johnson4

Yea, it’s intentional. If you read up on it they didn’t make acro, the picked it up because whoever created it didn’t. then their 10.x version was cracked almost immediately unshockingly. It’s the same Program with a few differences. so they are doing a few changes and supporting the new P700/p900 printers with it, forcing people to buy it again- and they will. Likely with a better crack resistant lock. Doing this once though is enough to scare customers away though. What happens 6 months later when 11 is being replaced. Most things in this industry are just money grabs. DTF just happened to work well. They have already pushed the release back 1-2 months now. Cadlink locks you in to a pre made driver, one update and boom- now an issue. They charge for every little thing. I personally find all the built in tools useless, you can’t save or export the image or settings. hopefully someone out there in the background is working on something that actually just works- in which they can change and sell. Like a new EKprint but also listen to the top 5-10 wish list of changes from the users instead of money grabs and poor then I’d be happy to drop however much money they wanted for it. i just wish I had went to school for this type of thing, I’d just do it myself- it’s galaxies over my head though.

When you are doing 20-50 gang sheets a day with sometimes 20 images per sheet and each image needs to be a specific size- it is not ideal. The way they showed the 11 being, it seems nice- but again, doesn't really help if it still processes really slow. They show everything BUT how fast it processes. Last time I tried a 13 X 24 sheet on Acro, I made a sandwich, ate it, got distracted by the tv for a few minutes, came back and it was still processing. Cadlink offers this, but it rearranges all the images around so it's hard to keep place of what is what so I stopped using it, among other reasons. The hacked versions of software I will never recommend. Always something wonky with them. That's the last thing you need when starting up, I went through that with Acro 9 thinking it was my setup. If on a budget, you could also just use acro 9, It's even cheaper and available just about anywhere you look and will likely work the same way- with the exception of a few additional printers.

It would for sure. I hope it processes images faster too.

So I ran into an issue last night after a year of heavy use in this mini shaker. 2 bulbs continue to function as normal. one bulb heats up much faster, and much hotter. It’s starting to glow “like the sun” instantly where the other two just have a red glow after 2-3 seconds. The other two are normal. im assuming this bulb is on the way out. Ironically just three days prior I found the manufacturer for this exact shaker and had ordered another mini shaker just like it and 2 spare bulbs. the one single bulb is causing so many issues, inconsistent temps, burning the film, all sorts of issues. I may have to disable it and hope the other two will work for now. Since these are a specific voltage and wattage, I can’t just go replacing one without knowing what it is. From my amperage tests they average about 200W each at 220V. which I can’t find anywhere the whole heating unit pulls about 600W 220V across all three bulbs. good news is the round bulbs this one uses are $8 direct from the seller. Bad news that’s in China and this is my only half functioning shaker. anyway- if someone else runs across needing a new Mini shaker bulb- maybe what I post here will help when I am finished and it’s fully functioning again.

In my testing the plain ol' glycol didn't do anything after the ink was dried. Maybe it will work for you, keep us updated

In acro 11, that hasn't been released yet this "gang" or multiple images per print has been showcased as a new feature. It is not a feature on any previous version. The acro 9 is not from the same people and is a hacked version. Acro 10.X is not updatable to 11. So if you are looking for this feature I would wait for Acro 11 to be released.

Sounds like a solid plan. The ink is mainly water, glycol and pigment. I'll have to pick up some of the glycol ether, sounds like a nice solvent.

Yea, alcohols didn’t work for me. Ethers will mess up the head. I didn’t try ammmonia. when you have a head already messed up- that’s the best time to try.

I've been using the cleaner for quite a while though with great results. Honestly, I don't really share what's in it. It took me quite awhile to find something that worked which derived from how poorly most "cleaners" worked for me. about 2 years of just random testing. I've been thinking about selling it actually, but I think about a lot of things. I still consider myself as " testing" it. It does contain water, but not much of it. Not a drop of anything Windex related components, alcohol or any other household cleaner. It only helps with water based inks, It's not a universal cleaner. I don't have many secrets, but the few I do I worked hard for and spent good money on so I keep them close. I'm sure you'll find something out of necessity, maybe even better than what I make.

That is what this website was for actually, DIY DTG from epson printers. No I just meant I would rather use water instead of Windex or alcohol. from real world use, they sucked for me. I actually do flush with water though, I only use cleaner to clean things like the capping station or to sit in the lines then flush out with water. I honestly don't remember what " salt" it was, After it worked I decided not to keep using it just in-case. I mainly did it out of curiosity.

Windex is honestly a waste, I tried that about 6 years ago, I might as well have just used water. It never helped, actually made it worse usually. Windex is made to dry quickly, you don't want that. You want the opposite of that, a humectant really. Alcohol doesn't work well either because of the same, at least not with water based inks. With Solvent inks or UV inks, OEM pigment inks, Alcohol works well. With water-based pigment inks, I've only seen it make it worse, or do nothing. Thats my experience with it anyway. Your cleaner should be able to almost " melt" dried ink. I use it all the time to remove dried up crud, melts it like butter. If all it does is the same thing as water and doesn't actually react to the ink in a way that is beneficial, not through speculation but through actual hands on testing- I'd just use water.

That's ironic isn't it? lol. I've considered sending it off to have it tested, but the cost is not worth the benefit to me honestly. There is something in there that isn't water, almost like alcohol but isnt, but whatever that is air dries quickly pulling out the water and leaves behind the glycerol. That is the part I'm missing. Too much water and the stuff won't work at all on the sheets, too thick and the printer cannot jet it properly. I'm stuck in the middle of that scenario without really locking myself in a room and don't come out until I have an answer- which I honestly haven't had the time to do. Whatever it is is non-toxic, I've tested around with quite a few things, ratios and mixes, While I've gotten it pretty close- not close enough to work perfectly. The main ingredient here is the glycerol, it gets everywhere in the exhaust and it's the part the powder sticks to, The part that doesn't evaporate until heated. This is also the stuff that is left behind with an improperly cured transfer and tons of people claim to be moisture absorbing into the finished transfers. So they throw those humidity packs in their products and all that jazz for no reason. I think in order for me to fully understand it, I need to know what is in the pre-treatment the PET film is coated with. Knowing that, I could then potentially be able to help point at the things that react with it. I know whatever it is, isn't capable of pulling out THAT much water from the ink. I've tried it, thoroughly. The best results I had was less than 30 percent water, ideally a bit less. Whatever it was, was thin like alcohol, evaporated quickly pulling water with it. In my opinion. I know with DTG, It was mainly salt( not table salt) in the pre-treatment I used. I made my own pretreatment there for bit, and it worked just the same.

I also am running 6 month expired ink with no I’ll effects, so far anyway. I ordered too much and we took a hit with Covid.

As far as I know, it contains glycerol, water, and the pigment. Everything else is proprietary and unlisted. i have been curious and spent the last year looking into, testing and trying to replicate it. Dead end after dead end. I did come up with a badass cleaner that seems to rejuvenate all my head issues- could just be good luck though. So far I have saved two printheads that would otherwise be in the trash. but I know I am missing something on the ink ingredients and/or mixture. I’ve gotten the consistency right, jetting right, but my main downfall is getting it to absorb into the film pretreatment instead of being partially repelled or some other unsatisfactory result. I’ve gotten it really close, but it just isn’t right. I have my own reasons to make it. Unfortunately I’m not a chemist or have any experience other than the large amounts of research and testing I’ve done. I’ve tried reaching out to several places for my specific needs with no results. you have no idea how many posts I see requesting information like this with no real curiosity- just looking for an answer, honestly didn’t take it seriously as it would just come down to buying new ink in this scenario to me. i would like to know specifically as well, not to be cheap but rather to benefit my endeavors.

I would want the additional features of acro 11. Honestly I'd prefer EKprint though, it has a 4900 version. Are these the same printer?

I've been bugging Eukon Digital about it to try and get them to support the P5000. I'm going to write him a letter in a few days as well. lol. If not, I'll go with Acro 11. $1,800 is really cheap for the quality and reliability of an Epson printer. When you consider the cost of a new printhead for any of these older Epson's, it's well worth it. That is, as long as you don't get a head strike and ruin it, lol. I'm fortunate enough to still have some of the old models here, I dread the switching of models and being stuck with software I do not like. So far I have been lucky and able to recover/repair all of the issues I have encountered so far.

Yea, This post confused me a bit too.

Don’t try the p600 head in there, even if it boots, it’s just Waste time.

That’s good. I had 4 channels go out 50 percent( the part striking the film). I’ve been using my “cleaning p800” to do head cleans with cleaner. I’ve got it all back except 2 rows in total, still working on it. if the head was $500 I’d buy one in a heartbeat. Basically $900- it’s quite a bit and I would consider the P5000 at that point instead.

I only used it for about a month. It worked fine for me, I roll printed with it 95 percent of the time. Users have reported, and I have confirmed awhile back that aftermarket carts for the printer are poor quality.

https://compassmicro.com/products/inkjet/surecolor-p800.html It's a distributor/ repair center for Epson. They removed the listing, but you can just email them. be sure to say the part number and printer. You'll need your printer serial number.

Oddly enough, the P600 printhead is like $550. But, I can confirm I haven't been able to do that, unless the p600 had a p800 head in it from a previous swap. Personally, I doubt you'll save much by buying one elsewhere, but from Epson direct at least you'll know it's brand new.

Yea, That can happen. The output tray should be lower than the rollers in the front. If you get at it immediately with cleaner though usually it's fine. The printhead can be purchased directly from Epson for $850. They say the P600 head works in it, but I have tried 3 different heads and it DOES NOT. However, the P800 head works in the p600. Weird. This is what I was told by my regular Epson parts distributor for the P800. " The Epson part number is F196040, and the Epson list price is $842.44, plus shipping and sales tax."

I flush manually with distilled water, once fully flushed I replace the dampers for those channels then load carts with cleaner in it. Do another couple ink charges and it’s good to go. Just make sure to use cleaning solution or capping station solution. You’ll still waste the solution anyway doing head cleans and whatnot so it’s not ideal. I’ll pm you.