Trying to force my P8000 dye sub printer to use the pk channel on plain paper.

[dgberg]

Anyone know a way to force my P8000 to use the PK ink channel on plain paper.
I have an Epson P8000 converted to dye sublimation with refillable dye sub cartridges.
Only one type of black ink so I have the same black in both carts. I wanted to use up that black ink in the pk channel before it gets too old.
I could certainly pour it out and put it in the MK cart but that can be messy.
The profiled paper is plain paper and of course when I try to print it gives me the old black mismatch warning.
I am presently printing a small print changing the paper type to premium luster so that it will print with the pk channel.


Changing the paper type did not work, just as I figured.

[Lessbones]

swap the chips and swap the cartridges

[dgberg]

It worked!
So simple but I never gave it a thought.
I thought the carts were keyed to only go in one slot but they can be switched.
Thank You

[Lessbones]

The official Epson ones are (although even then it's just a matter of plastic pieces that can be cut off) but most 3rd party carts are all just the same to save on manufacturing costs.  If you're using sawgrass or something like that then you may want to do yourself a favor and get a chip resetter-- sometimes I've had those chips be faulty and I've been able to use ones from older carts to replace them.  IIRC from my testing on this years ago, the "plain paper" setting might be one of the only ones that doesn't attempt to put other colors in the black when printing with the Epson driver to achieve a "rich black" -- something like an Epson secret sauce--  I struggled a bunch with this before giving up on RGB profiling for dye-sub and getting set up with Ergosoft.  The other benefit to that was being able to tell the RIP that any ink is in any slot I wanted, so when the Sawgrass ink eventually took a channel down, which it always did after a few months, I could switch around and use other unused channels or eliminate a light ink instead of replacing the head right away.

This was all on 9890/9900 series, so maybe the P8000 fares better with the (supposedly) improved coating on the heads in that generation--

[dgberg]

I jumped on that fix too fast. My refillable cart modified P8000 has one time use chips. As the cart gets low you must replace the old chip with a new one.
You then fill it with 700 ml of ink and you are good to go.
Bt taking the mk chip (With only 25% ink remaining) and  putting it on the pk cart which is full the printer will now read that 25% volume on the pk cart.
So even though the pk cart is full with 700ml the printer is reading the installed chip of 25%.

[Lessbones]

This is why I mentioned the chip resetter in the previous post ^^

[dgberg]

No that will not work. The chips on my refillable carts cannot be reset. They are a one time use chip. When the ink is low on the cart you must purchase a replacement chip, take the old one off and throw it away. There is no way to reset these chips.
It took some time for these companies to crack the chip to the extent that they have. P6000 and 8000 have all the chips available. The P7000 and P9000 have all the chips cracked except for orange and green. The reason I do not have either of those printers for my dye sub converted printer.

[Lessbones]

Ah, weird.  I see some resetters on alibaba/aliexpress, but most of them say "Europe Only" for those models, so that's interesting...  I'm sure they'll get there eventually.  Hate those damn chips...

[Alistair]

One of the better RIPS will allow you to make your own ink channel assignments but they are expensive. But what is your current workflow - where are you telling the printer to use MK vs PK or is there a sensor on the printer which detects the paper surface?

[dgberg]

This was a brand new (A year ago) P8000 converted to dye sublimation out of the box. One time use chips with only one black ink in both carts.
The profile is with the plain dye sub transfer paper.
Because it is a plain paper profile if you select the pk channel and it switches inks it then senses the mismatch and will not let you print. (Doesn't matter where you switch it from.)
This is no big deal except I am trying to get use out of that $20 pk chip. I can pour the ink out and just leave enough in it so everything works.

[Alistair]

Gotcha. Probably the only way (without buying a RIP) is to have 2 versions of your profile - one MK and on PK - otherwise identical. Then run whichever profile according to the cartridge you want to use up.

But it may pay to see what Ergosoft costs for that printer. Ergosoft rate is as a group 1 printer so it may not be too horrendous. A RIP like that brings a lot of functionality and flexibility to the table.

[dgberg]

Thanks
Dan

[mcrepsej]

One of the better RIPS will allow you to make your own ink channel assignments but they are expensive. But what is your current workflow - where are you telling the printer to use MK vs PK or is there a sensor on the printer which detects the paper surface?

Hi.

Can you tell me which rip where I can control which color channel should be closed etc.
I have an Epson 9000 where the black channel is unstable despite various actions. If I could move black to green channel I might be able to extend the life of a only 7 year old printer.

[Alistair]

Hi.

Can you tell me which rip where I can control which color channel should be closed etc.
I have an Epson 9000 where the black channel is unstable despite various actions. If I could move black to green channel I might be able to extend the life of a only 7 year old printer.

I use Ergosoft which I know does this. There may be others, I am not sure. You can check here: https://www.ergosoft.net/desktop-printer/#Epson and here: https://www.ergosoft.net/supported-devices/printer/ whether your printer is supported. If it is ranked as a desktop or level 1 printer, the price may be OK but beware that it is expensive software. Check also to see whether your measurement device (if you use one) is supported as linearisation and profiling is done by the RIP.