DTF conversion Epson P5000

[black2002ls]

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.

[johnson4]

2 hours ago, black2002ls said:

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.

The number on the chips are telling you which color they are for. In stock form, you can’t put a yellow cartridge in magenta. Each color has its own associated chip. 
 

So each set should have 0 duplicate chips, since each “color” has its own. 
 

I was able to make mine recognize the aftermarket’s by replacing the OEM’s one by one. Remove yellow, add yellow aftermarket, close door, accept, do it again. 
 

initially I spent like 3 hours doing this. now it recognizes them immediately. 
 

i have a 2nd p5000 going up soon, so I’m about to do this for a 2nd time and dread it. Just received it today actually. 
 

once you get it though, it works. Using the wrong resetter has messed up my chip, so yea be careful. 

Edited July 9, 2022 by johnson4

[black2002ls]

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

[black2002ls]

15 hours ago, johnson4 said:

The number on the chips are telling you which color they are for. In stock form, you can’t put a yellow cartridge in magenta. Each color has its own associated chip. 
 

So each set should have 0 duplicate chips, since each “color” has its own. 
 

I was able to make mine recognize the aftermarket’s by replacing the OEM’s one by one. Remove yellow, add yellow aftermarket, close door, accept, do it again. 
 

initially I spent like 3 hours doing this. now it recognizes them immediately. 
 

i have a 2nd p5000 going up soon, so I’m about to do this for a 2nd time and dread it. Just received it today actually. 
 

once you get it though, it works. Using the wrong resetter has messed up my chip, so yea be careful. 

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

[black2002ls]

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!

[johnson4]

1 hour ago, black2002ls said:

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 

[johnson4]

2 hours ago, black2002ls said:

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!

Use the Version 2. The p5000 puts down enough white ink with only 2 channels, but you must use four with Cadlink. Likely for the best though, I seem to use a liter every other day of white ink. 
 

Do you have the adjustment program? It’s needed to clean the wiper. 

[black2002ls]

10 hours ago, johnson4 said:

Use the Version 2. The p5000 puts down enough white ink with only 2 channels, but you must use four with Cadlink. Likely for the best though, I seem to use a liter every other day of white ink. 
 

Do you have the adjustment program? It’s needed to clean the wiper. 

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

[johnson4]

1 hour ago, black2002ls said:

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

I can send it to you. 

[black2002ls]

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!

[black2002ls]

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.

[johnson4]

10 hours ago, black2002ls said:

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.

I feel like if you do that, you will likely break the printer. It’s entirely unnecessary, anything the printer can’t do, you can’t either when it comes to clogging. 
 

Worst case scenario, load a full set of cleaning carts and do several ink charges for each side. 
 

air in your line appears as clogging. 
 

i am certain this is being over thought, and will result in more issues. 
 

personally, I recommend doing ink charges until it’s fixed with DTF ink or cleaning carts.  If not, in all my years, Its the begging of the end for the printer. 
 

good luck!

[black2002ls]

1 hour ago, johnson4 said:

I feel like if you do that, you will likely break the printer. It’s entirely unnecessary, anything the printer can’t do, you can’t either when it comes to clogging. 
 

Worst case scenario, load a full set of cleaning carts and do several ink charges for each side. 
 

air in your line appears as clogging. 
 

i am certain this is being over thought, and will result in more issues. 
 

personally, I recommend doing ink charges until it’s fixed with DTF ink or cleaning carts.  If not, in all my years, Its the begging of the end for the printer. 
 

good luck!

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.

[johnson4]

52 minutes ago, black2002ls said:

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.

Right, but the main thing is air could be “trapped” causing a sort of “block” creating the appearance of clogged nozzles as well. 
 

it’s why Ink charges are necessary, the typical cleaning doesn’t purge enough or fast enough to remove the air from the system. 
 

if you want to look at the head you can just use the wiper cleaning function and use a flashlight and look in there. I just did that this morning to clean the ink build up off. 

Edited July 14, 2022 by johnson4

[black2002ls]

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

[johnson4]

2 hours ago, black2002ls said:

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

That’s good, with time it should get better if it’s decent cleaning solution. 

[black2002ls]

6 hours ago, johnson4 said:

That’s good, with time it should get better if it’s decent cleaning solution. 

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

[johnson4]

2 hours ago, black2002ls said:

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

I honestly don’t remember, I make my own. 

[black2002ls]

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.

[johnson4]

7 hours ago, black2002ls said:

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 don't know. I know the p5000 has 3 seperate things. One to cap, one to suck the ink/purge, and one to nozzle check, then of course the wiper and wiper cleaner. 

 

I haven't done anything other than keep it clean, Time will have me test these ideas. I have a new Capping station so I can check it out and see how it works to see what would happen. 

 

With this printer you are in a territory I haven't been in yet. 

[black2002ls]

4 hours ago, johnson4 said:

I don't know. I know the p5000 has 3 seperate things. One to cap, one to suck the ink/purge, and one to nozzle check, then of course the wiper and wiper cleaner. 

 

I haven't done anything other than keep it clean, Time will have me test these ideas. I have a new Capping station so I can check it out and see how it works to see what would happen. 

 

With this printer you are in a territory I haven't been in yet. 

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.

[johnson4]

53 minutes ago, black2002ls said:

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.

Oh it will happen eventually, that’s why I’m doing it now while I can without the concern of a machine being down. I think it really just comes down to how many things you’ve experienced. This particular printer is new to me, but has been printing 100+ foot a day without an issue now since I received it. I’ll be down that road and likely destroy something in the process. Then I’ll know. 
 

Hopefully it works out and starts working. If not, could always see if warranty will repair it.  I know anytime I tried to buy a new printhead while a printer was under warranty they basically refused because it should be covered under warranty. 
 

 

[black2002ls]

11 hours ago, johnson4 said:

Oh it will happen eventually, that’s why I’m doing it now while I can without the concern of a machine being down. I think it really just comes down to how many things you’ve experienced. This particular printer is new to me, but has been printing 100+ foot a day without an issue now since I received it. I’ll be down that road and likely destroy something in the process. Then I’ll know. 
 

Hopefully it works out and starts working. If not, could always see if warranty will repair it.  I know anytime I tried to buy a new printhead while a printer was under warranty they basically refused because it should be covered under warranty. 
 

 

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

[black2002ls]

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.

[black2002ls]

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.