Mike Chaney's Tech Corner

Hi, I have an Epson R1900 Photo,although an old machine as models go I bought this new early last year. I use Qimage along with Marrutt refillable carts, Pigment ink.
Was working fine and used the unglog option at least once a month.
Now prints are coming out on Epson prem Gloss paper all pink on what should be a black background and yellow on what should print blue, no other colours seem to be working either.
This is not the first time I have had this problem with an Epson printer, the last one got tossed to the bin.
I have tried three differant ICC profiles and also let printer work the colours all with the same result.
Not wanting to get bogged down with unglog remedies available as where I live it costs 50% of the purchase in postal costs on top. ( 20 UKP cost  10 UKP postal).
I just print for me not to sell so if there is no quick fix here what Canon A3 printer does a good job?
Thanks
Russ

Hi Russ.
I was using OEM ink, albeit 3 and 4 years years expired, eventually, I got the exact same pink prints.
I did enough nozzle cleaning cycles to get a couple of good prints, but tomorrow pink again.
Mine was an R 2000, and out to the curb it went.

I replaced it with a Canon P-100  and am very pleased.  It uses dye ink instead of Pigment, and makes such exciting prints that you wonder why we got talked into archival pigment ink.
Jeff, on our forum, in the UK, just bought (presumably) the same printer, a Canon P-100S. I looked through it on the UK Canon site, and it appears to be the same as mine.
Happy as can be with it, and it has mechanics built in to address the clogging problem.

Hopefully Jeff will see your post and help out with advice as to where to look for one at the best price.

Fred

I confirm Fred's comments

I got a Pro-100s last week.   It is early days but it appears to be fantastic.

Prices at moment appear to be £375.  I got mine on a Black Monday offer for £337 plus a free 1gig portable HD and a few sheets of permajet paper. 
(The printer also includes 7 sheets of Canon Pro Platinum paper)
£375.00 · CurrysFree shipping
£375.00 · JessopsFree shipping
£375.00 · Wex PhotographicFree shipping
£375.00 · John LewisFree shipping
£375.00 · Park CamerasFree shipping

First images - just messing about feeling my way - were as good as my R1900 Then Fred gave me some guidance on driver setting and Wow best print I had ever produced.

Did a print yesterday with the Canon Pro Platinum paper and the Cannon profile -  Wow Wow Wow
The print matched the screen for the first time ever, no fiddling with brightness etc.

So my recomendation would be - go for it.

Jeff.

PS. the 100s is quite a heavy lump, much more robust than the Epson.  Also the print head is user installed so that could be an advantage if anything went wrong in this area.

I have a Canon laser printer from the last Century still going strong with an XP Comp used for text prints.

   
 

Jeff
That's the happiest I've heard you sound ever - please change your sign-off from Grumpy to "wow-wow" or similar.  ::)
Pleased to hear all is good with the Canon printer; Fred keeps on at me to change but my R2000 is very good and reliable with screen matching prints. I hope it will last a good while longer.
It was interesting to hear about the removable print head unit.
Terry

So, to get back to the original question about pink cast, did anyone figure out what was going on?  I assume you all did nozzle checks that showed no clogging?  It doesn't make sense that nozzle checks would be OK but printing photos not OK.  I can't imagine there would be a problem with electronics (ie printer driver board) that would lead to such behavior.  It just sounds really weird.

Russ said in his first post:
So it seems it was well clogged up.
Terry

.... and so was my R 2000 for a couple of weeks until I "curbed" it
Fred

Many thanks for the replies. What I don't understand is why it should glog up! I use as I said in the OP Qimage every month to run a an un-glog pattern,I don't use the printer every day but when I do use it I print A3 images. I am also useing refillable carts from Marrutt with there ink so not cheap stuff from Ebay. I have purchased a cleaning option from the PrintHead company (be here in about a week) as thought worth a few quid to see if it will do the trick before spending out on a new printer, again only had this R1900 printer for about 18 months.
Thanks again
Russ

Russ,
Unclog should be run every other day when you don't print often.
Print 1/2 page per session.
In my experience, let me word it this way. I have neot had good luck with 3rd part inks on my R 1800, and outdated cartridges on my R 2000.
Fred

My first printer was a Canon 1400 series - produced great prints with that WOW color that you mentioned.  But they faded very badly in less than a year and I really didn't want to worry about using coatings, waxes etc.  Got the Epson 2200 and it produced great prints with very nice colors which have not faded - even after ten years - - but only on matte and rag type papers.  For any glossy or luster surface, it was basically useless due to extreme gloss differential. That 2200, though lasted for seven years and produced thousand and thousands of prints.  When it finally died, I went to an Epson R3000 and was finally able to print well on both matter and gloss - the prints on Epson Exhibition Fiber are especially good.  BUT - it died (total head clog of two colors) after only 3 yeaars - and right in the middle of a major project. Epson's phone in and on-line tech support was especially useless - they directed me to take the printer in to a local service center and when I got to the place they sent me, no one knew what I was talking about, or even what en Epson printer was. I had no choice but to get yet another 3000.  Have had it now for 3 years - run the unclog patterns several times a week and keep my fingers crossed.  I have never used 3rd party inks.

Terry,
I am not that happy. Just a little more joiful.

Christmas is a comming, SWMBO is running me arround celibrating till my legs can take no more.
The cows gone dry and the hens won't lay. Fish quit biting last Saturday. Troubles pile up day by day. Now I'm getting dandriff.
Grief and misery, pains and woes, debts and taxes and so it goes. Now it seems I'm getting a cold in the nose. Life gets tasteless don't it?

With thanks to Hank Williams Jr.

Half full or half empty?
Dandruff? At least you have hair !!

fred

Good news (at least for now) I purchased a cleaning option from a UK company 'PrintHead Hostpital' and it cleared what was a blockage on the two right side carts and now seems to be printing OK. :)
Many Thanks
Happy Xmas and a good New Year to all.
Russ