Pages: 1 ... 70 71 [72] 73 74 ... 77   Go Down

Author Topic: Epson 7900 from the inside - out  (Read 1092875 times)

papahipon

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 5
Re: Epson 7900 from the inside - out
« Reply #1420 on: July 09, 2013, 03:03:54 pm »

Hi,
New Member.. Have problem with my epson 9900. Bought it Used and print test shows clogs all over the place. Did remove the printhead followings Erics movie instruction (Thanks!). Now injected using syringe to head with epson cleaning solution. All line flows nice. Now installed and did the test print clogs are gone except for one color missing "Green". Did 3x of pair color and couple of Power clean. and still no Go. Notice have air bubble on the line before power clean and seen it moves up. Still no Green on my last test.
Do you have any other solution or ill just do another power clean again until all my ink is empty. Dont want to waste my expensive ink thats why maybe somebody has same problem and manage to solve the issue.
Thank you
Logged

pspentax

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 4
Re: Epson 7900 from the inside - out
« Reply #1421 on: July 15, 2013, 04:58:10 pm »

First thanks to the great work Eric ad made :)

My 9900 is working ok, i have buy it used with around 47.500 prints yes 47.500 :) :) :) and i don´t know more about is history service of any kind.
So because of that... i have checked my wiper blade and it was with some dry ink in it and some sighs of use (i will buy 2 or 3 for stock a and one for my 4800 also), other than that the caping station and pad are ok.

Here is my first test with a 36" roll that the seller offer me :) :) :)



Cheers to all from Portugal
Pedro
Logged

disneytoy

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 373
7900 in San Diego
« Reply #1422 on: July 16, 2013, 03:28:26 am »

Any 7900/9900 users here in San Diego? I'm involved in fine art and will be running a 9900. Just thought it would be good to network with any San Diego users.

Marc~
Logged

LaXWI

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1
Re: Epson 7900 from the inside - out
« Reply #1423 on: July 24, 2013, 02:15:04 pm »

If anyone wants to try to replicate Eric's work, I have an Epson 7900 in La Crosse, WI that you can have for free.
I can't get the Vivid Light Magenta back using regular cleanings.  It could be a print head, wiper, pump cap assembly or all of the above?

This printer has seen substantial use, but is in otherwise good condition.
Logged

Eric Gulbransen

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 300
  • never surrender
    • MYX900.com
Re: Epson 7900 from the inside - out
« Reply #1424 on: July 29, 2013, 03:17:25 pm »

Hi Pedro!  Great work brother!

What Pedro neglects to communicate in his post here is that he successfully changed the printhead on this 9900, all on his own using our head changing video tutorial as his only reference (that and a few emails back and forth but who's counting).  How cool is this..

Thanks for the offer Higgy.  I decided owning the set of cleaning carts is better (in case we end up mailing them around the globe) so I ordered them and now have the set in hand.  Also thanks to Damian Kelly (damiankellyphotography.com) we also have a terminally clogged head to test this new procedure with.  FINGERS CROSSED that this will work!


Funny story, swear it's true.  Like I said I sold the infamous 7900 that this thread was based on.  It's still printing happily.  Part of the reason I sold it, before getting our 9900 up and running, was for inspiration.  I actually want a reason to keep working at this so effectively I have no printer now, still, which is fine I am not a professional photographer or printer.  But I do love (to struggle at) both.  So this past Saturday my wife was kind enough to stand near a door for me dressed like I don't even know what, and who would go out half dressed like this anyway but whatever "It's creative" I told her.  She looked back and rolled her eyes at me saying, "Yea, and you'll print it for me right - with that oversized pile of broken printer plastic over there?"

I'm not kidding you that is exactly what she said to me.   WTF

Just in case you think I am making this up,
here's the shot I took just a fraction of a second later

davidh202

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 662
Re: Epson 7900 from the inside - out
« Reply #1425 on: July 29, 2013, 04:54:27 pm »

I wouldn't keep a woman as beautiful, waiting too long for a print   I would also be shooting more of her and less landscapes;)


David
Logged

rvestal

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 12
    • http://www.ultimatelightimages.com
Re: Epson 7900 from the inside - out
« Reply #1426 on: August 13, 2013, 06:40:17 pm »

Wow, three days to read all 72 pages.....Massive effort for all who contributed, especially Eric.. What you have accomplished is nothing short of amazing.

I don't (yet) have a head clogging issue, but I may have a head replacement issue.  Thought I would post here so you would know the updated pricing from D1.

I've got a 5 year old 7900 and this weekend it started displaying a "Call for Service - Error Code 1A37" message.  According to the service manual, 1A37 is a thermistor sensor error on the print head.  Options are re-seat print head cables on main board and/or print head, replace main board or replace print head.

The estimate from D1, as of yesterday (13 Aug):

   Call Out $100
   Hourly Rate: $175, with a one hour minimum

   Main Board $495, plus labor
   Print head  $1,623, plus labor


Pretty steep; especially when I can get a new 7900 from B&H for $2,699, free shipping and no tax until the end of the month.

I'm leaning toward a new printer, but thought the group might be interested in the current pricing from D1 for out of warranty service.

PS:  If any one has experience with B&H's shipping of these printers could you comment?

Thanks. Randy

Logged
Randy
 [url=http://www.ultimatelightimage

dgberg

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 2753
    • http://bergsprintstudio.com http://bergscustomfurniture.com
Re: Epson 7900 from the inside - out
« Reply #1427 on: August 14, 2013, 06:21:07 am »

$175 an hour.  ???
What ever happened to the normal contractor pricing of 3 times the technicians hourly salary. (I am a contractor and that is how it is done around here.)
The tech might be making $30 to $40 an hour I doubt more. That comes to maybe $120.00 an hour.
I guess it's called no competition.
I called D1 when my 9900 was out of warranty just for some rate information and the conversation became somewhat contensious when I started drilling her on justifying their pricing.
We can only charge a little over double our craftsman hourly rate hear in se Pennsylvania. $45.00 an hour in our cabinet shop and this is the kind of craftsmanship you get for that money.
 We tried several times raising our hourly rate to $50.00 an hour and lost over 50% of the quotes. But then again we are in the middle of the Amish heartland.
Guess I am just in the wrong business.
« Last Edit: August 15, 2013, 01:24:25 pm by Dan Berg »
Logged

Emma Brackett

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 5
Re: Epson 7900 from the inside - out
« Reply #1428 on: September 02, 2013, 07:24:01 pm »

I'm having the exact same problem, I've been trying to fix for a week. Eric, how did you solve this problem!? I'm on a deadline, I'm dying of frustration and wasting so much ink... your response would make me over joyed.
Logged

DanielH

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 2
Re: Epson 7900 from the inside - out
« Reply #1429 on: September 20, 2013, 03:44:58 pm »

Just came to say that after nearly 6 months of research (and mostly waiting on epson to figure out how to manufacture enough printheads for their customers) I have successfully revived 3 printers (2-7890's, 1-9890) by replacing the printheads using this thread/ community and Eric's awesome video over at myx900.com 

So, Eric, HUGE thanks to you, Steve, and the community here for helping me along and demystifying these machines. 

I am now moving on to my 11880 which died today.  And after removing the head and cleaning I went from only missing 2 colors in nozzle check  to having none...Huzzah!! A new challenge...
Logged

damian_ad

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 2
Re: Epson 7900 from the inside - out
« Reply #1430 on: October 12, 2013, 03:23:24 pm »

Hey All.....

Like most I'll start by saying I have read every post, thread, comment and opinion from Jan 26 2012 when this first started until today. Taken me all of 3 weeks but worth every minute.

I myself have had over 40 of these wide format Epson printers over the past few years and that's just the X900 generation, if we included the 7800 and 7600 series then I dread to think how many we've had. Right now we have 5 x 7890 and 2 x 9890 (we have had the 7900 too but we honestly CANNOT see any visible advantage having orange and green.

Anyway, we have so many of these because of the amount of use they get, every printer prints roughly 60-80 metres of media PER DAY, so our machines don't have the issue of not being used enough. We tend not to have issues with the smaller 24" machines but we have the exact same issue over and over with the larger machines, it's ALWAYS the Light Magenta and Matte Black that block, and always in the same places too, it's about 50% of the nozzle that gets blocked rendering it almost useless.

So today after a few emails back and forth with Eric I decided to go for it and try and save myself some money. I had two goals here, firstly see If I can take apart one of the 9890, clean the head and put it back in and see what happens, if that fails then remove a head from a 7890, put that into a 9890 so then I only have to buy a new 7890 saving myself £2k ($3000) in the process.

Here's what happened, I stripped the 9890 down and got the head out.... This is what it looked like....



A mess....

So after cleaning off the obvious gunk I soaked in the Red Epson cleaner I bought from Gedat for about an hour, then syringed back and forth for another 20 mins or so, I could clearly see the jets were all spraying nice underneath, all looking good.

So I let it dry for an hour and placed the head back in..... No difference whatsoever.

So I then removed it again and this time went for a more forceful technique, I figured the head is knackered anyway I may as well treat it as a learning curve. So this time I hooked it up to some tubing and at the end of it a steam cleaner, I decided on this as a few companies I spoke with had said the only way to clean and dissolve dried pigment ink is with hot water. So distilled hot water in the steamer and let it do it's thing for about 10 minutes. All looking good so head back in.... And Voila.... The head is F****d... Fatal Error.

So anyway, I expected this, now onto my second goal, try and swap heads with a smaller machine, I removed the head from a 7890 (by now I have the dismantling process down to less than 15 mins), this one looked worse than the one above (I forgot to take pics, although I did video it), so I gave it a clean up and placed it into the 9890.... Two major things happened... Firstly when I turned the printer on it worked straight away, cleaning, nozzle checks and printing, not what I expected, I thought I needed to use this servprog.exe software to register the new head but NOOOO, I did not.... Secondly the head in the 7890 had about 7-8 lines blocked that had been blocked for a long time, after cleaning the face of the head the nozzle check is PRISTINE.....

So today I learnt 3 things....

1. I can take the head out of a 7890 and put into a 9890 very easily
2. I can clean the odd line caused by blockages to the front of the head (presumed).
3. Steam cleaning doesn't work

So now I have learnt how to easily strip these things down I am going to service them myself, I am sure with the state of the head you saw above which was from a printer only 4 MONTHS OLD that after a year it will be totally covered and blockages almost a certainty so maybe we won't need to buy as many printers now??? they normally last us about 8-10 months and seeing the head I can now see why.

Another thing I found was the software servprog.exe that certain people may or may not have got hold of covers the Epson 7700, 7900, 9700 and 9900 and NOT the 7890 and 9890 so I had to buy this from a certain not be named site for $50, and I didn't even need to use it (yet).

So from now on is my larger machines get a problem, I'll be swapping out the parts from a 24" one and save a fortune.... (why is the 44" version more than twice the price of the 24" version anyway???, they share the same electronics and printhead just a bit of extra metal and plastic in the middle).

A HUGE thanks to Eric, I wouldn't have even attempted this without the video (donation to the cause on it's way now), one thing to note is the 7890 and 9890 have an extra ground wire that needs disconnecting to remove the carriage and damper assembly, connects at the top by the 3 ribbon connectors (unless I missed it in your video somehow).
« Last Edit: October 12, 2013, 03:32:12 pm by damian_ad »
Logged

damian_ad

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 2
Re: Epson 7900 from the inside - out
« Reply #1431 on: October 12, 2013, 03:35:51 pm »

I am also seriously considering buying one of these.

I am thinking along the lines of prevention and not fixing.... If I remove the head every two moths, give them a good clean with this machine (not the ultrasonic method, just pumping cleaning fluid and water through it)...

http://www.aliexpress.com/item/printhead-cleaner-for-seiko-konica-xaar-epson-printhead/573824802.html

Thoughts?

Who knows maybe I should save the second head until I get one and see if it can also fix it???? (Dreaming too much???)
Logged

BrianWJH

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 286
Re: Epson 7900 from the inside - out
« Reply #1432 on: October 12, 2013, 06:26:42 pm »

Damian thanks for adding your experiences to this long running thread, given that each machine is printing about 4-6 rolls of media each day there's no case for low use being the issue with clogged heads, on the other hand paper/media dust build up might however be a factor.

I'd be interested to hear what your experience with the older generation printers, the 76xx, 78xx and 788x models was, did they clog as often, any particular channel colours that cause clogging issues?

Are you using genuine epson inks or 3rd party inks, are you using paper or canvas media or combo of both?

The head cleaning machine as you suggested might be a good investment in your case, extending the service life of a head by 6-12 months would be a substantial saving in your production environment.

Thanks for your efforts, makes interesting reading.

Cheers,
Brian.
Logged

jferrari

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 484
Re: Epson 7900 from the inside - out
« Reply #1433 on: October 16, 2013, 02:51:07 pm »

Congrats, Eric, for acquiring over 200 thousand views on this thread!
Logged
Nothing changes until something changes.

BobB88

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 2
Re: Epson 7900 from the inside - out
« Reply #1434 on: November 12, 2013, 07:21:59 pm »

Hi,

Has anyone successfully unclogged the 7900 yellow nozzle clog of death?

Thanks!
Logged

davidh202

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 662
Re:"Yellow clog of Death"
« Reply #1435 on: November 12, 2013, 08:54:44 pm »

You obviously have not read the thread from pg1...

so I'll save you a lot of time...

The answer is NO if it is a complete clog, and not just a temporarily dropped channel!

The only real useful purpose to this thread any more is Erics valuable link to his My X900 site where he goes into great detail in his videos as to how to REPLACE your head and wiper blade. and we all salute Eric for the effort he put in!  http://myx900.com


Unless your willing to waste a lot of time and ink don't bother to try and unclog it.
You will wind up replacing your head in the end, if you are willing to do the labor, and capable of taking on the expense of a new head 
Logged

BobB88

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 2
Re: Epson 7900 from the inside - out
« Reply #1436 on: November 12, 2013, 09:25:51 pm »

I appreciate your response.   I'll admit digesting all the pages has been a chore and I failed at it.    Interestingly I am familiar with you site and was about to contact you also.    I too applaud the work that Eric put into all this.  It was just wishful thinking that someone somewhere might have actually figured out the actual cause(s) of the clog, that is from an engineering point of view.  Like everyone else I'm frustrated by Epson's lack of response.   In fact I would suggest that they are guilty of somewhat of a fraud in not disclosing the caveats in owning a 900 series machine.   

Why hasn't  everyone grouped together to demand compensation from Epson?

Logged

Eric Gulbransen

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 300
  • never surrender
    • MYX900.com
Re: Epson 7900 from the inside - out
« Reply #1437 on: November 17, 2013, 10:26:59 pm »

Nope I'm not dead yet.  Neither is my 9900.  It isn't printing yet, which is a bummer.  But I haven't given up, which is not.


I've had a box staring me down from the center of a room I avoid like the plague.  It's the 9900 room.  If you walk through the kitchen on your way out it's like the 9900 doesn't even exist.  That box either.  Truth be told my 9900's been apart since the day I got that fateful "You're an idiot" message on the display.  If this journey has taught me anything, it's to never feel over-confident about anything related to clearing nozzle clogs on an X900.  But that day I screwed up.  I actually thought I had it beat.  When that message flashed at me it broke me.  and so it has sat..

What's in the box in the center of the room you ask?  A full set of cleaning carts.  Any more boxes in the 9900 room?  Yea, more of Epson's RED and CLEAR cleaning fluid.  Ok so I've avoided the room like the plague, but I haven't avoided spending more money.  What's the idea I've got brewing...?  it's interesting actually.


By now more than a few have contacted me through this forum and myx900.com, talking about clearing impossible clogs on their printer.  It's actually quite a lot more than a few, from basically all over the world.  Yes Alaska, and Africa, of course New Zealand, Japan which is ironic, and many more including even Brazil - which is sexy.  Yet no one has ever cleared an un-clearable clog, except one.  John Schwaller did it on his 4900.  How you ask?  I've mentioned this before - re-charged the machine with ink.  Did it a few times actually, which cost quite a bit, but not as much as a new head...

So I've been thinking since then, what if I set up a machine with cleaning carts filled with Epson's RED?  No ultra sonic vibration violations, no excessive pressures applied by manually forcing liquid through a head, no foreign chemical violations, and perhaps no frying heads from too many power cleanings.  Only worry is HAL's warning that nobody really knows how long you can expose an X900 head to RED.  The glue is the suspect weakest link in the "what will break down first" chain.  That nozzle plate comes un-glued from the chamber walls and 360 tiny nozzles just became one.  So I looked into it, with my microscope.

Turns out the glue on a nozzle plate, left exposed to pure RED for 24hrs straight, was not compromised in the least.  Over the course of this epic journey I have been sent a few dead/clogged/fatal error message heads.  I took the nozzle plate off one two nights ago.  I combed over the patterns of glue residue left in the shapes of chamber walls and cooling fins, I took visual notes of not only the appearance of the glue left over on the face, but also of it's consistency, how well it was stuck to the face, and how it reacted to my metal razor blade when I touched the two together.  Before RED or after, it's just the same.  This is very good news. 

I took all of my RED, filled each new refillable cart with it, and put them in this 9900.  Then I hit a temporary wall - one of the chips isn't being read by the machine.  I re-set it, still nothing.  And one of the carts doesn't seem to latch properly.  I'll have to chase down replacement parts tomorrow morning.  For now though, I am adhering to my self learned rule - no getting excited this will work.  However I do feel this has the best chance yet.

iladi

  • Jr. Member
  • **
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 61
Re: Epson 7900 from the inside - out
« Reply #1438 on: November 18, 2013, 12:09:56 pm »

On signs forum there is also a guy who has recover an cloged epson solvent head by printing with specific cleaning fluid.
Logged

Eric Gulbransen

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 300
  • never surrender
    • MYX900.com
Re: Epson 7900 from the inside - out
« Reply #1439 on: November 20, 2013, 12:20:40 am »

Could you give me a link to that thread iladi ?  I've searched unsuccessfully.
Pages: 1 ... 70 71 [72] 73 74 ... 77   Go Up