the QTR Print Tool was released, and we now recommend printing thru the QTR Print Tool (as per our latest Piezography manual) when printing Piezography from a Mac. I have not tested printing thru calibration mode from 10.8, so don’t know if/how it works, and recommend printing thru the QTR Print Tool when printing with QTR from a Mac (for regular or calibration mode printing). Thanks for clarifying, now I understand you’re printing our QTR Purge Image and not the QTR inkseparation image to flush all the channels. This will work, but as you have noticed, takes a long time to completely flush all the lines, which is why we recommend the AP/init fill as the best/easiest method.

Best regards~ Dana :slight_smile:

12

Hi Dana,

Thanks.

I didn’t realize I was supposed to be printing from the QTR Print tool for this particular process of flushing. I have purchased it but didn’t think I’d be using it until I was printing real images. I will read the documentation for the QTR Print tool. If you could point me in that direction, many thanks.

I think the R3000 is now flushed. All the channels seem to be firing piezoflush fully. It’s complicated by the fact that I used up some of the older stuff with the darker colour at the start and then switched to the newer batch which is more of a bright cherry red, so there is some colour variation. However I don’t think there is any residual colour left.

Unless I can figure out what is keeping the Adjustment program from working I think I will flush the new ink through one channel at a time as it it only seems to take about 10 full A4 sheets for a cartridge to read on the display from full to about half so I think that has the benefit of moving a greater volume of ink more quickly through that channel. I think that might help to clear residue in the dampers better. Then i will simply repeat until all channels switched over. Unless you feel that is a bad idea as compared to just printing the ‘All Channel’ purge file instead?

I had planned to see if that old batch of Special Edition inks would still print but now I’m wary of doing that. They are still sitting there due to the whole sorry story with the 3800 and I want to use them if they will still print as I have kept them agitated during storage BUT… The are really old now (2008)… Eeek !!! I know they don’t agglomerate so I’m sort of tempted to try them, but maybe it’s not worth the risk of putting them in a set of carts and possibly doing something nasty to the printer? I realise this is one of those things where it really is ‘My Call’ but your thoughts would be welcome.

If I’m ordering ink, K7 Carbon or Warm Neutral, can you tell me how soon I can do that through your new European Distributor? I read the e-mail that said they have flush and colour inks but it just said that the K7 inks would be available ‘soon’ ?

Thanks Dana,
Neil.

13

Hi Neil~

I know it can get confusing with so much information available, and things always changing in regards to print settings/workflows depending on computer platform and operating system, etc…
We always try to stay on top of changes and update instructions accordingly, but often times there are many variables and it takes a while for us to test to determine the best workflows- then something else changes, and we have to figure out the next fix/change… We have updated the printing workflow in our Piezography manual to include the QTR Print Tool, and have made a few posts that explain the need for the Print Tool for accurate output when printing with a Mac and 10.6.8 or higher- but there are a few other places that still need to be updated with this info. I am waiting to hear back from Roy Harrington in regards to workflows for printing with QTR Calibration Mode using Print Tool with different OSs’ (I don’t have access to or time to test them all), and once I do- will update the instructions for printing thru QTR Calibration Mode to include the new Print Tool workflow.

Yes, if you aren’t able to get the Adjustment Program to work so you can do the Initial Fill Cycle, then it may be best to print a few pure color sheets thru Calibration Mode, then move onto the next channel until they are all flushed.

Based on the age of your ink, I don’t recommend you use it. The general rule for any pigment ink is the best results are obtained within two years from the manufacture date, and your inks are twice that old, so I would advise against it to play it safe (though, it’s always your call- if you want to shake and try the inks you have vs. buying fresh inks).

I will check with Wells, and let you know when our European distributor will have Piezography inks for you to purchase more localy.

I hope this helps. Please let me know if you have questions, how things go, or if there’s anything else I can help you with.
All the best~ Dana :slight_smile:

14

Hi Dana,

Many thanks. Although the cost will be difficult at the moment due to some recent expenses all happening at once I think I’m leaning toward getting fresh inks ordered ASAP as I really can’t stand not making prints any longer. I will just have to put the wasted ink down to experience and move on. Lesson learned, big time! I’ll look forward eagerly to news from Wells. I just didn’t want to place an order this week and then see an announcement from Jon of piezo inks being available in the EU right after. Mind you maybe shipping from there is just as pricey :wink:

in the meantime I will check the documentation for printing calibration mode prints from the print tool rather than from Photoshop.

Regards,
Neil

15

@Dana: From the way Neil is getting to K7 from K3, he will have to undergo 2 purges. First, purge the OEM ink with flush fluid, then purge the flush fluid with K7 inks. Is this really necessary? (I’m in nearly the same position as Neil: just starting up an R3000, with MacBookPro running Mountain Lion, just for the ink changeover. Then iMac running Snow Leopard when I finally get through loading the K7 inks.)

I interpret the purge instructions from IJM to purge the OEM inks directly, using the Service Adjustment Program, with the K7 inks. While flush liquid may be cheaper than ink, a second set of refillable carts is required, otherwise the flush carts will have to be cleaned thoroughly of flush fluid before introducing the K7 inks. Is it necessary to go through the 2-step process that Neil has begun? (And BTW Neil, where are you in the process now?)

Boot Camp is supplied free on all current Macs. The path I’ve taken is to load Windows 7 via Boot Camp on my MBP so that I can run the purge program without using half a tree worth of paper and exercising the printer unnecessarily. I will now order the SAP for the next step - with fingers crossed.

(As an aside, I could say some choice words about my first real experience with Windows, but that would only open the old argument about Mac vs Windows. And that has been beaten to death.)

Harry

16

Hi Harry

Im just trying to decide between Warm neutral and carbon before ordering inks and running them into the lines and then hopefully enjoy printing again.

I decided on getting the extra carts and filling with flush as I wanted to option of putting the printer into storage mode occasionally. After leaving a 3800 unused for too long and not printing enough when printing I am now only too happy to push ink or flush through a printer when not actively printing. All things considered it’s far cheaper and less grief. :wink:

As I said to Dana I think the purge by printing would go much better if I do one channel at a time printing whole pages of colour rather than the purge sheet containing colour bars for all channels.

if I could get the adjustment program to do something other than shout ‘error’ then I would use that but I also think there is some comfort in knowing that I am printing ink through the nozzles in the way it is designed to operate rather than being pulled through by the pump.

I cant ant remember what the recommendation was before I started in regard to using piezo flush then new ink but perhaps Dana can confirm if one method is preferable and why. In addition to wanting to have a set of flush carts on hand for storage I think I was also trying to delay ordering new inks for a little while until I could afford them. And I didn’t want to buy more K3 carts just to keep the printer running so I decided I better get the flush in there before the K3 pigment settled in the lines.

I was was very interested to here you are running windows via boot camp. I think that is something I may try whilst I wait for inks. My reasoning is it means any communication glitches are nothing to do with Parallels. I figure that gives me way less variables if I continue to get problems. Part of the issue with me is I’ve not had to set up and administer a windows machine since 2006 when I got my first mac and now here I am trying to set it up whilst it is running on a Parallels virtual machine. I know from experience that I could chase my tail for days between Parallels and 2Manuals support and it might be time down the drain. If you could share your experience of using the adjustment programme from windows installed as a separate boot partition that would be great. I am using windows XP though rather than Win 7.

If I can answer any questions or help in any way let me know.

Regards,
Neil

17

Thanks for your input Harry and Neil. Let me clarify the flushing questions you brought up.

As per the Piezography ink installation information we have available in many refillable cartridge instructions and other Piezography support pages, flushing color inks with PiezoFlush before installing Piezography inks isn’t absolutely necessary- but highly recommended. Pro model printers with internal ink lines and dampers can often have color ink particle build up in the dampers, which leaches out slowly as ink passes thru. The amount of particle build up depends on the age and use history of the printer- lack of shaking cartridges and not using the printer on a regular basis can actually speed up particle build up, and it’s less of an issue with a brand new printer that has only been used with color inks for a short time.
Even if the printer is new and there’s not much particle build up in the dampers, you will still need to do an Initial Fill or 3-4 Power Clean Cycles (depending on the printer model and available cleaning cycles) to purge color ink and get Piezography ink from carts to the print head, then you still may have some slight color staining (yellow is always the worst for some reason- which will show up in the highlights), and have to print some purge pages or do a few more cleaning cycles to get rid of the color staining. If there is a lot of color pigment build up in the dampers, it can slowly leach out- so after doing cleaning cycles, it may look good one day, then more color leaches out while the printer sits unused, and the next print session shows color staining again, resulting in wasted prints/ink/paper, and having to do more cleaning cycles, with the uncertainty of when the color tint will be gone for good.

To help avoid color staining and wasting valuable ink/paper/prints/time, we recommend using a second set of carts filled with PiezoFlush solution to flush color ink from the internal ink system. PiezoFlush is specially formulated to be strong at breaking up particle build up and clogs, but is gentle enough to use as long term storage fluid for when the printer won’t be used for a period of time, to prevent settling pigment and drying ink which can cause clogging.
PiezoFlush is stronger/quicker and less expensive to use for flushing color ink from your Pro model printer than Piezography ink, and as Neil pointed out- the flush carts are helpful to use again in the future if you need to go away or will not use the printer for a while. PiezoFlush is the best solution to safely store your printer, and allows you to quickly reinstall inks and resume printing when you’re ready (without dealing with frustrating and often expensive issues related to settled pigment and drying ink in the pint head- such as incorrect output density, particle build up in the lines and dampers, and clogged print head channels). Considering the cost of the equipment and materials (and how valuable your time is), we think it’s best to keep printers in top working condition and advise people to follow our recommended workflows to produce optimal and consistent print quality, as well as get the longest life and best results from their printer.

My understanding is that it is best to do an Initial Fill and suck inks thru the head/dampers/lines than print large volumes of ink from each channel to flush/charge ink, because printing uses the Piezo crystals to push, which have a limited life of the number of ink droplets printed, and cleaning/initial fill cycles suck ink thru using the pump. Saying that, I have used the printing method in the past to change 1-2 individual ink channels in our 7880/9880s’ to avoid wasting ink in the other lines, and had no problems at all (though don’t know the long term effects yet), but whenever changing an entire set of carts, flushing a printer or changing the Piezography ink tone in any of our pro model printers, I always do an initial fill cycle (which can conveniently be done right from the printer’s control panel with our 7880/9880s’).
Another way to avoid color staining and flushing between color/Piezography inks would be to install the Piezography inks and do an initial fill cycle, then install fresh dampers to remove the color particle build up, and a few more regular cleaning cycles should be printing pure Piezography ink.

Neil- Wells told me that our European dealer will likely not have Piezography inks available until the beginning of 2014, so if you want to get fresh inks before then, you will want to order directly from us.
As soon as I hear back from Roy regarding workflows for printing thru Calibration Mode with QTR Print Tool and various Mac OSs’, I will update the instructions on our site. As I haven’t yet used 10.8, I’m not positive- but expect you’d open the inkseparation or a QTR flush image with either Adobe RGB or Untagged RGB embedded profile and NO color management thru the Print Tool, then select Calibration mode as normal in the QuadTone RIP window.

I am interested to hear more about your experience with Boot Camp, as I haven’t yet tried it out.
Please share your experiences, let me know if you have questions, or there’s anything else I can help you with.

Best regards~ Dana :slight_smile:

18

Thanks for the response, Dana. I know about using flush carts for storing a printer, as I did just that this past summer. Based on your current recommendation, I guess I’ll now order a second set of refill carts for the changeover from K3, in order to get the R3000 up and running with K7 inks. I’m still waiting to receive the carts I already have on order with IJM.

I can’t say much yet about Boot Camp except that I now have Windows 7 on my laptop, the machine I’ll use to flush the R3000 with the Service Adjustment Program. Since I’ve never used Windows in the past, I’m proceeding slowly and cautiously. I need a Windows guru looking over my shoulder to keep me from screwing up. Guess I’ll pick up a copy of Windows for Dummies.

Harry

19

Sounds good Harry. Keep me posted, and let me know if there’s anything else I can help you with.

Best regards and happy printing~ Dana :slight_smile:

20

[QUOTE=Dana-IJM;2264]Sounds good Harry. Keep me posted, and let me know if there’s anything else I can help you with.

Best regards and happy printing~ Dana :)[/QUOTE]

Dana & Neil:

Error Code Solved! Early results.

I gave up on the inconvenience of BootCamp and bought Parallels which I used to load Windows on my MacBookPro. When I loaded the 2Manuals software, I was able to do a nozzle check and head clean, but I wasn’t quite ready for an ink charge. To that end I removed back and end panels to install a waste-ink bottle, and then went back to the Adjustment Program to be certain all was well after reassembly. When I tried to do a nozzle check, a head clean or access the ink charge step, I got the dreaded error message Error Code: 20000010. Dead in the water. However, this morning I tried shutting down the printer and the MBP, then restarting. I then opened the Adjustment Program and tried (fingers crossed) a nozzle check - no error code: I opened the ink charge program - no error code!

After I top up the flush carts today, I’ll go ahead with the ink charge and report back here.

Harry