johnson4

It works alright, I couldn’t get the NIX to recognize with Cadlink but I had the other one laying around and it worked. Cadlink did get back to me after a couple days how to get it going but I just use the nix now to replicate printed colors. it took Cadlink about 10 days to send me the “upgrade” code to “unlock” those features. It was quite lengthy. i have four copies of Cadlink running in my “ eco system” of machines. I opted for 4 individual copies of the software instead of purchasing additional ports. The price difference between another copy VS another port was very little, plus I have redundancy and the ability to resell individual copies. I setup “ workstations” with each machine so it was the best route for me. it’s a good program, I dislike that I have to constantly go in the software folder and manually delete files- which come from the print files you print. If not, after a few days you’ll have 100+GB locking up your pc. Even if you delete the print jobs from within the software. Other than that the software crashes on me randomly, usually once a week and I lose where I am at with my print jobs. i guess normal reboots would prevent this. Not a huge deal but worth mentioning. other than that it Makes things consistent and easy. Well worth the cost. I just wish they had an “ all in” feature rich version for “ advanced” users that didn’t require multiple “ add on” purchases. i personally still like and use other RIP software. Acro being my least favorite. With Chinese machines you have limited options, Cadlink being the best one in my opinion. i tried to try flexi, but couldn’t get anyone to get back to me.

It’s a $300 add-on for the DTF Cadlink version to be able to setup your own color profile, among other things plus the cost of the color sensor.

You can have ink flow issues with a perfect nozzle check. I wouldn't consider it clogging, I call it " soft clogging". Ink flow issues can happen for a ton of reasons, the best way to check this is to print a large 6" X 6" or 12" X 12" solid color of each color, CMYK, to see if you have an ink flow problem. If it drops out or shows any irregularities, then there is something up. If it checks out, It's likely your resolution in cadlink. Are you using 1440X1440, or something less than that? 1440X720 is like the minimum, which you'll see that ever so slightly in some prints even at that resolution. That is about the best you can do to keep it in standby.

Yea, Cadlink is a lot better from how far I went with maintop. Just all around.

You need the color sensor and the Cadlink add on to make the profile. I use the i color studio and the NIX mini.

1. Clogging or too low resolution. Even one nozzle can cause this. Poor ink flow can do this. 2. Ink is too wet. When ink is wet, powder goes through the ink to the surface. It needs to gel before powdering, so it sits at the back. 3. Teflon always makes a glossy finish, and you probably have a hot peel or glossy film. Change film, stop using Teflon.

That is a film problem or a cure problem. If you can see those " dots" on all the colors with a light at an angle, its a cure problem. You will inherently see it the most obvious on black.

As far as my testing went it would be a fantastic replacement. On top of that I was going to laser cut a specific thickness rubber ( you know that rubber/sponge type material) and replace the " hollow" rubber seal on the printhead that seals these. Those two things being changed, there would be no chance of leaking at all, a white ink circulation system could easily be implemented and the printer could run nonstop. I was going to place a small sponge material in that cavity on the bottom of the damper so the machine would soak it up as normal since it wouldn't need to be removed often, if at all. Beyond those things, I was going to use a timer on one of the Waste tank pins on a relay. It would "open" every 15 minutes and close to reset the ink levels, in total about 1 second. Even while printing this wouldn't cause any issues at all, it wouldn't even stop printing. worry free self resetting ink while printing. I already had it setup to roll print and tested that for about a half roll/ 3/4 roll of film. So with those things the final outcome: An actual ink system/damper system in place without the risk of settling, leaking, or any of that crap. White ink recirculation No more mid print stops or worrysome ink resets. You could essentially roll print an entire 320 foot roll in about 27 hours of printing on the machine without stopping, other than for head cleans as needed. Personally I would add a fan as a precaution to the mainboard. That was where it was going anyway pretty successfully. Then I got busy and had to stop " tinkering" and find something that worked quickly and right away. Ever since it hasn't stopped and haven't had a time to revisit. It could be replicated pretty easily with a caliper and a resin printer.

V2 has a fully adjustable ink order among other small but helpful things.

It is an option in Cadlink.

That was mainly my issues with hot peel as well. I assumed it was just me, who knows though. I've been printing for 2 years now so back then I always thought the issue was me, haha. That and the transfers fall off the film easier than I would like when handling them but again, likely just me. People seem to love hot peel. Usually cold peel has more " pretreatment" so it handles more ink, could be the difference. Honestly I'd personally go back to the film I was using if possible and see if the issue persists, if not, I'd stick with that under any circumstance. I know K usually puts down more than any other color else if it's solid " K" and not composite. I don't think I have ever had white cause an issue, other than just overall too much or too little on the varying film types. Whenever you do figure it out, I'd love to hear what it was. When that happened to me, the " cracks' before running through anything out of the printer looked like "clear jelly" around the cracks. Likely where it tried to " suck up" the carrier and was overwhelmed. Again, just speculation and could entirely be unrelated. Just figured I'd chime in my experiences with that.

No worries at all. Makes sense. Have you tried printing a composite black instead of just K? It looks like the grays are doing fine which is usually from a composite. It sounds like something just isn't working right together. I know when I switch films I have a hell of a time trying to get everything adjusted to " perfection" again. Hot peel is what usually gives me the problems for some reason. I tend to gravitate toward the " hybrid" film that is hot or cold peel to stay close to what my settings are. Otherwise I end up flooding the film and running into various issues. On the flip side, Cold peel requires more ink so I stay away from that as well. As for the resolution, makes total sense. I know running dx7 heads I would run into good nozzle checks but poor ink flow in prints, mainly with cyan, sometimes with magenta. Figured I'd mention it. Happy printing!

Looks like slight banding in the prints aside from the cracked look, maybe a few clogged cyan nozzles being most prominent in the green. I have had this happen before, But it was my ink/film combination. Ever since using DTFSuperstore I haven't had this issue so it's been awhile. Likely overloading the film with ink in those spots. It's also why I buy everything in bulk, so I can get the settings for that " batch" in place and forget about it for awhile. Are you using the same film supplier and type as before?

Cool, Thanks. Looks like you are using an Adruino to try and control the paper feed so roll printing as well as other features for conversions can be used in " sheet mode" and other things following that aspect. Basically manipulating the machine to be able to roll print, cut, advance, load, so on and so forth even if not natively supported correct?

Any Cadlink experience with them?

Could be the image, cadlink picks up pretty much any transparency, including anti-aliasing on fake "high quality" images and poor background removals. Try " transparency 50-50" and see if it changes anything at all. For me and this specific printer, It was a little bit of a couple things. When I would align the heads on the printer then go to cadlink for a print, it was insanely off. So I thought, I'll align it from cadlink then by eyeballing the prints. Well, that worked to a degree. After I used a decent image and made sure cadlink didn't pick up any transparent-ish pixels in it ( you can check by going to the CMYK preview or print preview, whatever it's called). then it worked perfectly. Ever since, I have to just make sure the image doesn't have any hidden transparent pixels. EKprint, Acro, Literally everything I have ever used and all of my designing programs- they do not show anything so that is new to me. In cadlink, sometimes, It DOES find transparent data that it deems as part of the image and needs corrected before printing that no one else can find, even professionals, even people I have sent images to that work at cadlink. I don't know, But I pay real close attention to it now. I feel like the majority of what I do likely isn't the " right" way, so keep that in mind with the aforementioned. It's just what worked for me. That was my issue anyway.

So I have 4 good heat presses but over the years it has started to be a pain… literally. Pricing out air/pneumatic heat presses, the price isn’t terrible but when you have four heat presses already, it makes it much worse of a price. I have meant to do it for awhile and when I looked I couldn’t find anything on the subject. in my example my heat press is a magnetic auto-open press. The same could be done/added to a standard press without these features with minimal changes. Adding this has essentially bypassed the magnetic portion anyway. it’s not pretty but it works, maybe it’ll help give you an idea on how to proceed in your situation if you are in the same position. it was about $100 per heat press to add these, including the custom laser cut metal brackets. i don’t remember exactly off hand, I think the 16”x20” presses themselves were $700 delivered. i can post specifics or a part breakdown if anyone is interested.

Haha, honestly I probably could have been more helpful most of the time. Thanks for the compliment though. Through so many experiences and seeing people come and go and how they went- it’s hard to keep recommending things when the basics are ignored and ultimately results in some form of failure. that and I’m just some random dude who is going to be wrong at times too, mixed with bad and good days. I wouldn’t consider my answers or advice anywhere near the level of what the forum used to offer, but I try.

What’s this for?

Could always remove the Chipless firmware with an update and see if it still does it as well.

Are you using regular paper or film? If you are using film, some film isn’t recognized by the sensor on the printhead. Double sided film would fix that issue, if it’s paper, then obviously not the issue. I’ve also had this a symptom of the Chipless firmware as well. I had to power on the printer and then unplug it ( not power it off properly) then press and hold the power button 5-10 seconds. I did this several times and it would work eventually. it’s a PITA sometimes but once you get it going it fine. it could also just be a defective printer.

You have to do that daily, even if you don’t use the machine. Sometimes it takes several ink charges. That’s the reason for the white ink mixing tanks and circulation on purpose built machines. for example, the R3000/P600 required 3 ink charges every time I used it, ( everyday) to keep the white ink from doing this after the printer was a couple months old for me. So every month or so I started manually flushing the ink system and the problem went away. It took over 2 hours to do and over a liter of water but that’s what I had to do to be able to avoid this issue on that specific printer. if it’s a stock manifold, or a built in CISS those cause the worst issues. DTF superstore white ink gives me 24 hours+ before it starts to do that. So I can shake,mix, use and be fine all day. You may have bad ink, but it’s unlikely to settle that fast unless it has been neglected. What printer do you have?

The 15000 license is a little bit of a pain sometimes, but it's not the biggest issue. The biggest issue is the cartridges leaking and the printer coming back with a malfunctioning printhead and being able to properly circulate/maintain the ink with such small cartridges or a DIY CISS. Almost always this printer dies within a month or two from a 31006 error, which is usually related to liquid on the printhead cables or shorting out somewhere. The ink cartridges for the printer are not really ideal. It's why the XP600 printheads are converted over to use actual dampers with adapters for the chinese printers, since they are similar in design as the 15000. The 8550 has similar characteristics, except with a built in ciss that cannot be properly maintained. You would need to manually flush the lines daily and shake the whole printed to agitate the white ink to keep the white ink from separating. Beyond that it doesn't have the issue with chip less or leaking dampers. I personally haven't seen anyone successful with it for any long term usage. For something long term you would want a higher end printhead and printer build, for low volume or short term usage one of the above would work with random pains. For low volume long term usage you would want a printer capable of that such as the P400/P800. The p400 can be flushed in-between uses really easily so you don't risk clogging or settling of the ink, while the P800 would need used more often, it can easily be ready to roll with a couple head cleans with the white ink. Other variations like the P600, R2000, R1900, R3000 all have their own pains and do not work as well because of their associated downfalls. If it were me I would go with the 15000 if my budged were $600 or less, opt for a few sets of cartridge's and swap them out as they become empty. When done for the day make sure you put both caps on the cartridges and you'll have to replace your white cartridges regularly do to the ink pigment settling in the sponges. If you can find a P400 or P800, Those two are the most ideal DIY conversion printers. After that, a cheap Chinese printer running the xp600 printhead would be my next go-to. unlike sublimation it requires daily maintenance and tons of learning curve. Sublimation is essentially OEM usage from an inkjet printer with dye based ink that pose very little issue to clogging and no issues with settling. Usually for small usage it's cheaper to just order your transfers from someone. Yea, It's $1-$2 more per print, but overall if you are not dedicating yourself to the machine and learning it and can afford the learning curve mixed with low volume requirements, It would be what I would suggest. If you invest $2000 you would need to make over 1,500-2,000 transfers before you break even just simply ordering the transfers for example. That's quite a bit to get from one of those printers before it experiences some form of catastrophic failure.

Not sound advice, I know. But that is the extent of what I know with the rollers, I just tear them out haha.

I have had several things fail to cause this on multiple shakers. 1. The relay has failed. 2. the motor has failed 3. the sensor is failing to trigger the relay 4. bad wiring. some run on an AC motor, some use DC. Likely your machine uses AC. I have had 2 of those fail, when they do it's almost immediately. Sometimes you can replace the start capacitor and it's fine, sometimes it's the windings. I throw them in the trash and convert them to DC since they are over $100 just for the motor, while a DC counterpart is like $15 and haven't had one fail without extensive use. Not to mention DC is safer if the wires to it are dangling. A simpler more common issue is there is a forward/reverse switch on the front/side of the roller unit, there is also an " off" position on the switch. Make sure it's not in the off position. Also, The sensor in the bottom of the "duster bay" must be triggered to make it work.