Epson 9800 Questions

[mimosatexas]

Picked one of these up and want to get it setup today.  It has 1/3 full refillable carts, but I will be using cleaning fluid instead of ink in them.  Can I just dump out the ink and put the fluid in and start the purging process?  I can't find the exact instructions for purging the thing at the moment.  Anyone know where I can find them?

[mk162]

yes, you can dump the ink and fill them with cleaning solution...we used to do that on our 4900(or 4800, I can't remember what it was.)

[mimosatexas]

I can't get the 9800 to read the accuink cartridge for some reason.  Anyone know what might be up with that?  I can't find any kind of instructions related to using the accuink carts anywhere...

okay looks like the printer may have been setup for matte black and the accuink requires the printer be set for photo black, which of course requires a conversion kit...UGH.

[mimosatexas]

Ok, so I switched chips and after a bunch of messing with it, I am getting the accuink to print in the Light Light Black slot, but here is the weird thing.  Using Accurip and telling it to only print from that slot, it will put down no ink for solid black, but will print halftones fine.  Is something acting weird in the epson driver that would cause this?

Talking to Chromaline, they said the slot shouldnt matter at all as long as the rip is telling it to print from the correct slot.  Any ideas?

edit: actually, holding the film up to the light, it looks like it is very faintly printing the solid black.  So confused...

[blue moon]

now that you got the other color to work, see if you can switch the chips and get the black going. This way you would eliminate some unknowns. . .

pierre

p.s. Actually, try printing with the black head and the ink that's in it. See what comes out. If it's the same, the issue is not in the printer but the software.

[mimosatexas]

Thought about that, but the black head is a little clogged still it looks like.  The Light Light Black was perfect so I went with that.

All the carts have cleaning solution in them now, except for the accuink cart.  Before installing the accuink cart that slot also had cleaning solution in it.  Was clearing the lines and clogs prior to installing the accuink, and did the same process on my 4800 with awesome results.  Ink lines are quite a bit longer on the 9800 so the Chromaline tech said I should print a 6 foot long solid black square shape to flush the cleaning solution, which I have done.  I tossed a few 50% gray boxes in it just as a test, and only those printed, though they are very light, and there is the even more faint "print" in the solid areas.

I'm going to try one more thing (upping density in Accurip and printing the same file again, but with some 99% black areas) and see if either it is a color issue or maybe it hasn't fully flushed out the cleaning solution?

edit: looks like it may not have been all the way flushed.  second print had a slight fade, but is now printing SUPER black!

[blue moon]

I was gonna say try printing without the RIP as the next step, but it looks like you got it!

pierre

[mimosatexas]

Quick pic of the fade after the cleaning fluid finally flushed out of the line.  Change happened super quick.

Edit:  I think what I was seeing with the halftones initially must have been residual ink or something, and was only noticeable because of the difference between dot and no dot, while the field of black was all the same light "print" with the same residual ink.  Really threw me though....

[mimosatexas]

One last "issue".  Just tested printing without accurip vs with it.  With accurip it looks like the printer is not cutting the roll after the print, while without it the printer does cut it.  Any ideas?

[mimosatexas]

One more annoyance...apparently when you switch between printers (4800 and 9800 in my case), accurip is too stupid to remember how you had the settings for each...