Epson Photo R200, nice printer, but beware...

  • Thread starter Thread starter Hector Polector
  • Start date Start date
H

Hector Polector

I am thoroughly happy with my Epson R200 printer except for a few
things which I think new buyers should be aware of...

1) You CANNOT print if ANY of the inks are out. Old tricks like taking
out cartridges and shaking them to get a few more prints (the 3am
emergency ones) do not work. If you are out of lets say cyan and you
want to print in black and white you cannot!! This is terribly
frustrating and a stupid move by Epson, they should release a software
fix for this. It always seems like at least one ink needs changing -
the flashing 'replace ink' light is basically permanently flashing.

2) It will allow you to start a print and then if it decides it is out
of ink it will just abort the job, wasting your time and potentially
expensive substrate. It won't just slowly fade out and die... great
print, then it stops and ejects the paper.

3) (and this is a small one) If you plan on printing wirelessly (a nice
selling feature) you cannot use the print utility unless the printer is
plugged directly into your computer (at least using MAC and Airport
Express).

Caveat Empor... or whatever they say... ;)

Hector Polector.
 
1) You CANNOT print if ANY of the inks are out. Old tricks like taking
out cartridges and shaking them to get a few more prints (the 3am
emergency ones)
Click to expand...

You probally wouldn't want to do that anyway. It's not an old style
sponge system but rather a complex labyrinth. If you desire you can
get a chipresetter and continue to print with the remaining 3-5ml left
in the cartridge.
http://www.ssclg.com/epsone.shtml
You can use the ssc utility to manualy change the cartridges without
having to do that purge cycle.

Probally most important on the r200/r300 is the diaper. Offical
service diaper replacement costs almost as much as a printer and
requires basicly destroying the brittle plastic. But there is easy
access to the waste tube which you can route out the back of your
printer to a mug and dispose of the ink your self. If you ever get a
full diaper warrning, you can reset the printer with the ssc utility.

http://www.stevesforums.com/forums/view_topic.php?id=51595&forum_id=40
 
Hector said:
I am thoroughly happy with my Epson R200 printer except for a few
things which I think new buyers should be aware of...

1) You CANNOT print if ANY of the inks are out. Old tricks like taking
out cartridges and shaking them to get a few more prints (the 3am
emergency ones) do not work. If you are out of lets say cyan and you
want to print in black and white you cannot!! This is terribly
frustrating and a stupid move by Epson, they should release a software
fix for this. It always seems like at least one ink needs changing -
the flashing 'replace ink' light is basically permanently flashing.
Click to expand...

You can't, nor is it a very good idea.

Your printer is keeping account of the approximate levels of your ink in
each cartridge. when one or more of those cartridges indicates the
ink level is low enough, it gives you a warning, then when the level is
such that the ink supply is at risk of running out, the printer shuts
down, so that the ink doesn't run out completely, leaving the head with
ink residue to dry out and clog up.

Of course, the ink levels are approximated, because the printer doesn't
monitor the cartridges themselves, but estimates how much ink has left
it via printing, purges and cleaning processes.

Each time the printer goes through a cleaning cycle, either self imposed
manually, or automatically at start up, all the heads (and therefore
cartridges) are purged of some ink. The printer has only one cleaning
station and one vacuum pump on that model, and so each time a cleaning
occurs, all the cartridges are equally purged of the same amount of ink.

Once any cartridge gets low enough, the printer shuts down to keep the
head from running out of ink completely and drying out.

So, other than tricking the printer by resetting the cartridge chips and
allowing the printer head to run dry, or filling them with something
other than ink, to keep them wet, you've got to replace the low level
cartridges to continue using the printer.

That's the way it goes with permanent ink heads.
2) It will allow you to start a print and then if it decides it is out
of ink it will just abort the job, wasting your time and potentially
expensive substrate. It won't just slowly fade out and die... great
print, then it stops and ejects the paper.
Click to expand...


I was not aware of this. On some models once you replace the ink, the
printer will continue working on your print job even if it is midway
completed.

Art
 
It's really old tricks for new ones. If you can not be bothered to check
your ink before printing and it's 3am get yourself a Chip resetter this may
or may not get you by but caution should be exercised. With the price of
third party ink why not carry a spare cart. your second point is also
covered by the above deep pockets and little hands comes to mind or is it
the other way round.
 
Shooter said:
It's really old tricks for new ones. If you can not be bothered to check
your ink before printing and it's 3am get yourself a Chip resetter this
may
or may not get you by but caution should be exercised. With the price of
third party ink why not carry a spare cart. your second point is also
covered by the above deep pockets and little hands comes to mind or is it
the other way round.
Click to expand...

I have never installed the original carts. I keep those in case i need to
return under warranty. I may not use all the ink but the carts i buy are £2
each so what the hey?
 
The carts I use for my Epson 2100 and R300 cost £1.73 each and I have very
few blocked heads, however I suffer from deflective firing on the cyan and
light Magenta. I also kept the original Epson carts unused, makes sence
really.
 
Shooter said:
The carts I use for my *Epson 2100 and R300* cost £1.73 each and I have very
few *blocked heads*, however I suffer from *deflective firing on the cyan and
light Magenta*. I also kept the original Epson carts unused, makes sence
really.
Click to expand...

I CAN UNDERSTAND THAT. TOO BAD YOU USE GENERIC INKS
 
Understand what......


Shooter wrote:

The carts I use for my Epson 2100 and R300 cost £1.73 each and I have very
few blocked heads, however I suffer from deflective firing on the cyan and
light Magenta. I also kept the original Epson carts unused, makes sence
really.

I CAN UNDERSTAND THAT. TOO BAD YOU USE GENERIC INKS

It's really old tricks for new ones. If you can not be bothered to check
your ink before printing and it's 3am get yourself a Chip resetter this
may
or may not get you by but caution should be exercised. With the price of
third party ink why not carry a spare cart. your second point is also
covered by the above deep pockets and little hands comes to mind or is
it
the other way round.
I have never installed the original carts. I keep those in case i need to
return under warranty. I may not use all the ink but the carts i buy are
£2
each so what the hey?
 
I own the copy right on what I write please do not alter again, litigation could be very expensive for you.



Shooter wrote:

The carts I use for my Epson 2100 and R300 cost £1.73 each and I have very
few blocked heads, however I suffer from deflective firing on the cyan and
light Magenta. I also kept the original Epson carts unused, makes sence
really.

I CAN UNDERSTAND THAT. TOO BAD YOU USE GENERIC INKS

It's really old tricks for new ones. If you can not be bothered to check
your ink before printing and it's 3am get yourself a Chip resetter this
may
or may not get you by but caution should be exercised. With the price of
third party ink why not carry a spare cart. your second point is also
covered by the above deep pockets and little hands comes to mind or is
it
the other way round.
I have never installed the original carts. I keep those in case i need to
return under warranty. I may not use all the ink but the carts i buy are
£2
each so what the hey?
 
I DINK U SHUD SHOOTER URSELF IN DA BALLS
I own the copy right on what I write please do not alter again,
litigation could be very expensive for you.


in message


I CAN UNDERSTAND THAT. TOO BAD YOU USE GENERIC INKS
Click to expand...
 
Shooter said:
I own the copy right on what I write please do not alter again,
litigation could be very expensive for you.


in message



I CAN UNDERSTAND THAT. TOO BAD YOU USE GENERIC INKS
Click to expand...
You should not use big words like "litigation" when talking to our
resident idiot cause he has no idea what it means.
Frank
 
Shooter said:
The carts I use for my Epson 2100 and R300 cost £1.73 each and I have very
few blocked heads, however I suffer from deflective firing on the cyan and
light Magenta. I also kept the original Epson carts unused, makes sence
really.
Click to expand...

I'm not familiar with deflective firing. Perhaps £1.73 are too cheap. I
must admit if i was using the 2100 i would be using the genuine stuff.
Mainly cos i would only do quality a3 work with it. I would leave the
mundane day to day stuff to my other printers.

I am using inkrite. yes inkrite not printrite. £2 each from
www.squire.co.uk

he also has a continuous ink system for the r300.
 
Defective firing is when you get a nozzel printout and instead of breaks in
the pattern the pattern deflects eithir up or down but is still continuous.
I use dye ink because of Bronzing with the 2100 which is unacceptable to me
when printing a photo, photos should look like what is produced from a film
lab and not look like a spray job. Epson had to solve this and introduced
the eighth cart as in the r800 and r1800. Even with this new cart it's still
there but much less so. The work I turn out is top quality so don't any one
say because cheap carts are used the quality falls, not so.
 
Shooter said:
Defective firing is when you get a nozzel printout and instead of breaks in
the pattern the pattern deflects eithir up or down but is still continuous.
I use dye ink because of Bronzing with the 2100 which is unacceptable to me
when printing a photo, photos should look like what is produced from a film
lab and not look like a spray job. Epson had to solve this and introduced
the eighth cart as in the r800 and r1800. Even with this new cart it's still
there but much less so. The work I turn out is top quality so don't any one
say because cheap carts are used the quality falls, not so.
Click to expand...


I find it also depends on other aspects as well like - paper and speed -
I have some terrible prints from the R1800 in my initial setup stage.
there heaps better now.
 
OEM INK ONLY PRODUCES GOOD QUALITY WITH 1 EXCEPTION AND THAT MAY BE
PANTONE. DO NOT SHOOTER URSELF IN DA BALLS
 
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