Digital BW, The Print

I think we all struggle to understand why some of the older Epsons
work well with pigment while others of the same model don't. I've had
great luck with 1280's printing with MIS pigments for years. And
that's several different 1280's plus an old 890. I'm currently using
the spongless carts and pigments in my current 1280 and it's almost
bulletproof. 

What few problems I have had have been solved by repriming the cart.
That does seem to be critical. 

I suspect, that at $5 retail, the production tolerances on the
spongeless carts is low. I'd just try a new set of carts instead of
pulling your hair out. 

Have you put dye ink carts back in there and see if that solves the
problem? I suggest the MIS $5 Chinese dye ink carts. They work well
for the price. Spend $10 at MIS and buy two of those. And tell them
your problems with the spongeless carts and ask them to throw two of
those in the box. 

Bob Michaels

--- In DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com, "Mark Hahn"
<markhahn2000@y...> wrote:
> Thanks... I guess I know all that... but I want to throw my printer out 
> the window at this point!  I have a feeling that the carts are all 
> defective.  The poppet is really, really touchy in the black and that 
> is the worst (really had to wiggle the adapter around to get it to open 
> up for the priming step)... think one or two of the "color" set were 
> also weird.  Off to a great start!  Between the ink, carts and paper 
> order I have a feeling I just wasted $200 for nothing but a few nights 
> frustration :(  I also have a clean CFS that I can use if these 
> spongeless carts are really so terrible... first try I have 3 channels 
> bad... makes it seem statisically unlikely that I would ever be able to 
> get a color cart in which all three channels worked :(
> 
> ... the optimistic in me wanted to believe that with the new carts and 
> inksets that the system would actually work as advertised... at least I 
> wasn't so optimistic that I bought a new 1280 strictly for MIS inks and 
> everything to go with it... (I was close, but then figured I try out 
> the 1160 before spending $500 on the 1280 setup... the price of a wide 
> carriage HP or a good down payment on a R2400!).
> 
> I've reprimed the carts 3 times.  I've printed purge patterns until 
> they were all gray.  I've done more cleaning cycles than I should have 
> and the patterns change every time.  The printer was giving perfect 
> patterns with epson dye the minute before the installation of the MIS 
> spongeless carts.  Am I missing something?
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> mark