johnson4

That is for the white only- and it isn't correct. Level 3 and 100 is stock- I only needed level 1. Choke at 10 is stock- and too high.

Right- change it to 1440x1440. you also need to set the ink percentages for cmyk and white, the white pass to 1 and choose your underbase mode. Assuming you put the ink in correctly. Cmyk goes in cmyk- white goes in the red and gray.

Ink setting- printer setup.

Then you are printing in 720x720 and why it likely looks like that.

Are you printing at 1440x1440 or 720x720?

Banding and wrong resolution. Make sure you have a good nozzle check. it takes some practice, what program and settings are you using?

Gotcha. What acro version are you using?

the printer is identical across the models of p5000. The commercial comes with violet ink which can’t be used. Just use an LLK cartridge instead if you get this one. rips are setup to accommodate the LLK version from what I understand. It can’t be changed after initial setup with flashing the eeprom.

Yea, that is weird. It's clear the printer should print faster, If they can design the driver for it correctly. Do you have the purchased EKprint or just the demo?

I am looking to see if anyone runs the R4900 On Ekprint? I'm looking for the program file to see if it is the same version as the Demo.

Is your 4900 printing in bi-direction? I'm getting 5 minutes a 12X12 on the P800 in bi-direction 1440X1440. 5 minutes 30 seconds on the P5000 12X12 in uni-direction on EKprint 1440X1440. Acro was one of the slower programs, I haven't used the newer versions though, just 9.03. I was waiting on 11 to come out but it's getting to the point I'll probably pass on that too with all the delays.

I'm certain other rips already do it, Each rip has it's own "driver" and how it prints. Usually cadlink is slower, Acro is slow to process and print, I chose EKprint because It produces more product faster, using an ICC profile with it it does everything I need it to. The P5000 Is still in production, but for some reason I have a feeling it wont be for long. They already discontinued the paper holder on the P5000, and the printer itself is basically the same as the R4900, with small aesthetic changes. I'll keep an eye on them. But, the printer itself seems like an almost plug and play DTF printer to be honest, As-is. Has everything you would need to mass produce product, with the downfall of 200ML carts instead of 1000ML tanks. We'll see though. I've wanted one for over a year now. Thanks!

The Chinese printers , at least the xp600 machine I use the carriage speed is very fast. Faster than the 24” printers, which is why I think 24” printers don’t do twice the square footage, but rather around 2/3 more. the p400/p800 are the same advancing speed as well, but the p400 is quite a bit slower than the p800, because the p800 carriage speed is like twice as fast per pass, and the p800 has less pause every 20 passes. making the p800 12 feet an hour while the p400 is around 10. overall the carriage speed plays a very important roll. That and the nozzle count determine how fast the printer will be. i am a little disappointed the carriage speed is slower in the p5000, but again, it’s about 2/3 the carriage speed as the p800 but twice the nozzles. This should still yield 2/3rd more printed material at 1440x1440 which would be 20 12”X12” prints an hour.

I'm excited to see If they can get it working in bi-directional mode. If they do, Then We'll have a printer than can do 20+ 12X12 prints an hour, with a vacuum table under the head, built in roll holder for the film that self feeds, and a few other awesome features like cutting printed sheets from the roll to remove waste. If you play your cards right, you can get a new one delivered for about $1650, selling the ink's for $350 making it around a $1300 investment. For speeds comparable to the dual I3200's, dual Xp600's, with a higher quality printhead. Printheads are about $1,100 for this machine. The only downfall- You use chip resetters. Since it's 200ML though, who cares. it's not like the R2000 with 15ML cartridges. 200 ML will get me halfway through a roll or so, so if it works out right it'll be about every 7.5 hours of printing per reset.

I will follow up as I find out things- but as-is, it works, just not as fast as I would have hoped.

So I finally bit the bullet per say. I purchased and setup the P5000. The roll media would be perfect for DTF, it self feeds so no issues there. The vacuum platen would be perfect in preventing head strikes- All around- it is a great candidate. For me though, I am looking for twice the speed of my P800, which is 12 foot an hour. Given it has 360 nozzles, it should print faster. First thing I noticed, the carriage speed is much slower than the p800, so it won't be twice as fast. I have tested it with EKprint, and it shows the same speed*** as the P800 under the same settings and conditions. However, EKprint does not officially support the P5000, so I am using the R4900 driver. I have reached out to them and they said they would work on it since the printer is functioning with it, just needs some tweaking. *** this is with the P5000 running uni-directional, while the P800 runs bi-directional for my timings. IF they can get the P5000 running bi-directional, Then it would be twice as fast. Technically, running the P800 on uni-directional AND the p5000 on uni-directional- it is almost twice as fast. Overall, the only issue right now is the P5000 is NOT printing in bi-directional mode. If it did, It would actually be printing twice as fast as the P800, or 2.5 minutes per foot. I have not tested cadlink with it yet, or Acro 10+. Another thing I noticed, the P5000 cartridges DO NOT have a filter in them. So, More than likely will need spare dampers in the event you get some crud in your ink when refilling and in general since the cartridge filter is the first line of defense usually. IF ekprint CAN make the P5000 work in bi-directional mode, With the uni-directional speeds I have taken, It will print roughly 12" X 21 feet an hour at 1440X1440 resolution. That's fast for a $1600 printer. It's huge by the way- Freight truck delivery huge. So I wouldn't count on grabbing a refurbished unit, they send technicians out instead of freighting the printer back and forth.

What I get from the dual xp600’s on a 13” printer is 16.66 foot an hour. Given the head pass speed and length is where these 24” audleys get their square foot from, essentially doubling it for a split second in additional time per pass. there isn’t much a speed difference from my reading, math and testing. For instance, use 13” film on a dual i3200 machine and it would print the same speed at the dual xp600 machine, with a small marginal difference if any. print speed is determined by the nozzles and head pass speed and of course the printing resolutions. 360 nozzles is 360 nozzles. If the head pass is the same speed and printed at the same resolution the only difference you will encounter is the droplet size and overall print quality, and of course durability/lifespan. Of course you know images are made of microscopic ink droplets that make up the dots per inch, which derive from the nozzles. The amount of nozzles and resolution determines the width that is printed per pass, creating the advancing speed. Both printheads would be capable of the exact same resolution and speed. the only variable between the two would be exterior in the design of the printer, unrelated to the printhead. if not, I would like to know how a machine running the same carriage speed, at the same resolution( DPI) with the same nozzle count would print 30 percent faster unless it were a limitation on the xp600 to prevent the head from overheating or something. The Dx5 machines are 180 nozzles, so it would require two passes on the carriage side to achieve the same resolution, but somehow is faster? im not arguing, I’m asking. I’ve looked a lot into this and do not mind to explain myself as briefly explained above. I have tested several heads, time carriage speed on multiple occasions to verify what I’m saying. to me the only difference is the i3200 looks to be a better build quality head and has more accurate dot placement. Not really something that matters when printing on film that can only hold so much detail. Longer lasting in theory, similar to those in the P5000 or Epson F2100. I’d love your thoughts or explanation as to how it prints 30 percent faster.

Interesting. 30 percent speed difference for 5X the cost. So the 24” printers running dual i3200’s do 38 square foot an hour? That would be 30 percent faster. Everything I find shows around 2.5 minutes per foot or 25ish square foot an hour for the dual i3200’s. 38 square foot an hour would be worth investing in to if that is true though.

Cadlink. and yes, overall saturation and quality. I’m not sure where that comes from, but I haven’t had any issues at all. Prints just like my Epson’s. its a good printhead, shockingly good. I bought 4 new spare heads for under $700 delivered express from overseas. Time will tell how it goes overall but i have high hopes and prepared for the worst either way. good luck with your decision.

If you want to test it, you can post a photo for me to print on it. if you’d like.

But, You can get it with either head setup. To each his own, People seem to love the I3200's. I am perfectly happy with the XP600's and the price of them. I can buy 5 sets of the xp600 compared to one set of the I3200's, which is said to need replaced every 6 months or so. I'm not that busy to afford that. But take what I say with a grain of salt, I haven't used an I3200, Just the XP600, and I like them. The grain is all settings.

I run several epsons, right now a P400/P800 next to this Dual XP600 machine. Soon the P5000. Saturation is great on the xp600, I can make them print identical to the epsons. I don't know about life expectancy, I haven't had to replace them. But again, $400 a pair VS $2200 a pair- I'm pretty sure these are more for the money. I used to think the XP600 was crap, but it's not at all after getting used to it. The grain you see is from CAD link, a few adjustments and you can make that go away for the most part. It really boils down the ICC and dot profile in that aspect, not the printhead I have found since obtaining one of the Chinese machines. Maintop works fine, but you have to do extra steps. I used it once. I use cadlink and Ekprint. Mine works great with the converter. I couldn't say. I bought mine from Andy. The stuff I did buy from china all was a nightmare, even with research and preparations- unless it was small stuff/parts stuff like that. Machine wise, they have never been what they should be and support is crap- its your fault.

I see white peeking on them both, one is just hardly at all. I only have this issue with low quality PNG files AND with cadlink. My other rips don't do this. When vectorized or using a higher quality PNG, this doesn't happen. I have never seen an actual high quality image do this. Alot goes into it but more than likely it's just a bad PNG file. To test, Export your vector as a PNG at 300 DPI twice the size you are going to print it at for safe measure. Scale it down and print it in the RIP. If it still does it- then I have no idea if your printer is tuned correctly. If it doesn't do it- Then it's just the poor quality image.

The last one that might be good for trouble free operation is the P5000, it’s coming tomorrow and I will test it. It theoretically should print as fast as the dual xp600 printer. Built in vacuum, built in roll holder. It’s the only other one without needing chips, the p6000 but it’ll need new chips every fill, so I don’t consider it due to running costs. so it may work as a current gen Epson, but the head is over $1,000. It’s an $1800 printer. We’ll see.

going with any of these 3 printers will eaither be slow, or full of random problems, just like the xp-15000. Every printer will have it's own downfall, none of them are perfect unless it is specifically built for it, which usually have some form of design flaw themselves. If you are looking for reliable, find an older machine that supports chipless like a p400. The P800 is good too, just finicky on the output tray. they still have their problems though. or buy a chinese machine with dual XP600 heads. Cheap- works well, pretty fast for the price. Worst case scenario it's $200 per head. I get 16.66 12X12 prints an hour off the dual XP600 I have. I set it to print 25-50 prints and walk away. It hasn't failed me yet. None of the Epson typical issues. You can pick these up for $4,000-$7,000 depending on where you get them. It's alot of money, but if you are looking for problem free operation- It's not with a current gen Epson.