I just bought the service manual, which says :" The active signal of Head error has been detected."
Yes.
Looking at your reply: "cables from the chassis to the printhead get skewed in the connectors or damaged due to movement"
That would be possible. I decided to just buy a new printhead cable.
You may have ordered a different cable than I meant, but it doesn't really matter. Just look at the connections on the printhead (should be 4 flat ribbon cables, probably white). These go into a "Y" and then 2 larger cables plug into the "sub board" which is part of the head / carriage assembly. It is unlikely that those cables will fail as they're not really subject to flexing, but they may have worked loose over time. The 3 long flat ribbon cables that go from the sub board to the main board are what I'd suspect, if it was wear and tear and not a dislodged end. Those 3 go from the head and make a big "U" bend in the carriage (usually following the ink lines, but I don't have an 11880 here to check) and get flexed every time the carriage moves (hundreds of times per print, at a minimum). Check to make sure the ends going into the sub board are fully seated in the connectors. I wouldn't suspect the connectors on the main board, as those cables are anchored to the printer frame long before they get to the main board. But carefully look for any wear and tear along the cables for the whole length of the "U" bend and up onto the sub board.
If that doesn't work, i'm not sure if i'm willing to spend so much money on a printhead.
I understand. Particularly if it may not fix the problem (which is why I suggested contacting Epson / D1) - they may be able to determine what is wrong for the price of a service call, and if it isn't the head (either the sub board or the main board should be less than the head) you can decide whether to proceed or not. I haven't used D1 out-of-warranty, so I don't know if they'll give you that kind of estimate, or if the'll just say "we'll fix the printer, but you have to pay what we say, no matter how expensive".
A lot would also depend on the value of consumables you have on hand (extra inks, maintenance tanks, other parts) that aren't compatible with the new printer you'd buy, unless you can sell them to someone else. Normally, I don't order P10K supplies until I get down to 50%, so I only have one ink cartridge (VLM) and one maintenance tank on hand. I've been burned in the past by stocking up on supplies for older printers and not being able to offload them for any reasonable sum once the printers died.
Another issue would be compatibility of 3rd-party ink systems (if you use those) with a newer model of printer. AFAIK, the P20K doesn't have any aftermarket support except for waste tanks.
Sad part, it seems the Epson 11880 parts are very hard to find. There is a website that used to sell the parts. Trying to reach www.sdott-parts.com. But the website seems to be offline or something.
I noticed that. I don't know if it was a "we forgot to renew the domain", if they went out of business, or if the web site was taken down. You could try emailing "helen at sdott d0t com" (obfuscated to deter spam-bots) which is the address I've received mail from in the past. It is on a different registrar (hichina) than sdott-parts (godaddy). That may or may not work.
