Luminous Landscape Forum
Raw & Post Processing, Printing => Printing: Printers, Papers and Inks => Topic started by: herbg on January 17, 2020, 10:44:02 am
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I have had virtually trouble free use of my epson 3800 for many years. Just recently I suffered a failure of the black ink switch. I did two things when this occurred: 1) I replaced the 3800 with the P800 and 2) I attempted to repair the 3800 for a variety of reasons and replaced the ink damper assembly which contains the broken switch. Quite miraculously the repair was successful! I have for quite some time used the 3800 with the PK black and not the MK. Going forward I will continue to use only the PK black and my concern is that the printer may switch to MK for maintenance reasons. I believe that if this happened the switch might become broken again due to the condition of the MK ink in the lines. This unrequested printer switching was mentioned by Eric Chan on his website in response to a question. My question is whether this is actually true and if it is how can I prevent it? Thanks.
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I have had virtually trouble free use of my epson 3800 for many years. Just recently I suffered a failure of the black ink switch. ...
Going forward I will continue to use only the PK black ...
I had problematic 3800 for while. I concluded that I would be better off with a clear base (no particles to settle out) in the non-used MK side. Letting it go dry will, apparently, wreck the machine when the switch is used in cleaning cycles. So, I used my very compatible DIY clear base (derived by looking at the commonalities of all the inks) in the un-wanted MK cart.
See the formula for what I call c6b at https://www.paulroark.com/BW-Info/Ink%20Mixing%20Generally.pdf .
Good luck.
Paul
www.PaulRoark.com
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"Going forward I will continue to use only the PK black and my concern is that the printer may switch to MK for maintenance reasons."
Although I've never owned or used the 3800 printer, it would seem that according to your post you have the K ink Switch set to Auto. Otherwise why would the K Ink Switch at all unless you initiate it manually. If it is indeed set to Auto, I would suggest that you turn that OFF. Then you should not have any worries about the MK Ink causing an issue that might perhaps deem the printer unusable. I can only speak about the printers I have owned (7600, 9900 and now P700), so of course my approach may not be applicable to your 3800.
Just a thought :)
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I had problematic 3800 for while. I concluded that I would be better off with a clear base (no particles to settle out) in the non-used MK side. Letting it go dry will, apparently, wreck the machine when the switch is used in cleaning cycles. So, I used my very compatible DIY clear base (derived by looking at the commonalities of all the inks) in the un-wanted MK cart.
See the formula for what I call c6b at https://www.paulroark.com/BW-Info/Ink%20Mixing%20Generally.pdf .
Good luck.
Paul
www.PaulRoark.com
I appreciate your suggestion but at this stage I think the MK ink must be dried out and don't think using a clear base at this stage will be of any use.
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Although I've never owned of used the 3800 printer, it would seem that according to your post you have the K ink Switch set to Auto. Otherwise why would the K Ink Switch at all unless you initiate it manually. If it is indeed set to Auto, I would suggest that you turn that OFF.
I don't think that the 3800 has the (desireable) K ink Auto switch which the models that you are referring to have.
Thanks.
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There is a post or two here quite a few years ago where someone found a reference in an Epson document to an automatic MK/PK switch that the printer firmware triggered if the user hadn't triggered one manually, either from the LCD, or by printing on a different paper type. That post was in response to someone who claimed to have seen this switch happen in front of their eyes. There are few such reports, as it would require someone not to have done the switch for something like six months, and to happen to be there when the switch occurred, if it is in fact true that it happens. IIRC this was on a 3880, so not sure whether it would also be true for a 3800.
If you only print on PK and want to avoid future problems with the MK/PK switch then you have two choices. (i) You can set a diary reminder to do the MK/PK switch back and forth every month or two. The ink thus consumed might be less than a repair. (ii) You could get a refillable cart from IJM and put either their flush solution it in or perhaps Paul's clear solution, and then print enough using just that channel (possible using QTR) to draw the neutral solution through the lines.
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Given the uncertainty that a firmware ink switch occurs I think I'll just leave well enough alone. It is serving now as a backup printer. With 20/20 hindsight I should have experimented with disconnecting the motor that controls the ink switching to see if that resulted in any error messages when I had the 3800 disassembled.
I think it may be a little late for the solutions you are suggesting for the 3800 but I will do the occasional print on matte paper on the P800 to keep the ink switch exercised.
Thanks all for your thoughtful responses.