Epson SC-P600, is there any way to take control?

[JimDoe9000]

Hello.

I use my Epson p600 everyday multiple times, I'm getting very tired of it deciding to do automatic cleaning cycles whenever it chooses. Is there any kind of adjustment program or firmware that can give me total control so I can decide for myself when the machine does a cleaning/ink flushing cycle?

I realise some people will state that the cleaning cycles are there for a reason, but really I think they are doing more harm than good, and are not needed anywhere near as frequently as they are programmed to run. Often the printer is working beautifully, printing absolutely fine, then it does a cleaning cycle and ruins one of the ink chambers so the print comes out missing a colour. Then Sometimes it's so bad I've had to flush the line with cleaning fluid to get the chamber working again. All because of an unnecessary cleaning cycle.

I'm aware that there is some firmware that makes the ink cartridges 'chipless', which I'm considering trying out as I'm also tired of having to constantly pull out the cartridges and put them back in (I use an ink ciss system btw), but I've read stories about people having issues after installing this chipless firmware, like the black not printing properly and such things, so don't really want to gamble with that at this point.

Does anyone have any insight as to how I can take control of 'my' printer, so I can decide what and when it does things?

I'm new here, hope this post is okay, please let me know otherwise, and thanks in advance for any responses.

Cheers. Jim

 

[The Hat]

Does anyone have any insight as to how I can take control of 'my' printer,

What I normally do is after every print job I shut down the printer as soon as its finished the last sheet, that stops the Feckin thing messing with at least one cleaning cycle..

 

[JimDoe9000]

What I normally do is after every print job I shut down the printer as soon as its finished the last sheet, that stops the Feckin thing messing with at least one cleaning cycle..

Haha, interesting... I will certainly be trying that next time I run a large amount of sheets through it as a tester. My only gripe is I think it may have some kind of in-built memory though, so I'm thinking it might still start a cleaning cycle upon booting up again, which could depend on time, whether it's unplugged and stuff like that I'd guess. There have been times where I've booted up the printer and it immediately starts going off on one of its tangents and I'm putting my head in hands thinking I haven't even done anything yet!

Certainly food for thought, and I'll be doing some experimentation with this method.

Thankyou kindly

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

I remember that Epson maintenance manuals describe in detail the startup/maintenance activities of the mechanics - pump - printhead movements - gears - wheels and clutches etc. And I don't see a reason to modify all this with a firmware hack. This is separate from the 'chipless' firmware hack and the use of a CISS, and I would not understand why just one color would be affected and not all of them. A CISS changes the overall pressure situation for the ink flow to the printhead - and this in connection with 3rd party inks with slightly different properties can easily cause malfunctions.

 

[The Hat]

I'm thinking it might still start a cleaning cycle upon booting up again, which could depend on time, whether it's unplugged and stuff like that I'd guess. There have been times where I've booted up the printer and it immediately starts going off on one of its tangents

I was referring to the On/Off button, and not pulling the plug, at least it will stop it doing a maintenance clean after the print job is finished , but it will do it on start up again.

You can't stop a printer from doing its regular maintenance, but you can reduce it by observing when it does it and try to avoid them if possible..

 

[JimDoe9000]

I remember that Epson maintenance manuals describe in detail the startup/maintenance activities of the mechanics - pump - printhead movements - gears - wheels and clutches etc. And I don't see a reason to modify all this with a firmware hack. This is separate from the 'chipless' firmware hack and the use of a CISS, and I would not understand why just one color would be affected and not all of them. A CISS changes the overall pressure situation for the ink flow to the printhead - and this in connection with 3rd party inks with slightly different properties can easily cause malfunctions.

Hi Ink Stained Fingers.

I guess it's just randomness as to why sometimes only one colour stops running properly, it's usually the black or the magenta for whatever reason. It could be that there's more wear and tear to the printhead as those are the most prominently used colours or something like that, I'm really not sure. Either way, it does, and it's a pain in the ***, so much so that on occasion I've even had to flush said channel with cleaning fluid to get it running again.

I realise that ink cycles are needed somewhat, but I'm tired of it running one every five to ten prints, it's just not necessary. If I had control I'd run one at the end of the days printing session and that would be more than enough to maintain the printhead, if anything constant cleaning will induce wear and tear to it.

I know the chipless firmware is a different thing altogether, I just meant if there was a firmware version that you could choose when to run your own ink cycles would be good too. If somebody made such a firmware with both chipless and cycle control I'd pay a nice chunk of money for it.

Cheers. Jim

 

[JimDoe9000]

I was referring to the On/Off button, and not pulling the plug, at least it will stop it doing a maintenance clean after the print job is finished , but it will do it on start up again.

You can't stop a printer from doing its regular maintenance, but you can reduce it by observing when it does it and try to avoid them if possible..

I run so many print jobs per day that it basically just does it whenever a long series of prints has been run through it, so multiple times a day. Sometimes it might do one mid-way but thats usually if the printing session gets interupted by something, such as ink cartridge change needed, or paper tray runs out.

I never unplug the printer, it's constantly plugged in to a live socket, I just turn it on and off using the regular power button on the printer itself.

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

but I'm tired of it running one every five to ten prints, it's just not necessary. If I had control I'd run one at the end of the days printing session and that would be more than enough to maintain the printhead,

How do you know - did you do any testing in this respect ? Please keep in mind that there is an action you should not suppress - the printhead is moved pretty frequently over the cleaning unit - actually over a rubber lip to remove ink from the nozzle plate, and then it starts the pump to get that ink away, but this does not consume additional ink.

 

[JimDoe9000]

How do you know - did you do any testing in this respect ? Please keep in mind that there is an action you should not suppress - the printhead is moved pretty frequently over the cleaning unit - actually over a rubber lip to remove ink from the nozzle plate, and then it starts the pump to get that ink away, but this does not consume additional ink.

I have not done any kind of testing in that respect as I'm not really capable of doing without specialist software and equipment, but these are the things I do know:

1. My printer does a process that makes lots of noise and extracts ink between print jobs (I can see the ink being extracted as I use an ink tank).

2. This process sometimes causes the following print job or batch of print jobs to not print all colours perfectly as it did before. How do I know that this process is causing it? well it's pretty obvious when the previous job was perfectly printed, then the process occurs, and the next job isn't.

3. Whatever this process is doing is causing either one or more ink chambers stop functioning as well as it did previously, leaving me no option but to either run a cleaning cycle (which can cause even more problems) or flush the line entirely with fluid to get it running again.

4. Despite not happening too often, when it does happen it can take a lot of time to fix. Therefore this process has caused me lots of annoyance on several occasions, and is something I'd like to have control over.

Doesn't seem like there is any software or firmware that will give me this option though, at least from my research, so looks like I'm stuck with it

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

I have the impression that your printer is in a pretty messed up condition, and I don't think that any tinkering with the printer firmware would solve your problems.

I only see one way to recover from that

- get the printer in a regular working condition - with OEM cartridges - no CISS - refill whatever, there should not be
any bubbles in the ink tubes, and the printer should work w/o trouble for quite a while. You should as well replace the dampers in the printhead which may be clogged and impede the ink flow.

As long as you print regularly I don't see a reason to flush the ink tubes, or you have a serious problem with your 3rd party inks.

- You then should try to run the printer with your refill cartridges but without the CISS connected

- and the last step would be to connect the CISS ink tubes to the cartridges

- and if all that does not get you to a working printer you may look for some other printer - like the L1800 which comes with a CISS and runs as well with pigment inks, or the ET-8550 which may be converted as well to pigment inks - but all this would require new .icc profiles for your papers.