Epson 4900 Roll Paper Counter

[ThomasR99]

Has anyone tried to, or successfully enabled the roll paper counter on their SP 4900?  I recently ran out of roll paper in the middle of a print.  Luckily the paper released from the core so I didn't have a paper jam, and no adhesive got into the printer works.  But as I was looking thru the Owners' Manual I noted in the introduction section that the LCD sample picture showed the Roll Paper counter.  There's some mention in an on-line ?European? reference for finding this in Service Mode but I was unable to do so.  It's not mentioned specifically in the USA Manual, either.  The on-line reference I found (which was for a German site, I believe [epson-store.de]) mentions starting the printer in Service Mode then enabling the "Remaining PPR Setup".  In my service mode all I can see is a counter for cut sheets remaining (which is also mentioned in the Manual).  The On-line reference also mentions it's only available for Firmware issued after December 2008.  I'm running Driver version 9.17 and firmware M129C5, 1.01, A000 and the printer is only a couple of years old so I should be fine in that regard.

Any help is very much appreciated!

[ThomasR99]

Bump.

Anyone?

[hugowolf]

I cannot speak for the 4900, but the 7890/7900/9890/9900 can produce a ‘bar’ code at the bottom of the roll, after cutting the previous print. It identifies the roll, paper type, and remaining length.

I used it for a while, but eventually gave up on it. When the printer didn’t recognize the code, which was way more often than it should, it would start printing the next print on top of the bar code. It meant closely watching the start of every print. And it was also a waste of two or three inches of paper each time.

Brian A

[Ray R]

My 4900 asks for roll length and type of paper when it is first inserted. When ejected it prints a barcode with the length remaining.

As far as I was aware this is the default setting.

Ray

[ThomasR99]

Mine has never done so, Ray.  What driver and firmware version are you on?  How old is your unit if you don't mind telling?

[Farmer]

All the *900 and *890 models have this functionality and always have.

[Ray R]

This should help, or at least point you in the right direction

http://www.manualslib.com/manual/301526/Epson-Stylus-Pro-4900.html?page=26

Rat

[ThomasR99]

Ray, thank you for that link.  I d/l the manual to keep for future reference.

Unfortunately (at least at the beginning) it was no help to me, as I didn't have the options listed available in my paper setup menus.

I finally got the setting to work, but it took an unexpected pathway to get it.  In my paper setup menu I had NONE of the options for setting roll length, paper remaining, etc.  But there was an unchecked option in the Maintenance menu for sheet paper remaining count.  Just for kicks and grins, I checked (activated) it.  Exited Maint Mode, powered up in normal mode and lo and behold, in my paper setup menu, I now HAD the options needed.  Go figure on that one.  Nowhere in either of the manuals (the one I downloaded nor the one w/the printer) did it mention anything about needing to activate the sheet paper count option in order to be able to access the roll paper setup options.  Thanks for that documentation, Epson.  All they stated was that roll paper must be unloaded to access the menu options. 

Ah well, bottom line is now it's active, so I shouldn't have any more issues w/reaching the end of the roll in the middle of a print.

Thanks to everyone that offered help, and hopefully this will be useful to someone in the future.