Epson 7900 black ink swaps/did I get this right?

[cdicarlo]

Hello Group-

New owner of the Epson 7900, it's a bit intimidating!  I should have video taped the delivery, it would have made a great film short-- "Sisyphus on South Broad".  Set up went relatively smooth, nozzle checks look good, and the first test print on glossy paper looked exactly like the screen image.     Can I reconfirm the consensus on swapping photo to matte black ink?   I understand that, even with the new firmware and with ANC turned off, the printer uses a bit of ink to clean after an ink swap-- so is it still best to do the swap in service mode?

 I remember reading that one must be careful in service mode-- but cannot find the post with the details.  Can someone enlighten me about the caveats?

Is this  procedure correct?
1-  Hold down east (menu), south (down) and center (OK) keys-- then turn on printer to access service mode

2- Press the swap black key

Then, does one do a nozzle check from the computer and clean any clogs in service mode, or is the computer turned off and restarted in standard mode for nozzle checks, etc?

Many THX!
Candace  

[Wayne Fox]

Hello Group-

New owner of the Epson 7900, it's a bit intimidating!  I should have video taped the delivery, it would have made a great film short-- "Sisyphus on South Broad".  Set up went relatively smooth, nozzle checks look good, and the first test print on glossy paper looked exactly like the screen image.     Can I reconfirm the consensus on swapping photo to matte black ink?   I understand that, even with the new firmware and with ANC turned off, the printer uses a bit of ink to clean after an ink swap-- so is it still best to do the swap in service mode?

 I remember reading that one must be careful in service mode-- but cannot find the post with the details.  Can someone enlighten me about the caveats?

Is this  procedure correct?
1-  Hold down east (menu), south (down) and center (OK) keys-- then turn on printer to access service mode

2- Press the swap black key

Then, does one do a nozzle check from the computer and clean any clogs in service mode, or is the computer turned off and restarted in standard mode for nozzle checks, etc?

Many THX!
Candace

The printer will always use some ink when swapping blacks. After an ink swap, the printer will perform an auto nozzle check, and this ANC cannot be disabled by turning ANC off.  many machines ANC circuitry is too sensitive or defective, meaning this ANC check will result in the machine believing there is a nozzle failure and trigger a loop of cleaning, often resulting in 3 unnecessary cleans.

If your printers circuitry is performing normally these extra cleanings won't occur, or will only occur if there is an actual nozzle issue. At this risk of using some ink, you may wish to try an ink swap in normal mode to see if your printers ANC seems to be working.  If you get no cleans, or perhaps only 1 clean then  the ANC system may be fine.

As far as doing this in service mode, your description is correct, and yes any cleans are done while the printer is in service mode.  This should avoid the ANC after the swap, and service mode cleans (CL1) uses minimal ink.

You can actually send jobs and print to the printer while in service mode - in fact you have to print the nozzle check from a computer  when in service mode.  In service mode the printer doesn't appear to go idle or "sleep" and there are a few other things that are different enough that I usually restart it.

[StevenSzabo]

just to add to this...I updated the firmware on my 9900 a few weeks ago, and have been closely monitoring it since then...I do have the ANC disabled, but I'm actually thinking about re-enabling it just due to the results I'm seeing when swapping blacks. I swap blacks usually every few days, and lately have been printing out a nozzle check before doing it just out of curiosity. I'm pleased to report that I have yet to see the printer enter a cleaning cycle after swapping blacks since the firmware update(before the update it was about 75% chance it would clean)

[cdicarlo]

[quote name='Wayne Fox' date='Feb 11 2010, 01:28 PM' post='346439']
 At this risk of using some ink, you may wish to try an ink swap in normal mode to see if your printers ANC seems to be working.  


Of course this was good advice.  I'd considered doing this, but so many posts described the clog problems and over zealous cleanings related to black ink swaps that I was dreading it.  I did, as you suggested, perform the swap in standard mode and my experience was similar to what Steve just posted.  It took about a minute or two and seemed (to my ears) to be consuming very little ink.  No cleaning cycle ran after the ink switch.  The nozzle check was good, and the ink levels were the same after as before the swap.  I had ANC disabled, but perhaps I'll experiment with it on for a while.

I created a paper configuration for Premier smooth HP and printed a photo.  Once again the print exactly matched the on-screen file and the quality was beautiful.

Thanks so much Wayne and Steve.