Digital BW, The Print

Jeff,
If you have a CIS (CFS) system, you may have an ink level issue and/or foam
build up issue. I had a similar problem and it was temporarily helped by
raising the bottle rack about 1/2 in. I imagined that the problem also had
something to do with foam build-up in the cartridges. The "mystery cycle" is
a cleaning cycle that consumes some ink. If the ink doesn't flow correctly
you might get air in the nozzles.
At some stage you will have to remove the foam build-up in the cartridges
anyway. The procedure is described in
http://www.inksupply.com/index.cfm?source=html/cobratrouble.html#1
Martin Glader

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jeff Moore" <jeffmoore17@...>
To: <DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Monday, December 22, 2003 3:01 AM
Subject: [Digital BW] Baffling 1280 Problem


I have been printing on an Epson 1280, using the Piezography BW plug-
in and PiezoTone inks for over a year now. I have been very pleased
with the results I have been getting, and have had hardly any
problems at all....until now. I am pretty sure that this is a printer
problem and not really a Piezography software or ink problem.

The problem I am having is sort of tricky to describe, but I will do
my best. I have to start by asking a question: After completion of a
print, the print head moves over to the "home" position at the right
side of the printer, and then makes a kind of humming noise for about
five seconds or so. What is this? Is it some kind of purge cycle or a
cleaning cycle? What is happening here? (For clarification, I will
refer to this as the "mystery cycle" from this point forward.) The
1280 always does this after completion of a print; it also occurs
(mid-print) when printing a large print (13x19). About 2/3 of the way
through printing a 13x19, printing will stop, this "mystery cycle"
will take place, then printing resumes.

Here is the problem. Whenever this "mystery cycle" occurs,
immediately afterwards, the black position nozzles are clogged, and I
mean badly clogged. How do I know this? After completion of a small
print job, say a 5x7 or an 8x10, I do a nozzle check and discover
that the black position is badly clogged, even though a nozzle check
prior to printing was perfect! And the print is perfect, so the
nozzle did not become clogged during printing. It leads me to believe
that this "mystery cycle" that occurs after completion of the print
job is what is actually clogging the nozzles. Also, when (as
described above) this "mystery cycle" occurs about 2/3 of the way
through a 13x19 print, the portion of the print which printed before
the "mystery cycle" is perfect, but the remainder of the print job
after the "mystery cycle" suffers from obvious micro-banding due to
the clogged black-position nozzle. This is confirmed by a nozzle
check after the print job is completed.

I am certain that this "mystery cycle" is causing the clogging. And
is not an intermittent problem; the clogging is occurring after every
print. The thing that has me puzzled is I can run a cleaning cycle
and I always get a perfect nozzle check afterwards. Obviously, this
is costing me lots of wasted ink due to way too many nozzle checks
and cleaning cycles. And in the case of 13x19 prints, the bottom 1/3
of the print, the portion of the print after the "mystery cycle" is
ruined from micro-banding. Until I get this fixed I can't make any
more 13x19 prints.

Does anyone know what this is? Has anyone else had this problem? And
most importantly, how do I fix it?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.



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