Dual Epson XP-600 Chinese Machines

[Solarious]

Discussions related to Chinese printers with dual heads

[Solarious]

So I have spent a lot of time and money into these printers already and think I have a pretty firm understanding of using Maintop & Atools alignment software now if anyone has any questions I am here to help! Also I will be logging my experience with these printers here.

[johnson4]

22 minutes ago, Solarious said:

So I have spent a lot of time and money into these printers already and think I have a pretty firm understanding of using Maintop & Atools alignment software now if anyone has any questions I am here to help! Also I will be logging my experience with these printers here.

Any Cadlink experience with them? 

[Solarious]

Yes I just actually purchased CADlink and have seen a huge difference In printing quality, due to advanced color options, a pretty good default curve and printer support for my dual xp-600 Okai Chinese printer. I had been previously working in Maintop and ran into many color issues that really upset some of my customers even after tuning.

So far out of the box after configuring the printers driver with CADlink, the accuracy of color representation has been so much closer to what is designed in PS and AI, I am working on getting a compatible color sensor to start making ICC profiles to improve on the accuracy even further especially when changing supplies and sources.

The only thing you would need to check for is the dual head board and confirm it’s the same board that the guy from kingdomdtf has in the knight 12, when I watched his videos he explains that lots of these Chinese printers have compatible components your just have to check before buying one if it’s board type is listed. If your printer matches up to similar components (dual xp-600 head & the correct board) the CADlink software connects directly to your printer using the Knight 12 driver.

To test if your machine is compatible download the kindgomdtf CADlink direct to film edition trial and see if the kingdom dtf driver and the atools ICP will connect and run a test print through the CADlink trial software.

this helped me so much to get going along with some atools alignment videos to get my heads aligned properly 

 

[Solarious]

If color is your issue and you already own CADLink I would highly recommend getting a color sensor to be able to make icc profiles and color match more accurately

[Solarious]

Photo example of edited color profile printed and pressed for a client who wanted kinda neon blue 

[Solarious]

CADLink unedited with stock color profile and no choke

cleaner all around with the white overlay and color accuracy, and I still have the option to tune all my color, unlike Maintop where I have to do a lot of calculations to get color somewhat accurate 

[Solarious]

Maximum color tuning capabilities of Maintop for this neon blue project, with issues from no choke options on the white overlay

[johnson4]

5 hours ago, Solarious said:

If color is your issue and you already own CADLink I would highly recommend getting a color sensor to be able to make icc profiles and color match more accurately

You need the color sensor and the Cadlink add on to make the profile. I use the i color studio and the NIX mini. 

[johnson4]

4 hours ago, Solarious said:

CADLink unedited with stock color profile and no choke

cleaner all around with the white overlay and color accuracy, and I still have the option to tune all my color, unlike Maintop where I have to do a lot of calculations to get color somewhat accurate 

Yea, Cadlink is a lot better from how far I went with maintop. Just all around. 

[Solarious]

Hmm I will have to look into the additional add on I thought they were just compatible with certain sensors already but I haven’t gotten my sensor yet so I wouldn’t really know 

[Solarious]

How do you like I color studio? And do you own CADLink also?

[johnson4]

8 hours ago, Solarious said:

Hmm I will have to look into the additional add on I thought they were just compatible with certain sensors already but I haven’t gotten my sensor yet so I wouldn’t really know 

It’s a $300 add-on for the DTF Cadlink version to be able to setup your own color profile, among other things plus the cost of the color sensor. 

[johnson4]

2 hours ago, Solarious said:

How do you like I color studio? And do you own CADLink also?

It works alright, I couldn’t get the NIX to recognize with Cadlink but I had the other one laying around and it worked. Cadlink did get back to me after a couple days how to get it going but I just use the nix now to replicate printed colors. 
 

it took Cadlink about 10 days to send me the “upgrade” code to “unlock” those features. It was quite lengthy. 

 

i have four copies of  Cadlink running in my “ eco system” of machines. I opted for 4 individual copies of the software instead of purchasing additional ports. The price difference between another copy VS another port was very little, plus I have redundancy and the ability to resell individual copies. I setup “ workstations” with each machine so it was the best route for me. 

it’s a good program, I dislike that I have to constantly go in the software folder and manually delete files- which come from the print files you print. If not, after a few days you’ll have 100+GB locking up your pc. Even if you delete the print jobs from within the software. Other than that the software crashes on me randomly, usually once a week and I lose where I am at with my print jobs. i guess normal reboots would prevent this. Not a huge deal but worth mentioning. 
 

other than that it Makes things consistent and easy. Well worth the cost. I just wish they had an “ all in” feature rich version for “ advanced” users that didn’t require multiple “ add on” purchases. 
 

i personally still like and use other RIP software. Acro being my least favorite.  With Chinese machines you have limited options, Cadlink being the best one in my opinion. 
 

i tried to try flexi, but couldn’t get anyone to get back to me. 

Edited September 25, 2022 by johnson4

[Solarious]

10 hours ago, johnson4 said:

It works alright, I couldn’t get the NIX to recognize with Cadlink but I had the other one laying around and it worked. Cadlink did get back to me after a couple days how to get it going but I just use the nix now to replicate printed colors. 
 

it took Cadlink about 10 days to send me the “upgrade” code to “unlock” those features. It was quite lengthy. 

 

i have four copies of  Cadlink running in my “ eco system” of machines. I opted for 4 individual copies of the software instead of purchasing additional ports. The price difference between another copy VS another port was very little, plus I have redundancy and the ability to resell individual copies. I setup “ workstations” with each machine so it was the best route for me. 

it’s a good program, I dislike that I have to constantly go in the software folder and manually delete files- which come from the print files you print. If not, after a few days you’ll have 100+GB locking up your pc. Even if you delete the print jobs from within the software. Other than that the software crashes on me randomly, usually once a week and I lose where I am at with my print jobs. i guess normal reboots would prevent this. Not a huge deal but worth mentioning. 
 

other than that it Makes things consistent and easy. Well worth the cost. I just wish they had an “ all in” feature rich version for “ advanced” users that didn’t require multiple “ add on” purchases. 
 

i personally still like and use other RIP software. Acro being my least favorite.  With Chinese machines you have limited options, Cadlink being the best one in my opinion. 
 

i tried to try flexi, but couldn’t get anyone to get back to me. 

Ah I felt the same way when purchasing, there should be easy to configure packages where you can bundle everything together that you need and just pay a single cost for everything with a slight discount for the bundled items. 
 

Very interesting that it took a while for Cadlink to get back to you, I wonder if it’s a matter of where your at and the service team that your dealing with. I reached out and had a response to add my driver to the version I purchased and they resolved it in a day turnaround! 
 

Thank you for your input on this thread because it’s helping me better understand each option for these printers and steps I need to take to operate my printing business with as little of issues as possible!

 

I wonder if there’s a way to program a automation to clear the jobs within the file system of windows, I know I have automated processes previously with other softwares and some cool apps that let you script commands, but that should be a user recommendation to the developers to create a job cache that auto deletes the folder after a certain amount of memory usage. Not a hard thing to implement I believe.

[johnson4]

15 hours ago, Solarious said:

Ah I felt the same way when purchasing, there should be easy to configure packages where you can bundle everything together that you need and just pay a single cost for everything with a slight discount for the bundled items. 
 

Very interesting that it took a while for Cadlink to get back to you, I wonder if it’s a matter of where your at and the service team that your dealing with. I reached out and had a response to add my driver to the version I purchased and they resolved it in a day turnaround! 
 

Thank you for your input on this thread because it’s helping me better understand each option for these printers and steps I need to take to operate my printing business with as little of issues as possible!

 

I wonder if there’s a way to program a automation to clear the jobs within the file system of windows, I know I have automated processes previously with other softwares and some cool apps that let you script commands, but that should be a user recommendation to the developers to create a job cache that auto deletes the folder after a certain amount of memory usage. Not a hard thing to implement I believe.

 

No worries at all. No it was an issue with cadlink, they were in the middle of selling out to another company when I purchased mine. Other issues usually are resolved in 24 hours or less. They always follow up with a phone call to verify all is well No negatives from me though, just what happened. They were super helpful about it. It was just the add-on code for the PMC add-on that took that long for some reason. 

 

As for the other thing, I'm sure there is something in place and I'm probably doing it wrong or something. I know other users have experienced it as well, figured I'd mention it though. Cadlink will crash and pop up error codes when your drive with cadlink on it fills up. That's when I go and empty them. haha.

 

 

 

 

Edited September 26, 2022 by johnson4

[Solarious]

Off topic question do you know how to change the car position in atools so that alignment tests actually print on the film?

I keep having issues now that I aligned my car position to CADLinks a center 

[johnson4]

5 hours ago, Solarious said:

Off topic question do you know how to change the car position in atools so that alignment tests actually print on the film?

I keep having issues now that I aligned my car position to CADLinks a center 

I have no idea. I always did everything from the printer menu in that aspect. The only thing I aligned with cadlink was the white/CMYK alignment head pass alignment, the rest I left alone and it worked fine. 

[John H]

Hi I have a Okai printer that came with maintop, recently downloaded Cadlink. What printer did you use for the set up? Thanks John

[johnson4]

57 minutes ago, John H said:

Hi I have a Okai printer that came with maintop, recently downloaded Cadlink. What printer did you use for the set up? Thanks John

Reaching out to cadlink would likely yield the fastest answer. If it's not supported they might work with you to support it. You need the Wide format edition of cadlink for any of the Chinese printers.

[Solarious]

23 hours ago, John H said:

Hi I have a Okai printer that came with maintop, recently downloaded Cadlink. What printer did you use for the set up? Thanks John

I used the knight12 printer driver 

[zainal]

On 9/19/2022 at 6:54 PM, Solarious said:

So I have spent a lot of time and money into these printers already and think I have a pretty firm understanding of using Maintop & Atools alignment software now if anyone has any questions I am here to help! Also I will be logging my experience with these printers here.

I have problem setting up my DTF the colour is light 

[CPC]

Hi folks, I have a China made dual headed XP-600 DTF printer.  Only external port built into the printer is an Ethernet cord.    According to the instructions they want me to plug the printer directly into my computer and program my loopback address to send data into the printer.  As a network engineer, I find this really strange.   Looking to see if the printer comes pre-programmed with in IP address, and have not been able to find one (no options on the LED screen).   Anyone know the default IP of these printers?  Or have a site where there is more technical info on them?   The company I bought it from has not returned my questions for just about two weeks now... 

 

Thanks!

[johnson4]

5 hours ago, CPC said:

Hi folks, I have a China made dual headed XP-600 DTF printer.  Only external port built into the printer is an Ethernet cord.    According to the instructions they want me to plug the printer directly into my computer and program my loopback address to send data into the printer.  As a network engineer, I find this really strange.   Looking to see if the printer comes pre-programmed with in IP address, and have not been able to find one (no options on the LED screen).   Anyone know the default IP of these printers?  Or have a site where there is more technical info on them?   The company I bought it from has not returned my questions for just about two weeks now... 

 

Thanks!

The IP is usually found in the software they include with the printer. Just connect the cable and open the software, it automatically finds it. Then relay that IP to your RIP, or print directly from the software they included with the printer. 

 

That is how I did it anyway. That looks close to the knight 12, could look up instructions on that machine. 

 

It's much more reliable, faster, and can be ran over longer distances than USB so I prefer the printers to be networked to be honest. 

 

 

[CPC]

Thanks!   Will give that another shot, but it looks like ATools was not included with the software that was given to me.  I did download the Knight software and try that, but still had no luck connecting to the printer (though their documentation is MUCH better than what was given to me)!   There is no USB port on the printer, so that is not even an option for me...    Even tried to find any information about the mother board (once again hoping for an IP address) with no luck there.

Hate the fact that I might have to return this printer due to lack of support.  

 

Thanks again!