JLWsales Epson R200 CIS Review

[Bodyslide]

My tanks if your looking at the printer are located on the right side. The tanks are located on the same level as the printer and about 1/2 inch away from the printer.

[dmagic1]

In this situation I would:-
1. Print a nozzle check
2. Print a 6 colour purge test
3. Tip the ink containers on their side to expel any air ( & then back upright of course )
4. Run another cleaning cycle
5 Repeat 1/2/3
This is just what I would do if I had this problem.

I've tried all of that still no go. When I do the purge pattern the light margenta looks pink. Maybe some ink is coming thru. When I do the nozzle test pattern I don't get a single line for light magenta.

*Edit**
I used PhotoShop to print the purge and the light magenta didn't print at all.

Anyone know the steps to manually clean your heads.

[bidefordboy]

dmagic, go here http://forum.ozmods.com/ , go to the Epson problem's & fixes, first item.

Or here http://photography.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http://eddiem.com/photo/print...og/unclog.html

Or here http://www.fixyourownprinter.com/kits/epson/K70

Noahtuk, go to page one, plenty of photo's there.

[Noahtuck]

dmagic, go here http://forum.ozmods.com/ , go to the Epson problem's & fixes, first item.

Or here http://photography.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http://eddiem.com/photo/print...og/unclog.html

Or here http://www.fixyourownprinter.com/kits/epson/K70

Noahtuk, go to page one, plenty of photo's there.

YOU JA!!!!!! LOL!!!!!
I see this and im like, i've looked through this thread.... i don't remember any photos on page 1....
Cool!!!!!!
Thanks & to Bodyslide also....
It would not have been a problem if it was gravity fed, just wanted to make sure so i could put another shelf above my printer before the kit came to save time, figured it might help with the lines not getting bound up or in the way also.....

I don't think ink is being pulled thru the light magenta because I think I can see a small air bubble that never moves. What can I do to fix the problem?

I don't have mine yet so i'm not sure how they are all connected, but could'nt you disconnect the line and bleed it a little to get the air bubble out.... like a brake line or whatever ??

[dmagic1]

Thanks, I'll try that.

[buckeejit]

rite, I received mine last week. I have not got a screw driver small enough to take the screws from the catridge holder thing. is there anyway you can keep it on?

[bidefordboy]

Open cartridge cover, hold the carts in your left hand ( fan them out slightly like you would a pack of cards ) close to the front of the holder & carefully insert each cart, one at a time, through the opening, starting with the yellow cart. When the carts are in position make sure they are pushed down till they lock in place. Carefully close the cover & gently pull the plastic clip on the black cart towards the front to allow the cover to close. On my system I have moved the clip so that it overlaps the black & cyan carts, with the top left end of the clip resting against the cover. Just take your time doing this & everything should be fine. I think it's best to leave the cover on, then you are sure the carts won't work loose over time.

[dmagic1]

Bad news.
I have found that it is not my head thats clogged but the light magenta cart of the cis. Now what? I've tried shaking the cart. I'm trying to figure out a way to force pull some ink thru the cart to unclog it. Any suggestions would be great.

[bdgriff]

dmagic, How long have you had the CIS?? You got yours from JLW Sales right? Have you tried emailing him (think it's Dong Dong) and see what he suggested? Maybe he'll send a new cartridge!? Man hope this isn't things to come, I haven't even installed mine yet...

[dmagic1]

Yeah, I just emailed him just before I posted. I had it since late November. I'm really hoping he or someone can help me get it unclogged. I don't expect him to replace it after this long but I guess anythings possible.

[bdgriff]

Have you tried soaking the head in a solution of ammonia/water? Or even just windex? I read that works good.

[dmagic1]

Its not the printer head. Its the cart attached to the CIS.

[bidefordboy]

Here is one tip I found http://www.discount-inkjet-cartridge.com/faq.html . They say to use distilled water, but I have read other's that have used ammonia & water as suggested by ' bdgriff '. Hope you solve your problem & let us know for future reference.

[dmagic1]

I see.
I'll give that a try.

[poolenglish]

good ideas, thx for the pics bud

Hi all,
I happened to bump into this forum and reading this CIS. I used to hate injet printers because of the refill costs, and was waiting for a day so something like this (CIS) would come. I needed a printer for printing DVD lables and this forum brought light on to me!!!

As I wanted to do R&D on CIS printing, I did buy a free after rebate R200 printer from Amazon.com when purchased with Digital camera. I then sold the camera and the original Eposn R200 ink cartridges ($50) on ebay.
I then bought the JLW CIS ($95-$50= $45). Install went fine. Now my problems was the routing the tubes and the cartridge holder. The Tubes would keep rubbing on the Printer body and sometimes entangles. This kept me watching the printer while printing was a headache. So i did cut open the top for freeing tubes movement. Also i had to cut the Cartridge holder so that would mount and lock itself.

Now the printer works perfectly smooth, nothing to worry about . Also to keep the tubes held cut and use a UPS(very sticky and good) or fedex packing pouch to keep the tubes perfectly held.

Some talked about evoparation of the ink from Air Vents. What i did was kept the CIS bottles unit in a box covered with thermal protection foam and made a small breathing opening on the box.

I have some picture i took on my version R200 which i thought i must share to all others who have supported me by this forum

http://www.magprotech.com/r200/IMG_1321.jpg
http://www.magprotech.com/r200/IMG_1322.jpg
http://www.magprotech.com/r200/IMG_1323.jpg

Tip: To cut open on R200 take a stationary knife and heat it and cut it in slow steps.

[scott_tiger]

Hi all,
Here is nice to take complete control of your R200 CIS ink system.
http://www.ssclg.com/epsone.shtml
SSC Service Utility
for Epson Stylus Printers.

Downloac this tool,
http://www.ssclg.com/download/sscserve.exe

I hope it is useful to all R200/R300 users.

[dmagic1]

A bit of warning. DO NOT use the cartridge exchange feature.

[habs01]

Dmagic, you being one of the earlier adopters of the JLWSales system I'm curious to see how your light magenta cart problem is panning out.

Have you refilled your tanks? If so, what ink did you use?

Keep us posted.

[dmagic1]

Yes I've refilled my tanks several times. I print a ton of disc and pictures. I've only used ink from MediaStreet.

I've heard back from JLWSales. They gave me some steps to take to unclog the cart. I didn't completely understand them so I'm waiting to hear back from them again. They also stated that if the cart can't be unclogged, they sell a replacement cart that can be attached.

by JLW
The system is design to be easy maintenance if there is any problem.

[Bodyslide]

dmagic1 which ink did you buy? Thanks

[dmagic1]

Plug-N-Play ink found here
http://www.mediastreet.com/cgi-bin/tame/mediastreet/ink_bottles.tam?&case=epson#order

[dmagic1]

*off topic*
Hey
Just notice, Woodstock GA.
I use to work up that way.

[klrbee25]

I just joined the crowd today, and man o man is this a great system. I have two questions that perhaps someone can address (I couldn't find them earlier in the posts).

1) The tubing has some air in it. Is this a problem or should I just use it without worry? I don't want to do massive cleaning cycles since I'd be wasting all the ink in the tube ahead of the bubbles. Perhaps I can wait, see if there is an issue with the specific color/tube with air, and use SSC to clean just that color...thoughts?

2) I've noticed that my photos are a bit dull or washed out when printing on premium glossy photo paper (compared to prints using the Epson inks). Has anyone found some good settings on the R200 that compensate? I assume we can fix this with some brightness, contrast, saturation changes on the slider bars.

Thanks for the advice and happy printing.

[RickTheRed]

@klrbee,
1) you don't have a choice. Clean head is the only way to get rid of bubble. Two or three and you should be fine.

2) I don't understand why you try to print something while there is still air in your system. I have compared picts and they are not dull at all. Run the nozzle check and perform clean head until it's totally correct. Also run the print alignment.

@ Dmagic,
Have you notice any difference when you switched to another branded ink? Do you also print photograph?
Thanks.

[klrbee25]

Thanks for the reply. I just ran the cleaning and it sucked the bubbles right out. I suppose I'm just being overly stingy with preserving ink...the days of tiny cartridges are finally over and I have to get used to it!

As for dullness, I suppose it's a color profile difference I'm noticing more between my monitor and the print. I think someone said they use the apple srgb with some good results. I've been using the epson r200 output profile. What has everyone else found to work best with this ink/printer combo?

[mikesbytes]

Hi all,
Here is nice to take complete control of your R200 CIS ink system.
http://www.ssclg.com/epsone.shtml
SSC Service Utility
for Epson Stylus Printers.

Download this tool,
http://www.ssclg.com/download/sscserve.exe

I hope it is useful to all R200/R300 users.

Perhaps this link should be added to the Tools section

[dmagic1]

@ Dmagic,
Have you notice any difference when you switched to another branded ink? Do you also print photograph?
Thanks.

No difference at all. I've been using MediaStreet ink every since I was refilling carts. That was awhile before I even got a CIS. I was more concerned about how the ink that came with the system would be.

The good news is that I believe I got my light magenta unclogged. I say believe because I still don't have a solid pattern when I check. I'm now seeing ink move thru the tubes, something I wasn't seeing before on that one. That's a good thing. I'm going to let it sit for a while then check it again.

I did a lot of stuff to this cart so I'm not sure if the last thing I did fixed it or a combination of all things. After trying every thing I finally decided to stick a very small precision screw driver thru the bottom opening. I did that a couple of time then finally I saw ink coming out more freely and air building in the tube. I placed it back and when the printer initialized I could see the air being pulled out easily.

[habs01]

@ Dmagic,
I'm going to let it sit for a while then check it again.

Wise decision. When we're too desperate that's when we end up doing something we end up regretting (or not).

[buckeejit]

I cannot figure this out, is there any other way to set this up with the cover on?

[Bodyslide]

I took the cartridge cover off of mine. Cut a small chunk of plastic near the black cartridge. Then I used hotglue to attach the clip to the black cartridge. Then you can open and close the cartridge cover with no issues.