Refilling HP Designjet CP series printers

[AlienSteve]

I was considering removing the entire ink system and turning it off and on. This tells me I should try turning it on and off several times before reinstalling.

These printers are selling on eBay like hotcakes, there must be others out there using them.

I would really like to get mine working with what I have now before I go to the expense of ordering a new set of UV. For one, I don't have the money so I'd like to print dye to raise cash for UV inks, for another I don't know if the printer is acting strangely or if it is just my lack of familiarity with it or a side effect of having a print head that it considers at the end of life.

 

[feedthisway]

It may be that if you turn your computer clock back to the time of the dinosaurs you'll be able to get the head accepted long enough to see if the machine prints ok. Seems to work for me - not a long term solution though!.

 

[AlienSteve]

Hm. I haven't even connected it to my computer yet. Just been trying to get it to print from the panel.

I think I have a paper sensor issue, though. I go through the whole routine to set a roll, and at the end it just goes around the installation again as if I'd just started it over. Now it sits there, paper loaded, insisting there is no paper installed.

 

[feedthisway]

What should happen is the media feed button should show a green light when paper starts to be fed. The front panel then says 'press media load button' - you do, and the printer takes over. The sensor is a simple little magnetic switch that pokes up under the paper path - you can see it if you look underneath the printer. I knocked mine out once after pulling media backwards. I unsnapped the housing from the printer and had a 3 piece metal and plastic puzzle in my hand - After much trial and error I managed to snap it back in the right way and it worked.
Not sure if you are getting the cues from the printer from your description. Maybe the sensor has been bashed. Doesn't sound like an electronics issue - unlike the ink level thing.

 

[AlienSteve]

feedthisway, have you made any progress? I've not been able to give the project much time lately, 'though I do now have refill points attached to all four tanks.

 

[AlienSteve]

Clearly, not much activity. I had a lot of things happen between then and now. I'm only just now getting back to this printer.

 

[alx359]

Good to know you're still here. Got a 2500CP lately and hope to get it running soon. Have you got around the refilling (and eventual printhead reset) issue?

EDIT: A potentially useful thing I learned is that UV ink for HP 5000/5500 should work in the CP's, as formulation is the same, according the InkTec representative.

 

[AlienSteve]

I have a feeling that the printheads for UV and dye ink are identical except for encoding in the contacts. Because all of those heads look like the HP 45 black cartridge, which is a pigmented black.

I've not had a chance to do anything at all with this printer since I'd posted here 10 years ago. Sheesh. I'd had an email from someone detailing exactly which contacts to tape over to fool the printer, but I have not been able to relocate it. I used the Wayback machine on that website mentioned on page 1 of this thread, but it only mentions taping over the contacts, not which ones.

Since it is the same as an HP 45 printhead, any instructions involving that printhead should work equally well. They are not chipped, so fooling them should be relatively simple.

 

[alx359]

Good to know, Steve. The 2500CP of mine had been in storage for a while, so I'm afraid most of the ph it came with (3 sets) may be clogged with dried ink now. There are instructions in youtube of how to open up other HP ph (like HP 84/85), and hope to find something similar now for the HP 45. Getting dried ink through the nozzles alone doesn't sound a good solution.
And how's the proper way to clean/reset the ph cleaners?

EDIT: Found in wayback what you were talking about:
https://web.archive.org/web/20030605115534/http://www.stratitec.com/inkrefill/support/hplowink.html

 

[alx359]

Okay, have been reading some more. Refilling HP 45 or cleaning it with Windex using that same method doesn't seem a too big of a deal. It will require getting a ball bearing ball off at the bottom though. Also there are refilling kits that would avoid touching the ball for less stubborn cases, by injecting/extracting ink out (or a Windex cycle first) to get them cleaned up. I'm still cleaning up the printer itself, so let get to that step and see how it works.

@AlienSteve: note there are images in the wayback post/attachment above that show which contacts should be taped to get them resetted and working again. Not there yet, so hope that would work.