black bars in photographs

[The Hat]

I am using the PGI22X on the last bottle from Octoink. All the carts have been purged. Are you suggesdting adding some Photoblack to the Pigment cart?

I will eventually get the hang of uploads.

Right on ,it will help to keep the black flowing especially if youre not using it very often.
I use the KMP 220 black from OctoInkjet myself, expensive yes but it has never failed me yet..

As PeterBj says it will come to you, no worries.

 

[PeterBJ]

A bit off topic maybe but..

The hat wrote:
I use the KMP 220 black from OctoInkjet myself, expensive yes but it has never failed me yet..smile

I use KMP-U for BCI-3e, PGI-5 and PGI-520 cartridges. I think this ink works very well, but could it be the reason for the problems I have had with PGI-520 cartridges recently? Would KMP-220 be a better choice, next time I order inks from Octoinkjet? Or maybe I should try the Image Specialists WJ1128?

 

[The Hat]

I still use the KMP-U in one of my printers and mostly use their 220 black in all the others.

Frankly there isnt much in the difference between the two except I found the latter just that bit better at drying
and all my text documents are now Laser sharp quality black.

Several years ago I used ACSI simulated pigment black but it tended to some clogging problems every now and then
and was not that sharp with text either, so I switch to using photo black instead, same quality but no clogging issues.

Then Martin (OctoInkjet) introduced me to the KMP-U black which I instantly liked and gradually used it in all my dye printers,
but then later switch to using the 220 black. (Personal choice)

I have refilled these large black cartridges many times (Lost count) and havent found a need to purge any of them as yet
since I started to use this ink but all my refills are from the top method. (I originally purged when I did the switch over)

The German refill method which I mentioned before seems to have some sort of niggling problems associated with it,
now I dont exactly know why but not everybody is having them, its very strange.

The main problems reported was getting enough ink into the cartridge when attempting a refill and then suffering from ink starvation
after a short period of use but its coming up more and more and then misdiagnosed as a suspected print head problem.

I do a Nozzle Check and a Print Test Page from the Printer Properties Window (Its time Dated) every two to 3 weeks just to check
and keep each printer in good use even if I have used most of them in that time period I still do it,
I store up the used pages and print on the back of them to save on paper.

I cant remember the last time I had issues with my print head in any of my printers,
but saying that it is easy to panic and jump to conclusions thinking I got a clog in the Print head.

My advice is to check your cartridges first to eliminate the obvious ink flow problems that can occur occasionally,
then when youre sure its not a cartridge problem only then look to your print head.

BUT it is very important not to print anything other than a nozzle check till you have sorted out the problem..

 

[ghwellsjr]

http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/uploads/thumbs/5268_dockside-1.jpg hopefully this one shows.

http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/uploads/thumbs/5268_no_1_nozzle-check.jpg Hopefully i photo and 1 nozzle check

If you are going to use the Img button, you have to first highlight the url of the image and then hit the Img button.

However, the Img button is really for urls that are not on this forum. Since you have uploaded your images to this forum, just go to your Upload page and right-click on either the Thumb link or the Image link and select "Copy" then go to the place in your message where you want it to appear and right-click and select "Paste". Here's how it would look for your two links for Thumbs:





Then a user can click on either of the thumbs and see the full-sized image.

However, since the full-sized images are quite small, it doesn't make since to use thumbs, you could just use the Image link like this:

However, these images are quite small and it's difficult to see what's going on, you could have made them much bigger.

 

[barfl2]

OK thanks I will try to improve my technique. I kept the files small on The Hats advice. As to the problem to the left of the rope are a series of black bars like railway sleepers, and across the top and bottom is a single stripe which looks bluish/cyan on the Mono print.

The nozzle shot was to show the difference between the thickness of the BK strip after doing 5 nozzle check cleans. Unfortunately I could not get the other shot to load. Kept getting the red error message although I was doing exactly the same sequence.

Anyway it looks as though narrow BK bands must have been a blockage because each clean gradually increased the width until it reached the same width as all the others. I then printed out a Mono picture without any of the bands showing (different picture)

I hope this will restore normality. If not I will consider buying a few compatibles just to check if New carts/ink work any better.

 

[PeterBJ]

Hi barfl2

Thanks to some help from ghwellsjr, one of the admins, your pictures finally show. As stated by ghwellsjr you can have more detail. Here is a nozzle check I scanned at 200 dpi and cropped using Irfan View. I also let Irfan View compress the picture to 80 kB or less. The scanned and cropped image was 1.9 MB before compression. Here is the nozzlecheck:

If you crop your pictures really hard, you can use a higher scanner resolution. Here are details of the photoblack nozzlecheck scanned at 1200 dpi. These are thumbs, click to enlarge:



and:



If your pictures are large it is a good idea to show the thumbs in the text, and include the words: "Click to enlarge". If you right-click the thumbs URL from the upload page and copy and insert in your text, your thumb will automatically enlarge to your uploaded picture.

When writing a post with pictures or thumbs inserted, you can use the preview button to check your post before submitting. You have the possibility to correct your post until you are satisfied with it. Determining the best resolution could take some trial and error.

So could you try to re-upload your pictures in a higher resolution? It also a good idea to include a small crop scanned in high resolution to better show details.

As your problems are in black when printing photos, I think the problem is with the photoblack. If you have another photoblack cartridge you could try that and see if that is better. If your printer is OK with another cartridge, the photoblack cartridge most likely needs purging and drying. You could also try a few regular nozzle cleanings from the printer maintenance. Deep cleaning has no advantages, it only wastes more ink and dumps more ink into the absorbers.

Edit: I see you posted while I was writing this post, so one addition: Don't buy a set of compatibles, it is better to buy one a new OEM photoblack for testing.

 

[PeterBJ]

Hi The Hat

I think you are right, and that there is no need to change the ink.

Does the not-needing to clean the pigment cartridges also apply to your PGI-520 cartridges ? My PGI-520 cartridges seem to develop problems after 3 or 4 refills.

I agree with your advice only to print nozzle checks until problems are solved. I have one more piece of advice: Before doing anything to the printhead outside the printer try to replace the possibly defective cartridge with a new OEM cartridge or at least a known good cartridge and check if that solves the problem. If it does you then know that the problem is in a cartridge and not in the printhead.

I re-read pharmacists instructions, link here: http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=26249#p26249 and found I had forgotten some information, and my refilling technique needed some improvement. For details see this post: http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=59835#p59835 So I think I will not give up on German refill method for the newer cartridges yet, but dedicate some cartridges to topfilling and others to German method refill, and see if the two refill methods give same number of problems, with cartridges needing periodic cleaning.

 

[The Hat]

I hadnt used my PGI-520 cartridge with the KMP ink in it for twelve months,
mainly because I was testing some other brand of inks for someone else.

So I decided tonight to swap out the large pigment test cartridge for the one with KMP ink in it,
I ran a nozzle check then a total of 24 (Print Test Pages) one after another with a nozzle check at the end.

All the prints was perfect from start to finish even dough the KMP pigment cartridge had been left
half full for over a year untouched and it still worked fresh as a daisy.

If at any point in the future I see signs of what looks like a clog then
I will purge any or all of the offending cartridges without hesitation just to be on the safe side.

Some colours seem to bung up a cartridge quicker than others and need a good purge to get them back working as good as new,
my offenders are the magenta and cyan, they might get used the most I guess.

It doesnt happen very often usually in the middle of a print run and when it does
I quickly change the cartridge for another one and later purge it when I get a chance too.

Refilling these Canon cartridges is not an exact science but more like a labour of love
and we all know how unpredictable that can be.

Happy Refilling Guys..

 

[PeterBJ]

With the big savings obtained in refilling I'm willing to accept some problems now and then, and I think they can be solved. My last refill problem with a magenta cartridge was solved with help from the forum: http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=7744