Digital BW, The Print

Hi Jenny, Jim and all,

This is indeed a lively thread -- great responses from everyone, and 
since this information applies to Jenny's 1160 and most other CIS 
installations, it's good to have this info available for all...

Jim, I understand your response about the "bottom-fill" question, and 
it may cause confusion for Jenny and others as well. Just to clarify:

The misnomer here is the term "bottom-fill", which applies to the 
name MIS uses for the syringe adapter rather than the method of using 
it to recharge a CIS system. The adapter is tapered to provide a 
tight fit to the opening on the bottom of the cart, as well as to 
activate the poppet valves if your CIS has Epson-type cart seals.

However, the actual process used to recharge a CIS using this method  
is to draw ink OUT of the cartridge through the bottom port and into 
the syringe -- i.e. leave the feed tubes connected and attached to 
their feed bottles, removing the carts, plugging the holes with 
rivets so the ports not being worked on do not leak, and then one at 
a time, removing the rivet from a chamber and drawing ink INTO the 
syringe, thereby creating a mild vacuum in the cart and drawing ink 
out of the bottles, through the feedlines and into the cart and 
syringe.

You don't actually by-pass the protective foam and screen that the 
cart uses to keep foreign matter out of the printheads because you're 
not actually injecting ink from the bottom for a CIS configuration. 
But those are very good points and because of the "bottom-fill" 
adapter's name, might save someone a lot of grief if they interpret 
the name literally ;>)

This process needs to be repeated with each chamber/cart, and the 
rivet replaced after "suctioning" ink into the cart so it doesn't 
drip while you're working on the next chamber, etc. Also, you may 
have to draw more than one syringe-full of ink through the bottom 
port to clear foam and get a good fill (recommended), so the excess 
ink can be simply dumped back into the originating bottle. Be 
careful here to not mix up the inks, and draw the syringe very slowly 
to prevent excess vacuum and cross-contamination from occurring 
between the chambers.
 
This can be a fairly messy process, so make sure your work area is 
well protected, you're wearing gloves and you don't mind a bit of ink 
splattering about. It washes off pretty easily, but not from carpets, 
walls and other porous surfaces. Windex (the original with ammonia) 
helps on clean-up quite a bit.

Other good suggestions provided by Jim, Mark and Bob include the 
printing of purge/test patterns after the procedure is complete, 
running cleaning cycles if they're not "good", letting things sit for 
6 hours or even overnight if the patterns aren't good right away, and 
very importantly, making sure there is an "air-break" in the carts 
after filling -- you don't want them to be 100% full. MIS 
instructions for restoring the air-break are here:

http://www.inksupply.com/index.cfm?source=html/cobratrouble.html#4

I think everyone who uses a bulk feed system goes through this 
process at some point, either at installation time or for routine 
maintenance somewhere down the line. The new MIS UT inks seem to be 
much more trouble-free and require less CIS/CFS tinkering, but the 
basic principles of operation and maintenance are good to know.

In this case, Jenny, you're just getting your education a bit early 
and probably sooner than you would have preferred ;>) However, as 
Mark said, "there is no science to this stuff", just some basic 
principles usually learned with the help of the good people on forums 
like this or at MIS, and a few ink stains under your fingernails just 
to show you're a veteran ;>)

Good luck to you, Jenny -- and to all who go through this same 
process in the worthwhile endeavor to get their systems feeding 
properly. When they work right (and they will), they work great!!

 -Richard

P.S. Jenny, you mentioned you were having some banding on one of your 
1160's (which may be resolved by just letting it sit and "settle 
in"), but it would be good to also review the thread that is now 
running called "clogged 1280". There is some great info there about 
how to maintain the exterior components of the print heads on any 
Epson desktop printer, break up actual clogs, etc. 



--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "jim hayes" 
<jimhayes@f...> wrote:
> --- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "jim hayes"
> <jimhayes@f...> wrote:
> > Sorry to jump into the middle of this thread without reading any
> > previous entries, and as a further disclaimer, I haven't been 
filling
> > my own carts for 1 1/2 years now so I may be out of date but...
> > 
> > Why do you want to fill the carts from the bottom? 
> 
> 
> OOPS!!!
> 
> Well, that was a big mistake on my part, droning on about filling 
carts.
> 
> I should have looked at the title and realized you're filling a CIS.
> Actually I got thrown off by the talk about bottom filling and 
rivits.
> It sounds like this CIS is being filled for at least the second time
> then. Well I guess some of my comments still apply, like the bottom
> fill adapter remark. Top vacuum filling would not work.
> 
> Anyway sorry for the bandwith. I'll try to remember to have the 
coffee
> before I read messages.
> 
> Jim Hayes