Epson XP 15000 DTF conversion

[johnson4]

32 minutes ago, Big daddy prints said:

I saw something about a external waste tank do I need one?

Nope, you need a resetter for the waste tank, and to modify the original. I just cut the top off. 
 

my bad, there is a difference. Lol.

[johnson4]

Initiating the testing phase for 100 continuous roll prints! 
 

( over dramatic I know ) 

Edited April 18, 2021 by johnson4

[johnson4]

I’m about 20 prints in, ( I started a bit before I posted ). Not a single issue with roll printing with it yet, carts are well over 3/4 full so far. CMYK only design 12x10 design. 
 

white will come soon, once I see how many prints I get like this for the cmyk only. I’m expecting 30-35, this printer is holding the same amount of ink as the p400 per cartridge and that’s what I get out of my p400. We’ll see.

[Big daddy prints]

I appreciate the tips , where can I get a res setter? Think you can point me where to buy?

[johnson4]

9 minutes ago, Big daddy prints said:

I appreciate the tips , where can I get a res setter? Think you can point me where to buy?

I purchased 3 from China, they were $22 each. 

[Big daddy prints]

Do I still need this if I use the inkchip.net

[Big daddy prints]

Sorry for all these questions just really don’t have to much info 

[johnson4]

Inkchip just makes the cartridges Chipless, they still count down- even if no chips are installed. 
 

waste tank isn’t affected by inkchip. 

[johnson4]

40 minutes ago, Big daddy prints said:

Sorry for all these questions just really don’t have to much info 

Your fine, that’s what I’m here for. It’s genuinely not spelled out anywhere, I didn’t know until I tried it. 

[johnson4]

Oh, at 25 prints- major fail. 
 

working on it.

[johnson4]

So, while the XP-15000 can technically roll print, since it’s not “ native” it spits the film out when you replace the ink carts. 

for example, in the p400, they always read full. 

with this printer, they read full and count down normally ( without chips). So every 20-25 prints or whatever uses up one cartridge, it will spit the roll of film out for you to change the “ cartridge”. 
 

as for everyone’s “ paper jam” issue and loading issues, that’s Epson, easily avoided. It’s not actually a paper jam, at least in my case. 
 

so, at current, if you roll print less than 20 prints, it’ll work. Sheet printing, it’ll work if you do a couple things to prevent Epson from tagging the firmware, for one disable the Epson monitor, two don’t connect the printer to WiFi. 
 

so until ( if) a Chipless becomes available that makes it read full the entire time, it’s not going to work with the roll. If that was resolved with the ink counters, it would work perfectly fine for the roll. 
 

 

obviously, I don’t take that as an answer, so I’ll keep tinkering with it to see if I can find anything else that might work. Worst case scenario, I smash it into bits in my driveway after “ over tinkering”   

Edited April 18, 2021 by johnson4

[johnson4]

Has an optical PE sensor without a lever, right at the back of the machine for the Rear feeder anyway. 

[johnson4]

22 minutes ago, johnson4 said:

[anum11]

6 hours ago, johnson4 said:

So, while the XP-15000 can technically roll print, since it’s not “ native” it spits the film out when you replace the ink carts. 

for example, in the p400, they always read full. 

with this printer, they read full and count down normally ( without chips). So every 20-25 prints or whatever uses up one cartridge, it will spit the roll of film out for you to change the “ cartridge”. 
 

as for everyone’s “ paper jam” issue and loading issues, that’s Epson, easily avoided. It’s not actually a paper jam, at least in my case. 
 

so, at current, if you roll print less than 20 prints, it’ll work. Sheet printing, it’ll work if you do a couple things to prevent Epson from tagging the firmware, for one disable the Epson monitor, two don’t connect the printer to WiFi. 
 

so until ( if) a Chipless becomes available that makes it read full the entire time, it’s not going to work with the roll. If that was resolved with the ink counters, it would work perfectly fine for the roll. 
 

 

obviously, I don’t take that as an answer, so I’ll keep tinkering with it to see if I can find anything else that might work. Worst case scenario, I smash it into bits in my driveway after “ over tinkering”   

So chipless does not read full all the time. How does it reset counters when they are empty?

Also what is Total amount of lenght you printed at one go? And does it skips some area between pages if yes how much?

Edited April 18, 2021 by anum11

[anum11]

Also i found out that you can print 44 inch lenght as 1 page have you tried it?

[anum11]

6 hours ago, johnson4 said:

Has an optical PE sensor without a lever, right at the back of the machine for the Rear feeder anyway. 

In theory we can cut the cables of pe sensor, put a rocket switch between it and mainboard, so when catridges seems empty we can turn it off to make it see like no paper, and open connection after it is ready to get paper again. Do you think something like this works?

But how your carts becomes full again do you take catridges off and put them in again?

[johnson4]

2 hours ago, anum11 said:

In theory we can cut the cables of pe sensor, put a rocket switch between it and mainboard, so when catridges seems empty we can turn it off to make it see like no paper, and open connection after it is ready to get paper again. Do you think something like this works?

But how your carts becomes full again do you take catridges off and put them in again?

It’s different, it’s called a PE switch, but more like a paper detection switch. The one in the back. 

The head PW/PE detects the paper, it’s one sensor that does both.  

Edited April 18, 2021 by johnson4

[johnson4]

2 hours ago, anum11 said:

Also i found out that you can print 44 inch lenght as 1 page have you tried it?

I’m not sure if you have read the whole post. I haven’t printed a 44” long single page, but I’ve printed 25 x 10” designs before it ran out of ink ( ink counters) and spit the film out. That’s about 20 feet of continuous printing. 
 

if that can be solved, made to be read ink full always, or make the printer think paper was unloaded, then it would work for roll printing. 
 

otherwise, it keeps spitting out the film when the ink counter runs out. You could easily get 40 prints off a cartridge set, if it wasn’t for the counters. 
 

P400 I cut a hole to get to all carts when capped, and just open the lid and swap them mid printing. Can do head clean with film loaded even. Not so with this printer, so I don’t like it for roll printing right now. 

Edited April 18, 2021 by johnson4

[johnson4]

With the Chipless firmware it reads the carts as normal ( that aren’t there). 
 

as you print it counts down. When it runs out it says “ change cartridge” when you press the button to do that, just press it again. It does a head clean and resets all the cartridges ( not just one) back to full.

 

i haven’t had to remove the carts once, I’ve even refilled them in the printer without issue. 

 

 

Edited April 18, 2021 by johnson4

[johnson4]

Overall, main issue to me, making the printer think it’s out of paper- in an easy way.

 

or a firmware change that makes it always read full. 
 

orherwise, your cutting and gluing your roll prints every 20ish prints, not cool. 
 

this just leaves sheet mode only printing.

 

not to mention Epson attacking the “ Chipless” firmware anytime you connect it to the internet. That’s why all these people have paper jam/ paper feed issue, or printer not printing ink but moving. 
 

Edited April 18, 2021 by johnson4

[Contracandles]

1 hour ago, johnson4 said:

Overall, main issue to me, making the printer think it’s out of paper- in an easy way.

 

or a firmware change that makes it always read full. 
 

orherwise, your cutting and gluing your roll prints every 20ish prints, not cool. 
 

this just leaves sheet mode only printing.

 

not to mention Epson attacking the “ Chipless” firmware anytime you connect it to the internet. That’s why all these people have paper jam/ paper feed issue, or printer not printing ink but moving. 
 

I just got into DTF printing with two XP-1500s. I've been very nervous since there isn't a lot of information about these conversion and I've seen a few people complain about the issues you mentioned. Do you have more information about Epson disabling modified firmware? Is it possible to reflash the firmware if you screw this up?

[johnson4]

15 minutes ago, Contracandles said:

I just got into DTF printing with two XP-1500s. I've been very nervous since there isn't a lot of information about these conversion and I've seen a few people complain about the issues you mentioned. Do you have more information about Epson disabling modified firmware? Is it possible to reflash the firmware if you screw this up?

I suggest you prevent it in the first place. 
 

disable WiFi on the printer, and disable the Epson status monitor 3, via the Epson softwares. Also, set it to “never “ on Epson updates. 
 

 

then you’ll be fine.

Edited April 18, 2021 by johnson4

[johnson4]

UPDATE: found a SIMPLE solution to resetting the ink without it spitting out the film or initiating a head clean. ( given, you reset it before you run completely out mid print). 
 

Still, will probably be annoying, but it’s easy to see it’s ink level and only takes a second to reset. 
 

I’ll keep digging. I want an inexpensive replacement in case my p400 goes down. 
 

roll printing testing will resume later tonight. 

Edited April 18, 2021 by johnson4

[johnson4]

Found a way to do a head clean, with the film still installed, still testing that. 
 

sorry, just using this as a guide and I’ll follow up individually.

[johnson4]

So, an update:

 

The Xp-15000 has quite a bit of quirks, mainly stemming from Epson and the aftermarket chipless solutions. However, it's easily ignored, but can give "false" issues, like paper jams, printing blank pages, etc. 

 

Simple enough to avoid, and to fix. 

Other than that, I have just printed heavy ( like 200% density) large black boxes over and over again until the ink was low in roll mode, and was able to easily ( about 10 seconds in total) reset the ink levels with no ill effects while roll printing, with literally no effort or modifications to the printer. 

 

So, my initial issue when roll printing last night has been resolved, and that was resetting the ink levels without kicking out the roll of film.  I was able to successfully, and easily, refill the cartridges while roll printing also, which, again, depending on the design ( I was doing a CMYK 12x10 design) and figure it would have done 30 prints before I felt uncomfortable enough to refill it. Printing CMYK+W might lower that yeild, since the white only has two cartridges, depending on your ink settlings. Still, not a big deal to take a syringe and squirt 10ML of ink in it real quick.

 

However, I still haven't been able to successfully do a head clean while roll printing. The PW sensor is also the PE sensor on this machine ( one of them). Now, I have found which FFC cable it is, and it's pretty simple, just like the previous printers PE sensors. You can unplug the sensor entirely, and then it will do a head clean, as if no paper is there. However, you cannot continue to roll print, because the PE load timing still needs to be seen after a head clean, which is nearly impossible to replicate by hand. 

I don't intend on adding anything to the printer, or heavily modifying it in any way. 

 

Basic answer though, I found a way to roll print with the XP-15000, Minus the ability to do a head clean WHILE roll printing. The ink issue was the major pitfall( ink counter running out while the film is still loaded), which is easily bypassed now. IF I need to do a head clean while printing ( with the p400, not once, so i doubt it'll happen often here) I will just cut the film and reattach it after the clean is done- simple enough and might happen once or twice for 50-100 prints in theory.

I'll give it another test tonight, roll printing " take 2" to see how it works now. 

 

Edited April 18, 2021 by johnson4