Printer advice wanted.

[gwaithcoed]

I have an Epson R300 photo printer which has finally given up.
I need one similar which will take a continuous ink system as I have on my now defunk printer

I have seen the Epson P50 which seems to be a suitable replacement and wondered if any member had any experience with this printer and any pros- cons etc ?????

Alan.

 

[BMac]

I have an Epsom DX6050 for about a year now (so it is probably obsolete). Does photocopies, faxes, all the tricks. I think it cost £80 and it is a great machine. BUT.... ink costs £40 a go to replace 4 cartridges and I haven't found spurious ones that work in it yet.

Brendan

 

[dickm]

Not quite on topic, but I've got an Epson R200 which suddenly stopped printing the yellow ink in the middle of a photo.
Did the usual nozzle check, and there was nothing at all coming from that jet. Tried head cleaning, no effect, so tried more drastic cleaning with ethanol/ammonia mix that usually shifts things. Still no joy. Is it possible that the chip in the cartridge is faulty or is it just a massive blockage?

I've been using genuine Epson cartridges (against my better judgement - they really are a rip-off), so it shouldn't be happening. Though I have to say that I've had more blockages than I reckon is reasonable with genuine Epson cartridges in other printers in the last six months. Quality control?

But the old, OLD Epson A3 printer that I got off Freecycle continues to work happily

 

[gwaithcoed]

Hello Diick M. I have only ever used compatable inks after the genuine ones were finished.
I did buy a kit to refill the cartridges and that came with a gizmo to reset the chip with. I had an ink which stopped printing and although the printer did not say it was empty when I reset the chip it started printing again.
I found this rather a messy job so I went to a continuous ink system and found it brilliant.
The problem now is that the paper will not feed in to the printer.

Alan.

 

[BespokeJoineryMan]

You know, you can send off your cartridges to be refilled/recycled for quite cheaply, meaning you can cut out the messiness. I used to do this a while ago. unfortunately I cannot remember the name of the company I used to send them too....doh!

 

[ColeyS1]

Hi Alan, im in a similar boat to you. My epson r200 has finally given up. i've got the two red lights flashing (ink and paper) I to used the cis ink system saving me hundreds and hundreds of pounds. I'll be watching this thread to see if theres any updates. I thought about buying another r200 off ebay, but think i'd be better off upgrading instead of just replacing. Its very strange not having the facility to print anymore

 

[wobblycogs]

A couple of years ago I needed a printer in a hurry and all the shops were closed (it was Christmas). I had an old knacked printer which had run out of ink about 6 months prior and wasn't printing very well even then. I sprayed acetone all over the inky bits to free them up, drilled a hole in the top of the cartridge and filled it with acetone and let it run that through on head cleaning. Finally I filled it with Quink and let it get on with printing. The output was great, don't know how long it would have gone on for as I threw it away a couple of days later but it had done a fair bit of work by then.

 

[Racers]

Hi,

Dickm

Sounds like the ribbon cable to the heads has a break in it.

coleysbiscuit

Have you looked up the fault code? I reset an epson recently that was doing a similar thing.

Pete

 

[Chris Knight]

I have had all sorts of printers but these days I look for the cheapest colour printing of simple graphics/photos as for a PDF document printed on regular paper. Any photos, I send for processing at one of the online services. They do them better and cheaper than my occasional printing efforts have produced without a gargantuan effort.

Cheapest printing involves a close look at ink costs too, rather than the printer.

 

[gwaithcoed]

Hello coleysbiscuit

I had that problem with my Epson R300. Went on to Google and found a reset disc which got me up and running. It apparantly comes on if you continue to print after you have had a warning that the printer requires servicing. The printer is programned to cut out after a certain number of prints have been done. Something to do with the ink pads getting saturated and should be replaced.
As I said I have a disc which may solve your problem and if you wish I would make a copy and send it on to you, or if I fail to copy I would send the original if you will send it back when you have finished with it.

PM me.

Alan

 

[ColeyS1]

Pete, i havent looked up the fault code. From past experience the lights have only flashed when the ink had run out or the paper was stuck. Is there another secret code or something that might tell me more?

Alan, after installing the cis ink system i downloaded and installed the ssc utility.(very usefull) I also added a large waste container to catch the waste ink. Every couple of months i reset the counter so the printer wouldnt demand a service.

Is there a way to do a full reset? ctrl alt del or something similar?

Thanks for all your help and sorry to gatecrash the thread :wink:

 

[gwaithcoed]

Hello coleysbiscuit

I've just had a look through the information on the disc and it says that the printer will lock out giving you two flashing lights on your printer which cannot be reset without this software.
It then goes on to say that if you are completely locked out you will need to clear the counter and then use the Soft Reset (which is on this disc).

I have made a copy,I'ts in a jiffy bag if you want it PM me your address and i'ts in the post.
Worth a try, cost you nowt.

Alan

 

[Racers]

Hi, coleysbiscuit

Alan is right the lock up at a certain number of prints supposedly needing a service but you can reset the count, I did find some software on the 'net to do it.


Pete

 

[ColeyS1]

Hello Alan and Pete, you both cant be faulted for your efforts in trying to help ! The software i've got (ssc 4.2) sound very similar or even the same to what you are thinking of.

I've tried the counter reset and soft reset with no success. Think I need a new printer :roll:

Have you gave any more thought as to which printer you will buy Alan? From what i could understand, the majority of cis sytems fail because of poor ink quality (clogged heads etc) and not poor build quality.

 

[gwaithcoed]

Hello coleysbiscuit.
Looking at your post your software seems to be exactly as the one I have and I think you will have to replace your printer.
I have just taken delivery of an Epson stylus Photo P50.
I will get a contiuous ink system for this as soon as the supplied cartridges run out.
From what I can gather the ink is the same as is used in the R300 that I had. At least the remaing ink in the old system and the top up bottles will still be of use.
I have only printed a few photo's to try it out and it seems faster than my old one. I can't fault the quality.
I havn't dumped the old one yet, its in the workshop on the disecting table ready for an autopsy

Alan.