The Best CIS ?

[Noahtuck]

noah,
for clogged head;
I squirted windex, very ,very small amount in the top of the cart prong...where the cart sits... with cart removed..... pressurized with needle removed in syringe , it worked for me, with the problems you say. Best of luck.

Okay, i tried the windex thing a few days ago acouple of times,
No go, and are you saying to put the syringe (without needle) directly onto the spike as to sort of use pressure to force the clog out ?

Noahtuck,
Good luck with your Topp-Jess system. If you set it up axactly as I have set up mine you should'nt have any problems. I would suggest that you use insulating tape to hold the grey T piece on the printer housing. The sticky pads could dry out over time & come loose, and if they do in the middle of a print job it would be nasty.

Oh yeah, it's super glue all the way!!!!!!!!!
on my R200 i used Rubbing alcohol to clean the spot and even the double sided tape i bought to replace the original tape came off after about a day so i superglued it, and i already superglued the line holders on the R300.

[poolenglish]

noah ;
exactly.... that is what i am saying, slight pressure, fluid and will go slow thru suspect clogged head. 1-2cc i guess worked for me, about a small spit worth.

[Noahtuck]

noah ;
exactly.... that is what i am saying, slight pressure, fluid and will go slow thru suspect clogged head. 1-2cc i guess worked for me, about a small spit worth.

Okay, i'll give that a shot also.

bidefordboy
How did you have yours set up ?

I did my R300 like this

although i did not do my R200 like this and never had a problem the way i set it up.

[bidefordboy]

On my R300 I have the centre straight tube holder bar pushed further into the horizontal section, so that the route for the tubeing is in a straight line from the clip on the cyan ink cart, then the tubeing goes through the clip as shown in your pic, but then back over the top of the clip & fixed to the printer housing on the left side. I also found that if the left hand side of the horizontal bar was just a tiny bit higher than the right side, this would cause the tubeing to go up under the top of the printer housing when the carriage moved furthest to the left. This would stop it slapping against the tubeing that is attached to the printer housing on the left side. When the carriage moves to the extreme right or left make sure that there is just enough slack to avoid pulling the cart clip. You have probably already done this as you have had experience of fitting a CIS to your R200.
The only reason I suggested insulating tape was that it 'gives' a little & after a period the tubeing would settle in to the correct path automatically. Also it would be easy to remove if you had to make a warranty claim.
I have the tubeing attached to the printer housing on the left with insulating tape.The other clip supplied with the system I have assembled & stuck right up against the edge of the housing on the left just above the route of the tubeing, this will stop the cover from closing on the tubeing.
You are probably thinking 'why not just feed the tubeing from the ink cart straight through the clip & off to the left', but I think if you did this you might find that the tubeing could move back & forth through the clip & this would cause wear over time.

[macrovision]

Well Mac, have been using your mod since you posted it & it has been working great............until today .
Did a nozzle check as I usually do before printing. The black had some broken lines so I printed a black purge sheet, did another nozzle check, the black was still wrong & the yellow had gone altogether .
Tried another couple of purge prints, still the same. So decided to re-connect the hose to the pad & do a head clean. After about 1 hour & half a pack of cig's later I had it on again. ( Next time will be much easier now I have the knack)
Had to do three head cleans & let it rest for half an hour before I got a good nozzle check. But I have decided to leave the hose connected to the pad & remove the green lined hose instead. There are a couple of plastic pins on the right hand side of the pad & I think with continually removing the pad these could easily get broken. A replacement pad would probably cost half as much as the printer.
But it was great that you came up with this idea Mac. I wonder if anyone else would have had the courage to remove the hose.
Keep us updated with any new developments.

Bidefordboy, I quoted your entire post on this issue because there's a few pointers I wanna give abot this issue.

First I want everyone to know...Not that I wanna be continuously redundant but CIS systems expand the capability of the printer even though it isn't made for commercial purposes. The typeof ink being used will definitly play a part in how much "Foam" builds up in the print-head during constant foward/reverse rapid motion...Printing case covers will utilize most of the printers width causing the printer to swish the ink around in turn causing foaming inside the print-head.

Second: The Epson "R" line isn't like conventional inkjet printers...This is unfortunate but its true. Purge sheets will work on ordinary inkjets for clearing bad nozzles but these aren't "Ordinary inkjets"...these are Piezo-electric inkjets.....Purge sheets will not clear bad nozzles...Only Head-cleaning can effectively do this. The reason being that the actual nozzles are smaller in width than a human hair. If you get a bad nozzle check run a cleaning and do a check on a different sheet of paper. If the nozzle check is bad but lines are broken in places different from the first nozzle check simply turn the printer off for an hour or so...when you turn it back on do a nozzle check immediately. The problem should be gone or mostly gone. Thats the "INK Foam" turning back to ink releasing air pockets that caused the bad nozzle check....Not dryed ink.

Third: If you want to keep your printer in tip-top shape your gonna have to buy a set of refillable carts and a nice size bottle of head-cleaning solution...This implies "Maintenance". You'll need to install the "cleaning" carts at least once every two weeks and run two or three head-cleanings and after the last head cleaning turn the printer off and leave the cleaning carts and solution in the printer over-night...The next morning or chance you get you'll install the ink carts and run a charge cycle to expel the remaining cleaning solution thats in the print-head.

And last: I went to the local Hard-ware Store (One that sells wall-paper) and I bought a yard of clean polyurathane multi-purpose covering...It costed $3.70....I cut it down to the proper size to cover my printer....Its dust-proof, Water-proof and it does a nice job of keeping air away from my printer. CIS kits will leave space for air to enter the printer(Because of the hoses) and air will cause ink to dry around and in the print-head. My Dad doesn't use the R200 I sold him...the last use was on memorial day and I was the person that used it...I printed a nozzle check when I visited him two days ago...he still has OEM carts in it and he uses the same covering I use...The nozzle check was perfect...No cleanings neccessary and it was sitting idle for almost two months. Because we have ink to spare doesn't mean we can't over do it, But if we over do it properly the printer won't notice! Maintain! LOL! BTW, Bidefordboy, You should get (If you don't have) a set of Long tweezers(Radio-Shack should have them) It'll make reconnecting the hose real easy and I mean Easy.

[Idle]

I'm back!
Finally feeling well enough to do a stroke or two -- when you get over 80 these winter nasties knock you about a bit.

End of last week I finally got around to installing the CIS I've had on the shelf for the last couple of months.

Pixiemom, (I unknowingly outbid her on it) if you catch this, you had a narrow escape there!

Carefully filled the tanks and primed the carts, stuck the thing in and nothing -- nada -- nix!

"Cartridges not recognised", the display said -- not just one cartridge, ALL of them.

Referred to the service manual and decided that either the chips were not making contact, or they were dud.

Tried cleaning them, tried cleaning the dags off the plastic mouldings that should have been taken off in manufacture and were not, tried everything I could think of -- still no go.

Put the (now almost empty) OEM's back in -- all OK.

Emailed the supplier, who responded a few minutes later with a request for my daytime phone number, which I sent him, but also suggested that, since he's in Nevada and I'm on the other side of the world, email would be cheaper.

Four days later, still awaiting a reply to that one.

Today I threw caution to the winds and stuck in a new set of chips (sellout stock from the Ozmods closure) -- came straight up and worked perfectly, didn't even do a head clean.

I've told the supplier (won't name him until this is sorted) -- offered to mail him the defective chips and will be interested in his reaction.

I do like the ink he sent me, though -- ran a few A4 photo's on plain paper and can't pick them from the Epson ink.

[Brudha]

Anyone have any experience or care to chime in with an opinion as to the probable effectiveness on this system which looks to be new:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=6785577737&category=32781&ssPageName=WDVW&rd=1

Enclosure looks good, but what could be the function of the lights and button?

[bidefordboy]

@Idle

Welcome back, hope you will soon be 'fighting fit'. Sorry you are having prob's with your CIS.

@Brudha

Look's way 'over the top' for a CIS. Would imagine that the light's come on when the ink is low. Can't see any main's lead, so probably battery operated. I personally think the enclosure look's cheap.
Brudha, thanks for your earlier link

http://stores.ebay.com/WAY-TO-PRINT_W0QQssPageNameZviQ3asibQ3astoreviewQQtZkm

This seller has everything any one need's for building there own CIS, or repairing their existing one. Have purchased a set of chip's from him, which I will fit to my Toppy-Jess system later.

[thespook]

Just another update on my mod, its working very well, done loads of printing with no probs and when it does a self clean it goes through the motions but no wasted ink, then when I feel its time to have a proper clean I just replace the bung and away it goes. Having the small tube raised above the waste ink pad means the ink that gets in the tube just drains into the waste ink container as soon as I remove the bung.
very pleased.

[macrovision]

Bideford....Your a Hero.....I'm gonna mod my JLW kit today....I just bought the sealant and because of the link you gave(The best by far) I'm gonna build a new one just for the heck of it. I love the carts not to mention the JLW look-a-like kit

[bidefordboy]

Thought you would like that site Mac. He has everything we may need & is pleasant to deal with, & does'nt rip you off with postage charges. His name is Gerry.
Brudha posted the link a while back.
C'mon Mac, give us your advice on fitting replacement chips.

[macrovision]

Alright, Replacing the chips is easy but hard(?) First: No wool clothes and No carpeted rooms. Second: Latex gloves...NO JOKE!The chips are so sensitive to static electricity that the low current in your body can destroy them so use latex gloves while handling them and handle them by their edges. Replace each color one at time....Don't take all chips off and then start replacing...take off black and replace black, ECT..When you have replaced a chip you can secure it by putting a dab of ELMERS!!!!Glue.....DO NOT USE KRAZY GLUE unless YOUR CRAZY because the chemicals in Krazy glue will and I mean WILL eat through the circuits in turn destroying them...To secure with Elmers glue use a "Q" tip...put some glue on the "Q"tip and dab some on the top and bottom placement pins. Only on the pins!


I finished modding my JLW tanks.....I'm waiting for Black to come back from it's vacation.....All of the other colors are waiting for black with me so we can start printing...We're not in a rush, After all..we don't have to complete this order for another 3-4 days. LOL!


UPDATE:: Black has come home...My modded JLW system is working fine......Thanks. Faith, Experience, And Hope...Without you I would have...... :P Question: Has anyone given the nozzle check a quality assurance look to see if the patterns match the OEM quality....I've noticed that the OEM patterns look sharper.

[Noahtuck]

I e-mailed that 2-3 days ago about some replacement carts for my R200 and am still waiting for a response

The guy i got my jessy-top system from replied right away about extra replacement carts but i wanted to see if this guy (WAY-TO-PRINT) would do better.
But if i don't hear from him tomorrow i'm just going to get them from the other guy

I think i got my LM head unclogged finally but i ran out of LM ink just when i thought i finally got it
So the only way to test it is to hook up the CIS to it (i dont wanna go buy another 2 stock carts) and i want to replace the original carts before i do...

Oh yeah Mac you never did get back to me on your idea of how to unclog the head :P

[Idle]

Question: Has anyone given the nozzle check a quality assurance look to see if the patterns match the OEM quality....I've noticed that the OEM patterns look sharper.

That's a function of three things -- the absorbency of the paper, how fast the ink dries and its viscosity.

I don't have a full set of nozzle checks, but I do have text printouts from the ink that came with the JLW CIS, the ink for the new CIS and the OEM's, all printed on average quality white 80gsm copy paper from the same ream and with the same printer settings, Times New Roman font @ 8.5 point.

The samples are the outside cover page of a newsletter I mail out each month -- the main body is printed on a 10-year-old Kyocera laser and is clearer than all the inkjet samples.

The US made "Epson compatible" ink in the new CIS is a little less sharp than the OEM, but it's made up for by the black being darker (better contrast = easier to read), the cheap Chinese ink is a distant third -- black text is slightly grey and it soaks far enough into the paper to make the other side hard to read at times.

From this I deduce that the new ink may be taking a little longer to dry than the OEM, that its black pigment is darker, and that the Chinese product, besides having an unpleasant odour, dries slowest of all.

Best way to check is with a good magnifier -- you'll be able to see where the ink soaks into the paper and blurs the edges, and by how much.

Nothing to report on the dud chips as yet -- the supplier still hasn't got back to me, beginning to think he may not intend to.

[macrovision]

Thanks Idle and WELCOME BACK!....It's nice having you around...I deduce/know that your one of the most intelligent I've met in this forum and I always respect your posts. And a funny thing happened to me....I modded my chinese cis "JLWSALES" And to secure the hoses I bought a tube of "Plumbers Goop"...It's the best stuff I've ever used and I'm planning on having a tube of this around all the time. What's with that?


Noahtuck, I thought I posted an suggestion for you. Sorry if I didn't. I'm going through a job transition(Hope I get this gig at a digital imaging corp...did the interview today, may know tommorrow) But I think...as you posted...changing the cart is your best bet because the older jlwsales cis (IS) prone to breaking down after a period of a few months...If you don't believe me read all of the posts from forumist that had problems....they seem to occur anywhere between 1-3 months and usually are caused by faulty "O" rings in the outlet port. This I believe is the reason why he redesigned his cis kit...LOSING TOO MUCH BUSINESS FROM PEOPLE LIKE ME! ONE THAT KNOWS QUALITY!



Noaktuck, Clean out you tank while your waiting...store the ink in bottles and run hot water into the tanks...swish it around to get the ghost ink out and continue to flush the tanks untill there mostly clean pull all ink out of that cart using A duck bill syringe...drain it dry reconnect every think..fill the tanks and re-prime....if this fails...REPLACE ALL THE CARTS! LOL!

[bidefordboy]

Well guy's, I'm sorry that some of you are having problems with your CIS Systems. When I purchased my first system from JLW I thought it was great. It worked fine for about four months untill I had the problem with the carts. The Toppy-Jess system I have now, which has much better carts, has been working perfectly for the last three months. The only fault was with the chips, but now I have the green lined hose disconnected, this does'nt matter. I think the biggest improvements to these systems are the improved carts & the top mounting bracket for the tubing. My original JLW kit had the front mounting clips (remember those ), while they did the job I never felt confident that they would not come loose & cause the tubing to get in the way of the print head, I know this has happened to quite a few of you.
I have a good friend who has a birthday coming up in about a months time. He has a R200, so I am going to build him a CIS with the parts I have ordered from 'Way To Print'.
http://stores.ebay.co.uk/WAY-TO-PRINT_W0QQssPageNameZviQ3asibQ3astoreviewQQtZkm
I already have the chips. I also have a set of syringes that I received with my Toppy-Jess system, which I did'nt need.
If I had had the problems that some of you have had with your CIS systems, then I would just use refillable carts. This would probably be the best alternative for people that don't print too much.

[macrovision]

Yeah Bidefordboy but I know my problem is that I print too much but I agree that disconnecting the green line hose is O.K. but how do you clean the waste pad? It appears to be better that you not clean the waste pad but experience tells that you know how to change it, Right? I now post not to clean it because it is responsible for "Capping" the printhead when idle and to ensure a proper seal the service manual tells technicians not to even touch the rubber capping so maybe we should see if Gerry can or does stock the wastepads. BTW I'm doing research on whether or not disconnecting the pump Via wastepad or green-lined hose can cause the problem I'm having(Mis-firing of the nozzles).

[Idle]

Macro, I've been following your investigations and experiments with interest (except when I was too sick to care...) and wondering when it might turn around and bite you...

Reading your post on the other thread suggests that perhaps it just did.

I suspect your off-centre printing problem might be due to accumulation of gunk on/in the nozzles -- I wouldn't be initially looking at the printer electronics, as a rule they either work or they don't and faults are usually pretty obvious.

The waste pad (parking pad, actually, I think -- waste pads are those things across the printer bottom that we like to keep dry) is intended to remain saturated with ink and to form an airtight seal when the heads are parked -- thus the nozzles remain wet and air is kept away from them when the machine is idle, which is usually most of its life.

Constantly removing and replacing this pad will probably end in its getting distorted, not contacting the nozzles at some points and letting them either become dry or accumulate crap (or both.)

This will very likely cause some of the ink shots to be misdirected, giving the appearance of an electronic or software fault.

Remember the ink nozzles are very tiny -- an imperfection you can't even see without a magnifier will be enough to deflect the ink.

I don't know if this will work, but you might try making up a pad of clean, lint-free cloth, saturating it with an ammonia solution, replacing the parking pad with it and parking the heads on it overnight.

[bidefordboy]

Yes I think you are right Idle. If you check my post on 21st June you will see I was a little concerned about this. Since disconnecting the green lined hose instead of the waste (parking) pad hose I have not had to do a head clean, all nozzle checks have been perfect.
The reason I disconnected the green lined hose rather than the black hose connected to the waste pad, was because on the right hand side of the pad there are a couple of plastic pins, that are very vulnerable to being broken with continually removing the pad to clean it.
The pad will still accumulate ink over time from the print head. So what I do now, once a week or after doing a lot of printing, is fold up some tissue & gently press it down on the pad to absorb the excess, being carefull not to leave any residue from the tissue on the pad. The other pad on the left is easy to remove, rinse, dry & replace.

For anyone that may be interested, I see that Gerry at 'Way To Print', has new & reconditioned print heads on sale.

[nickelzy]

Well, after about 6 months of trouble free use, my first generation JLW Sales CIS is giving me problems. I've followed this thread for a while, although haven't been around for a few weeks so I went back and read several pages. It sounds like my problem is one in which many others have encountered as well.

Earlier this week I printed a DVD and the color looked awful. I did a nozzle check to find out what the problem was and the light cyan lines hardly even came up at all and the yellow were broken up a good bit as well. I did more cleaning cycles than problaby necessary, but I was desparate. I did a nozzle check and the light magenta showed a couple lines but still very broken.

I decided to take the cartridges out and snap them back in a couple of times to see if this would make any difference. While doing this, I noticed that the light magenta hose was almost empty - from the printer all the way down until about an inch or so from the tanks. While doing a print test I raised the tanks slightly above the printer because I noticed that this caused the magenta ink tube to fill up. I'm not sure if this was a very good idea because I saw a droplet of ink come out on the cartridge.

After doing these things, I decided to run a few purge test patterns. The yellow bar was only about 1/2 filled up at first with white gaps and the light cyan had lines throughout. After my 4th test print, I FINALLY got a test pattern which had the 6 bars full of their respective color and without any lines. Everything looked good so I was excited that I had somehow fixed the problem. Just to check, I did a nozzle check and although the yellow lines now look good, the light cyan has no lines whatsoever showing. I'm confused as all heck because the last purge test pattern I ran, all colors including black, printed perfectly but the nozzle check shows a problem with the light cyan.

I hope I didn't make this too long or confusing, because I'm near my wits end with this darn thing. My funds are kinda low right now so the thought of junking this sucker for something else isn't really what I want to do. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[poolenglish]

Nick;
It sounds like the problem i had after 6 months. The problem is a bad seal on the bottom of the carts. Air leaks past the seal while printing and this is the problem.
You have to replace the carts, the problem ones or the whole set if within your budget.
I went with refillable carts with auto-reset chips installed, they can be adapted to use with your jwl-cis if you like, simply by replacing plug with a hose connection (sold by cis part suppliers on e-bay $1 ea).


Printers can be a pain in the neck!

[locky]

My old JLW CIS starting problem same as Nick after 8 months, 1st there were no patern check on LM and Cyan even after cleaning too many time. So I decided to purchase 2 cartridges with ink and chip from JLW ($4.5 each + $5.0 shipping). After replaced LM and Cyan (these are new design with we can see through inside), it work for a month and the other colors started broken line; I ordered 4 more this time, after replacing BLK,Y,LC,M all intermitten broken line paterns even after too many cleaning cycles. I noticed that BLK and Yellow had no ink flow, raise the tanks to 1.5" from base like JLW suggestion but still no go. I'm so fustrated, JLW will send me other 2 carts (B,Y) for replacement and he suggest to upgrade to new UVink system with a special discount ? while waiting for carts I decided to disconnect all hose and use carts as standalone (still have a lot of ink left). With Pool. help will try to refill the cart tonight after work.
Any one use the upgrade system from JLW ? how it work compare to the old CIS ?

[poolenglish]

even after cleaning too many time--- even after too many cleaning cycles

locky;
you might know this already but.....you are not supposed to do a cleaning cycle more than 2-3 times at the most in a row, because it defeats the purpose.
try to print a test photo after 1 time and reclean. Let the printer rest for a half hour minimum, then try a nozzle check.
good luck; pool

[bidefordboy]

@nickelzy

Know exactly what you mean. Totally confusing. First one colour is bad, do a clean, it comes back, then another goes. Waste loads of ink trying to cure it. But the only cure is new carts. I think most of us that have owned the original JLW system have been there. Buy a new set of carts from 'Way To Print', he also has the elbow joints to connect your existing tubeing to the new carts, & you don't need glue or sealant. You can also use the chips you have on your JLW system.

http://stores.ebay.co.uk/WAY-TO-PRINT_W0QQssPageNameZviQ3asibQ3astoreviewQQtZkm

I'm not being paid to plug this guy's merchandise. It is the only place I have found that has everything we need.

[Noahtuck]

Noahtuck, I thought I posted an suggestion for you. Sorry if I didn't.

Noaktuck, Clean out you tank while your waiting...store the ink in bottles and run hot water into the tanks...swish it around to get the ghost ink out and continue to flush the tanks untill there mostly clean pull all ink out of that cart using A duck bill syringe...drain it dry reconnect every think..fill the tanks and re-prime....if this fails...REPLACE ALL THE CARTS! LOL!

Nope, you stated the method of dripping windex on the spikes but that did not seem to work either even with the new stock carts.
And you said you didn't want to post your other way of maybe cleaning it out.

The LM was still blocky, just as i thought it was cleaned out, i ran out of ink,
I just got the new carts today to replace the old ones on my R200 CIS.
What do you use to seal the hose/lines to the inlet elbow's on the carts ?
I was just gonna put a little super glue gel around them.

[habs01]

Sorry to hear about your problems Nick. I still have my original JLW Sales system working for 7 months now. I once had a bad nozzle check and raised the carts 2 inches and let them sit for the night. Next day everything was OK. From the problems reported by others with the system I figure it's probably best to leave the cartridges alone if you have the patience... I know, easier said then done.

Just curious, before the problem, did you do anything special with the printer? Heavy printing? No printing for extended period?

Anyways I hope things pan out for you. BTW, the links given by Bideforboy look good if your problem persists. The nice thing about the carts is you can use them as refillables or CIS.

[macrovision]

Noahtuck, Sorry I haven't posted like I used to, Work! Damn work! Anyway..."Plumbers Goop"...It's way better than silicone sealant.


Idle, Your probably right...Ya see I had no problems when I cleaned the pad and reconnected the hose....I did this for about 4 months wthout a bad nozzle check but when I decided to never reconnect the hose I started having problems. I used my printer as if it were designed for commercial usage and head cleanings used about half of the tanks because the chips resetted to 100% one after the other causing six head cleanings during one print job....not during every print job but at least every 50 or so dvd's. However I will have it serviced under warranty and use it with refillables from waytoprint....the site posted 95% reset chips...Humm.....Ya think? Anyway I'm not sweating it because the problem I notice, but my consumers say "What are you talking about...This looks great!". I will buy another printer very soon...Next week when I get paid to be exact but I'm considering a Canon Pixma IP3000 with DVD printing(European)....No chips....No autoclean cycles! Believe it or not the nozzle checks seem to be getting better but I think the problem really comes from the printer trying to autoclean but the hose being disconnected the ink had no-where to go and simply built up in the printhead and started drying on a microscopic level...when repaired I'm leaving all hoses connected and it can autoclean until it leaks a vat!

[Like]

Mac? you say you are going to leave all hoses conected. Are you still going to leave your waste tank hookup?

Sorry about not being here for awhile, but I think I caught something from Idle I still feel like crap

[Idle]

Like, I think it comes from over your way (it's the Taloia virus -- certainly sounds Hawaaian.)

[Like]

Like, I think it comes from over your way (it's the Taloia virus -- certainly sounds Hawaaian.)

That can't be it, Hawaiian has no "T" in thier language (sp).They can't spell either.
Sure hope I get feeling better soon

Just noticed you spelled Hawaiian wrong.