Epson 4900 question. Not bashing on it. Trying to understand an issue.

[John V.]

The Epson 4900 usually behaves for me, with nozzle checks 1-2 times per week/50%+ humidity. I let it sit completely idle for about 5 days last week and had a problem. See linked photos:

After 5 days idle:

http://i.imgur.com/qCuyjAC.jpg

1) Is this a normal looking problem?

Normal cleanings had little/no effect.

After a series of normal and power cleanings (2 of each) the best I could get is this:

http://i.imgur.com/mH5kiRJ.jpg

The advice I got for my 11880 clog was to turn it off for 24 hours, and then resume the cleaning process. I gave this a try, and today I got this:

http://i.imgur.com/4IvjV4r.jpg

2) What is the machine doing differently when it's powered off? Why did this work?

After a normal cleaning, everything is back to normal...

...

Also...

http://i.imgur.com/9lOjHtj.jpg

3) What is this?

[Mark D Segal]

VERY interesting - the trouble you experienced after five days of non-use is in the CYAN channel. This is EXACTLY what happens to me if I were to let it sit that long without being used. For reasons unbeknown to me, the CYAN channel seems to be the one most prone to clog/ink drop whatever the phenomenon. Normally, it clears-up with one regular cleaning of the C/VM pair. If it doesn't I run a print exercising those colours and then repeat the cleaning. Run prints between cleanings to improve the prospects for quick success. I do not know the cause of the magenta and yellow stripes on the pad. I find it seldom necessary to run POWERFUL cleans, but periodically it is needed - if unused for a much longer period of time. It has never taken me more than 45 minutes to get the printer back into normal operating condition from a period of several weeks with no baby-sitting, using a combination of regular cleans, occasional powerful clean and always running a print between each cleaning of whatever type.

[Wayne Fox]

1) Is this a normal looking problem?

Pretty messy , looks like some pretty serious ink build up on the head . Some of it may be dried and sort of hard so the wiper can't get it off, or worse pushes it up into nozzles.

2) What is the machine doing differently when it's powered off? Why did this work?

my best guess ... the cleaning process uses ink, which is liquid, which dampens the inner portions of the capping station.  Turning it off seals the head against the capping station, so I guess the logic for leaving it off 24 hours would have to do with moisture being sealed in and softening any dried ink.  From your image and all the deflected nozzles, it appears there may have been quite a bit.  Turning it on after 24 hours may have softened the ink and allowed the wiper to do it's job and get rid of most of that ink, as well as softening dried ink that might be in the nozzles.  I think cleaning a dirty head sometimes pushes hard ink into the openings which is difficult to clear, that's why sometimes cleaning seem to make things worse.
...

3) What is this?

Looks like the pads on your borderfree maintenance tank. The ink is overspray when printing borderless images.  As to why it just has the two bands of color like that, not sure, unless you've only printed a few images borderless and for some reason those colors were involved at the edge of the image.

When you clean, it's best to print an image right after, and definitely before cleaning again, especially a power clean.  I made a cleaning page that others say have been useful ...  give it a try.  Right after cleaning, print this page on some junk paper using epson premium luster profile.  Then run the next nozzle check.  Some say printing something like this everyday helps with clogs.  Jack Flesher just did one and his looks like it may isolate the channels better than mine, and use less ink.  

[JimGoshorn]

I came across a site which lists the hex codes for the colors to use for the inks on Epson and Canon:

http://www.marruttusa.com/printer-maintenance/inkjet-printer-purge-files.php

[aduke]

Jim, thanks for the post. I've been looking for such data for a couple of years. This should help immensely.

Alan

[Wayne Fox]

Looks like a good resource ... I was looking for this when I made my files and didn’t have any luck.

I assume you have to send the file with color management off and printer manages color to get the right color.  Easy to test, print one and see how much of each color of ink was used.  I’ll have to give it a try tonight.  Also going to try Jacks file to see how much of ink it uses.  I know it will be substantially less than mine.

[JimGoshorn]

I haven't tried the files yet. Let us know what you find out when you test the files.

[cybis]

I came across a site which lists the hex codes for the colors to use for the inks on Epson and Canon:

http://www.marruttusa.com/printer-maintenance/inkjet-printer-purge-files.php

Hmm, looks like it's simply a regular RGB value expressed in hexadecimal form. I can't see why this would be achieving anything special.

I've posted a method here to truly control idividual channels:http://lucbusquin.com/content/purge-all-epson-x900-ink-channels

[Wayne Fox]

Hmm, looks like it's simply a regular RGB value expressed in hexadecimal form. I can't see why this would be achieving anything special.

I've posted a method here to truly control idividual channels:http://lucbusquin.com/content/purge-all-epson-x900-ink-channels

yes, they have tried to isolate the exact RGB value that requires one color of ink.  Hard to do.  Sure with a RIP as you suggest you can gain more control. however, your suggestion only seems to exercise the 3 black inks, which is actually pretty easy to do. It’s trying to exercise all colors including green and orange where it becomes challenging ... what “color” will lay down only “orange” ink?

And then the question is which is a better way to exercise them ... swithcing between all channels as the head moves back and forth across the paper (what I tried to do with gradients), or just printing a block of color?  Or does this even matter.

The goal is to exercise the nozzles via printing, rather than using cleaning.  lots of ways to do it.

[aduke]

My test of all 8 colors on the 4880 indicate that either they hit the exact numbers or they hit numbers that mixed equal amounts of each. My job log report showed exactly the same ink usage for all colors except LLK.

The test print looked much like my original guess as to the value to send for my 8 color purge file, but my guesses produced mixed colors. For instance, the black strip used both MK and LK along with small amounts of others to achieve neutrality.

Alan

[Wayne Fox]

I came across a site which lists the hex codes for the colors to use for the inks on Epson and Canon:

http://www.marruttusa.com/printer-maintenance/inkjet-printer-purge-files.php

While the codes are really just simple codes if you look at them and not really scientifically calculated to match a specific ink, (note they almost all are made up of 0 (00), 50%(80), or 100% (ff) of RGB and are the same as creating RGB values like 255,128,255), a couple of quick tests so far show they are pretty effective at isolating single channels.  VLM printed out as a large page shows .53ml of VLM ink, .02ml of most of the other colors, sort of insignificant. I plan on verifying this with the other colors, and also am going to check out Jack’s resource because most of his colors show a little mix, so they may isolate the colors more effectively.

There really were no clear directions on how to print these files (i think the site is more directed at consumer printers), I tried a couple of different ways, the best result so far was using PS managing color with epson premium luster profiles, and relative colorimetric.  I may modify my file using some of this information to get a more even use of colors, and I have a friend I’m working with to automate printing this out on his 4900 each day to see if this helps.

So a good resource.  I do think after doing a clean, and even before printing a nozzle check, printing something that will force a little ink out of every nozzle in the head may reduce “clogs” since most “clogs” really are just nozzles that have had a little air pull back inside. Epson should have a test page that includes color patches to do this.

[Mark D Segal]

Hi Wayne,

When you've hit on the colour specs you like best and the procedure for the 4900, grateful if you could share here - while I have my own colour page for this purpose that does the job, it was not composed too scientifically, so yours' may be better at isolating channels.