Epson R220 strange nozzle check - Need opinions and possible causes

[jonalava]

Hello all!

I had a really bad clogged print head on my Epson R220 last week. Multiple cleaning cycles didn't help at all. Then, I tried the Windex-on-the-parking-pads method and it worked perfectly! No clog at all now on my nozzle check test. But this strange thing...

The magenta shows a weird pattern. Instead of having this regular stairs-going-down pattern, some of the lines are on the same level. Unfortunately, I don't know if the problem was there before the clog.

I researched about it and found many possible causes : bad ink flow in the magenta cart, ink too thick, misalignment (I've already tried realignment without success), etc. What do you think? Brand of ink is MMC and I can't remember having this kind of problem with it before.

Thanks for your help!

 

[jflan]

I would try a different Magenta cartridge and re-check.
Here's SSC, in case you don't have it :
http://www.ssclg.com/epsone.shtml

 

[jonalava]

Thanks jflan. Just changed the magenta cart and it DID work perfectly ! My nozzle check test is now perfect !

 

[InkMon]

As I have an Epson I found a problem with my RX530 black cart, it obviously was not supplying ink even though the Epson monitor showed full.

I removed it, wiped the contacts with Metho, also the printer contacts. I reset the cartridge as it is a chipped one and re installed it. Problem solved.

My point is that as the voltages across the contacts is low, the slightest resistance can reduce the current flow thus causing failure to print correctly.

I do believe that not all so called clogged heads is entirely due to "Clogged heads".

I did raise a point mainly based on my HP720c of damage caused by the harder printer contacts on the softer copper of the cartridge contacts. Inspection of these contacts may show undue damage and could be the reason many cartridges are scrapped. A possible cure would be to check for burrs on the printer pins.

As an aside on one cart that was damaged I tried to resolder the scratched away contact. I was not successfull.

 

[jonalava]

Inkmon, I always thought the chip was there only to monitor ink usage. I didn't know it had any effect on cartridge's functions once recognized. Don't know how it works then. But thanks for pointing this out !

 

[mikling]

jonlava, you are probably more correct than incorrect.

If you were to call Epson support center, they would probably ask that you remove and reinsert the cartridge. This accomplishes a few things. By removing and reinstalling you"burp" the printhead. When the Epson cartridge is removed, the cartridge is completely sealed. There is a little button with an internal spring attached to a valve that seals the air vent. This button is at the bottom of the cartridge behind a plastic pliable seal. When reinserted, the ink spigot enters the head before the air seal valve is released. This allows a slight positive pressure on the printhhead nozzles and quite often it is enough to push an air bubble through. This is burping.

The other benefit of reinsertion is that as inkmon points out, if the contacts are dirty, during re-insertion the wiping action allows a good contact afterwards.

Finally, each time you bring the head out for a cartridge change, whether or not you reinsert new cartridges the printer performs a relatively long head cleaning/purging. This is to ensure that the heads are properly primed. Quite often again either one of these effects will cure problems with either air bubbles or small clogs.

As to the weird pattern, there can be ink buildup on the underside of the Epson head. Sometimes if you soak the pad, you may break up the clog and also loosened some thick ink buildup underneath. There are wipers in the parking station area and sometimes when this buildup is wiped after a head cleaning, the wipers smears some thick ink around and does a partial clog where the clog now deflects ink to the side and thus gives an irregular pattern. It's like mud on windshield wipers!

Advanced Epson users eventually seek out how to clean the underside of the printhead. It involves moving the head to the middle and using a moistened lintfree flat material wiping the underside of the head. You will be astounded at the amount of ink buildup down there. Needless to say when you do this, you do so at your own risk as the possibility of actually lodging material into the nozzle exists, dirtying encoder strips, and damaging the paper sensor which is down there as well . So do this only if you need to as there are risks involved.

 

[InkMon]

jonalava Don't get me wrong I am no expert with printers although I have been a user for more years than I care to admit. On the Epson RX530 the chip on the Cartridge(Inktank) indicates its status to the driver and would shut the printer down when considered empty. Luckily there is a chip resetter available and when used the Printers monitor keeps working. That is not the case of my HP which had no monitoring and I got through a few cartridges before I created the 4 colour monitor for it.

My main point of my comment was about protecting the copper contacts as if there is bad transfer of current between the printer and cartridge the nozzles will not fire correctly and it would be easy to confuse the result with clogged nozzles.

This is based on my experiance with my HP720c. I think I posted a thread on how I protect the contacts as I remove cartridges.

 

[mikling]

Inkmon the Hp720C heads are built into the cartridge, so the contacts there are crucial for the head nozzles themselves.

On the R220, the chip is there in parallel and is not in line with the signals to the nozzles. The chip is there for cartridge identity and ink monitoring purposes. It is questioned by the printer prior to printing and maintains a count of how many firing the cartridge has been instructed to do. It's the tattletale of the cartridge.

See if your printer is supported by the SSC utility http://www.ssclg.com/epsone.shtml

as there are quite a few benefits to using this.

 

[InkMon]

Thanks for the heads up, I was not aware of the difference in contact use.

As far as the SSCIG site They do not support my Epson yet. I guess us in Australia do not warrent huge quantities of sales compared to Europe and America and my model is not listed anywhere else to my knowledge.

Don't get me wrong it so far is faultless (say's he with fingers crossed). I have already poured over 100ml of ink in it over about 14 months.

Actually I am trying to get access to this information for the project I am working on. I can access all other features that is available to me due to windows.drv and the gdi. So even though I am getting more accurate estimation of ink usage it would be great to have the drivers info as well.

 

[jonalava]

Thanks everyone !

Inkmon, I think (not sure though) that australian model numbers for epson are only rebadged american/european ones. Don't know if it could work, but if you find the equivalent american model to the RX530 (RX500?), you might be able to use the ssc utility.

Let us know if it works.