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tip: uniform cadet & roland versacamm ink carts
Last thing yesterday, just printing off 2 3ft x 2ft banners on the cadet.
Running them side by side. 96% finished printing and the bleep for a empty cartridge went off (magenta).
I turned the air blue, as I`d ordered some and they hadn`t arrived yet.(forgot I was low on ink)
So what do I do, abort the print, and re-do them when the new carts arrive??
I took out the offending cart, gave it a shake (chucked a few swear words in for good measure) and put it back in the cadet. Beeping still sounded.
Took it out again, this time split the cart open to reveal the ink bag inside, did the smoothing action you normally do on the tooth paste tube. Clipped the cart lid back and replaced it in the machine.
This time the machine stopped bleeping and carried on printing. Not only did it fish the job, it went on to print another square metre today, and it hasn`t bleeped again yet.
Not bothered about the few pence I must have saved, more greatful I was able to finish the banners off.
Just thought I`d share this, as it might help someone one day..
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18 Replies
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great tip becky, ill keep that one in mind mate… 😉
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On the VersaCAMM I’ve got it set to continue printing on detecting an empty ink cartridge.
To find and set it;
On the control panel press
MENU
and scroll to
INK CONTROL – <press right>
EMPTY MODE – <press right>
then press up or down to select
STOP – to stop printing when ink needs replacing
or
CONT. – to continue printing when ink needs replacing and it will print approximately another square metre before ‘really’ stopping.
finally press
ENTER & MENU to take you back to the normal display!It’s nice to find the Epson stickers inside the cartridges when you pull them apart 😉 so I’ve been told :lol1: 😉 :lol1: 😮
Mark
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yes thats fine but dont push your luck cos if the pipe line does empty it will have air in the line – and will posibly cost you more than the ink saved in flushing or worse just finnish the job thats it
chris
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thank you mark i will see if i can find that on my soljet
chris
yep found it ta
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I don’t chuffin believe, guess what has happened just this very minute??
The Cyan is beeping for replacement! Well guess what – you can continue printing the bloody banner until it’s finished!!!
Mark
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we are very sad people arnt wee just seen the time
nite nite
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What’s wrong Chris, the night is young.
I’ve still got another banner to print and then some Rip’ing to do ready for morning.
Yeah – I’m sad 🙄 🙄 🙄
Mark -
Becky , on the side of the cart is a protruding tab , this comes out more as the internal bladder empties , all you had to do was use a pair of scissors and snip some off , then it wouldnt trigger the microswitch in the printer.
Problem doing that is the printer will report a full cart and if the cart empties totally , you could have head and pump problems. -
Just an addendum , there is about 10-15ml left in the cart when it says its empty – don’t throw your old carts away.
Take a big syringe with a stout needle , carefully insert it into the rubber neck of the old empty cart and suck out the ink (being careful not to pierce the bladder) and take one of the old ones and inject it in , making sure there is NO air in the syringe.
This way you can get 1/2 a crt or so if leftover ink from 5-6 empties. We do this and ONLY use the refilled ones in an emergency.
The ink is agrresive and the process is messy – do it on a wad of newspapers , wear gloves and a dustcoat and be careful of your eyes. Use a new syringe for each colour or flush it with some of the head flush stuff you got with your printer (buy an extra flush cart and decant the stuff into a glass bottle – its useful for cleaning ink stains , removing the odd spot you get on a graphic , as a cleaning solution on the head cleanng swabs , moistening the capping station , cleaning the wipers etc) -
I would suggest some caution here, the reason the carts have a little ink left in them is not to rip you off, it’s to ensure that when the cart signals it is empty, you still have ink in the tubes and not fresh air.
By tricking the machine into syphoning off the very last drop of ink you also increase the likelihood of drawing air into the lines, this could lead to you having to carry out some maintenance at least, and may lead to an engineer having to visit in worst case.
Ensure you always have spare carts and the machine will carry on printing from where it was when you replace the empty. This is risk free.
By far the best advice here for those wishing to use up every drop of ink was Rodneys: save your empties, and transfer ink with a syringe. This is a messy affair, but if you must save ink, this is the method least likely to result in breakdown or to incur engineering call-out charges.
Even in this instance, one note of caution, don’t use too large a needle or you will damage the seal which could lead to ink leakage inside the machine, also cut the needle back so it is short enough that it won’t puncture the bladder inside the cart which could again lead to solvent ink leaking inside the machine and risk air being drawn into the system.
Bottom line: whilst the Roland/Uniform ‘ink empty’ triggering system is not perfect, it is designed first and foremost to keep the machine operational. A broken down machine is far more expensive to own than one that is producing profitable print.
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all taken on board.
saving ink or tricking the machine wasn`t the intention.
Just finishing the job….
all points noted 😉
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MARK what banner material are you using please and how do you rate it
iam using allprint usb14 not that convinced.with your settings the mag run out this morn it kept beeping at me but did print another 1mtr so i will settel for that thank you
chris
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Hello Chris,
I use Hexis SIM Premium Banner DSB550 Frontlit.
I rate it very highly, it’s 575g/m2 outdoor grade banner that takes ink well, dries fairly quickly and the quality is consistant.
ASk them for a sample!
I’m pleased to hear the ‘CONT.’ setting worked for you! It’s amazing how many of these settings the engineers and the like don’t know of.
Mark
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Becky
Wasn’t having a dig at you, just trying to steer you in the right direction, and point out some of the potential pitfalls.
If anyone here finds a way to extract extra value from their investment we are all for it (we are engineers not sales people, so we don’t care if you never buy ink again 😉 ) our concern is you don’t compromise the ability of your printer to remain operational and productive.
Happy printing mate 😀
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quote lasabledps:Hello Chris,I use Hexis SIM Premium Banner DSB550 Frontlit.
I rate it very highly, it’s 575g/m2 outdoor grade banner that takes ink well, dries fairly quickly and the quality is consistant.
Mark
Mark, I have just been printing Hexis banners, what profile do you use on it?
Hexis seem to have a lot of products but very few profiles! 😮 -
Hi Mike,
I use their Front2 profile in various configurations depending on the job in hand.
It appears that Hexis are updating/rebuilding their website so if you wish I can email the profile to you, it’s 1.85MB – pm your email address and I’ll whizz it off through cyber space.
Mark
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PM sent, many thanks. 😀
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Hi Mike,
Profile sent via email 😀
Mark
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