black2002ls

Glad to see you are still going strong with the P5000! I threw in the towel after New Years. We simply do not print enough. Only running it every few days, sometimes only once a week it was a constant fight. We shut down for the holidays, I --thought-- I ran quite a bit of cleaner through the white channels to flush them, when I returned to it, no luck. I was able to get some good nozzle checks, but it would quickly go back to not printing. After reading this, I may try and replace the dampers and see if that resolves it, hoping that we didn't print enough to cause permanent damage to the head.

That is exactly my issue! I ran a series of 13 prints shortly after my last post and had 2 channels reporting clogs after the run. I pulled them and pulled the plug for the air channel and the vacuum released. Do I need to reinstall those plugs when the printer is not in use?

I'm sure this will all read like the ramblings of a mad man! I believe that I have found the source of my issue, not just with the ink flow, but also with the cartridges not seating properly. When I first loaded the printer, I did not prime the cartridges, which may have led to some of the early printing issues. When I found a video from ink owl on filling their refillable cartridges, I discovered that I needed to prime them. When doing so, I was basically putting a vacuum inside cartridge that was overpowering the vacuum created by the machine. So, when the damper opened to pull ink into the head, it was being drawn backwards by the vacuum created on the carts. This also seems to have resolved the issue with the carts seating properly, for now. Again, I think the vacuum inside of the cart was causing them to "stick" and not eject and seat properly. I've been through so many scenarios over the last few days, that I do not recall if the issue started before I primed the cartridges and put them in a vacuum state, or if they were developing a vacuum inside of the cart from the machine pulling ink out of them. 😕

On a whim, I decided to replace one of the DTF carts with a factory cart to see what would happen. I am not getting the back flow issue with air into the line. Which leads me to believe that my refillable carts are not getting a good seal, or are allowing air in some how. Though, it could be as simple as me not filling them correctly. I am also getting a perfect nozzle test on that channel after a level 3 cleaning to purge the line. So, This helps to reassure me that there MAY not be a major issue with the machine, more an issue with my process or the carts that I am using. Edited to add: I have noticed from the beginning that when I try to load the refillable carts, they are not seating properly the first time, every time. Meaning, when I press the cartridges in all of the way, they are not clicking and the popping back to seat. Sometimes I am having to re-insert them multiple times to get the click and subsequent positive seating. Honestly, that happens most of the time. In addition, when I do get the click, I am having to manually pull the carts back to get them to seat. This may be where my air pockets are forming

One step forward, 2 steps back. I ran the ink charge, and I am getting air in the lines again. I've got the right top cover removed so I can see the ink moving through the lines. I can hear the pump pulling ink through the lines and I can see it moving toward the head. It seems like when it releases, there is more pressure on the cartridge side of the line than there is the head side, and it is pulling the ink back to to cart causing air pockets to form.

Saturday afternoon update. I decided to go ahead and top off my ink carts for the left side of the printer, pull a vacuum on them, and see what happens. I loaded 2 and ran 2 level 3 cleaning cycles. I gained one channel back! So, big win there and that tells me that I am hopefully headed in the right direction overall. I currently have all carts loaded on the left side of the printer and am running my first charge cycle to purge the cleaner and start the ink. I am noticing that the channels that I have white loaded on still appear to have air in the lines. Either air, or there is white ink clinging to the line and the cleaning solution just hasn't fully purged yet. Time will tell. I may need to find a stronger cleaning solution to run through those channels.

I wasn't sure if they would even help since I went straight to DTF inks and aftermarket carts. I will have to give them a call

Well, I hope you don't find yourself in this particular territory! Though, you will be WAY more equipped to handle it that I am! My science experiments probably won't continue through the weekend. I probably won't do any more than consolidate the cleaning solution into carts for the right side of the printer and get the ink purged from there, then try to start over once my additional cleaning solution gets here. Filling them to the top, purging air, and then priming the entire system together with cleaning carts, as if I was starting from scratch. If that doesn't work I'm not sure what will be our next step.

I'll have to see if I can find a good recipe for a cleaner! With the p5000 should I be adding fluid to the capping station? Would a few drops of cleaner there, left overnight help break up anything that may be physically clogging nozzles? No real change after the last ink charge last night. I'm running low on cleaner, so I've changed to running level 3 cleans on the white channels, since they were the first to clog. I ordered new wiper and wiper cleaner assemblies this morning to swap those out.

I'm using the cleaner from DTFss, is there something else you would recommend?

Logging my progress here... I've ran 2 ink charge cycles and I am finally to a point where I'm not seeing much color in the lines. I'm probably going to have to pick up a few more maintenance carts to finish the process, as well as more cleaner. I ran a nozzle check after the last charge and still showing 8 channels with clogged nozzles, All channels that were used for DTF inks. I did have 10 channels with clogged nozzles last night. So, that is a step in the right direction! I'm currently running a cleaning cycle, I will run another nozzle check, and then back to an ink charge

I can't express enough how much I appreciate your input, and experience! I spent some more time with the maintenance manual this morning and it appears that the head can be checked with a mirror by disassembling part of the body of the printer, hopefully I don't make it that far. I ordered one of the 900 mL bottles of cleaning solution from DTFss, I feel I'm going to need more! Is there a brand/mix that you prefer? Air in the lines is highly likely and hopefully not terminal to the machine. I did not realize I needed to bleed air from the chamber on the carts with a syringe. I went through and did that last night, I think the next thing I did was set the machine to do a thorough cleaning. I will probably load up cleaning solution in the extra carts and perform the ink charges. It IS using ink, so it is pulling from the carts as I can see the level drop after the charging process. So, I would assume that ink is making it from the carts to the ink selector manifold.

well, after downloading the service manual for the printer. The 00004000 error code was a code for all nozzle's clogged. That code is gone now, or intermittent at best. Sounds like I may have to get a crash course in disassembling the print head and checking for damage. I've run several thorough cleans and I continue to lose nozzles.

again, trying to keep from blowing up johnson4's inbox! I've been having issues printing. finally got the maintenance program installed and running. I attempted to re-charge the left side inks, thinking that would help clear the factory ink that I charged the printer with, and correct some of the color issues I had. Once that was done, I got a maintenance required code 00004000 for the circulation pump it looks like. So, I guess I am ordering parts on a brand new printer! FML I decided to do some "learning" and removing and checking various elements of the printer. I pulled the wiper -cleaner?-, the white pad across from the wiper, and it is fairly hard, it looks like white ink has dried on the outside of this part. I'll be ordering a couple of those as replacements. Not sure if this has anything to do with the other issues, but I'm sure it isn't helping At this point, my frustration level is at about 100! I read as much as I could before setting this printer up, and one of the number 1 takeaways, was to make sure that the white ink was cycled, and the printer cleaned. I've agitated the white carts daily, and it seems like all I have done is run cleaning cycles, to the point I've filled 2 waste tanks!

I do not have the adjustment program. I'm not familiar with it!

Well, the P5000 is printing. I need to spend some time learning cadlink. I'm not getting any white base, so I'm sure there are a lot of settings I need to learn how to use there. I paired the P5000 with one of the 13" mini Audley dryer's from DTFss, now I need to learn how to set it all up to run together!

A HUGE shout out to this guy! After going spending about 30 minutes swapping chips thinking they were all bad, I went back and re-read your post. The answer is right there in black and white! Load all of the factory carts, and then swap them one at a time. I destroyed my factory green cart by popping the chip off out of curiosity, so I can say, you can have 1 non factory cart loaded from the beginning and this process will work. Now, I can try to figure the rest of it out. I've got a trial of Cadlink downloaded. It shows 4 whites, and I'm not sure if I have enough ink on hand to load 4 white carts. so we will see what happens. Also, I thought I ordered a printer cable when I ordered the machine, and apparently I ordered a long cat6 cable. FML

That makes sense. And now, I realize why the bags have letters on them! So simple, yet confusing to someone not familiar with chips.

I put this in its own thread, hoping that if I get it resolved, it will help someone down the road. Also, I didn't wan to blow johnson4's inbox up! I finally got the refillable carts and chips for the P5000 we bought to convert to DTF. I bought 2 sets of carts and 2 sets of chips (not realizing that they carts had chips on them already) from a supplier on aliexpress. So far, I've only been able to get one cart/chip to read on the machine and it required the 9 other carts to be OEM pieces. I seem to have a variety of chips with different numbers engraved on them, a variant of T139. I've tried using chips with the same number as the cart that will work, and that was when I found that the chip that was being recognized would only work if all other carts/chips were the original carts. I've ran out of want to, for the evening, but I'm wondering if I can manage to find 10 chips that all have the same number of them, if that will work. I attempted to re-set the chips to see if that would help, it did not. Though I did find that they put the maintenance re-setter in the box for the ink cart resetter. So I may have goofed up all of the chips that I tried to re-set. I apologize if this is all over the place. I'm dumping everything that I can think of that I have tried/gone through so that I don't forget, and maybe it helps pin point what the issue is. This is my first battle with this type of set up that requires chips in the carts and resetters. My previous set ups (sublimation) were on machines that were CISS capable and all we had to do was re-fill chipless carts.

Aaand, just like that, I remember why I've shied away from Inky processes! Is there a write up anywhere you can direct me to, to help learn/work through the set up/testing to get everything right?

Did you use the OEM chips on the aftermarket carts? Or are you emptying and using the OEM carts and refilling? Our dryer showed up today. I need to sort out power and then I can, at the very least, turn everything on. 🤣🤣 I still need to pick up RIP software. Then I can start figuring it all out.

Thank you for the write up! After our conversation, I ordered a P5000 to start our DTF journey. It should arrive next week, though I still need to order a shaker/dryer!

I replied in the wrong spot. Great review of this printer.