Epson XP-15000 Setup

[johnson4]

5 hours ago, davekk said:

Thank you so much for all the information in this topic.. especially johnson4 & JTS for very detailed explanations. I am a newbie in this business but willing to learn and consider myself a tech savvy person in general. I do have this machine but not yet converted. Started to be a bit skeptical since johnson4 stated not to recommend it to beginners. 

My use case would not be to print every day but instead mostly during weekends and the printer would probably sit unused during the weekdays. Also I'm not aiming for the cheapest price per print and the also the printing speed isn't that important either. I could easily "afford" using sheets and not roll feeding. What I would appreciate the most is a machine that would be usable for at least 1 year or so and suitable for infrequent usage. Doing daily shake for the carts/inks would not be a problem though.

So I have a couple of questions.. First of all.. should I leave this machine (XP-15000) for regular printing usage and get another device for DTF just to avoid the problems related to ink spilling? In my country only the L1800 is available as new and the market for used machines seems to be really quiet. Haven't seen a single P-series device for sale in months. I might be able to get an old used R3880 but with that model cannot find that much information.

For infrequent use would the following procedures be enough (this machine or any other)?

Assuming I would have 2 sets of cartridges (one for inks, one for cleaning solution):

After using the printer always:

1. Close the refill plug hole and the vent hole in ink cartridges in place and after that removing them carefully

2. Swap the cleaning carts in with vents closed (then opening the air vent but not the refill plug)

3. Do couple of head cleans.

How about the capping station and the wiper? Do I need to clean these as well after every usage and what are the best tools/method for that? 

Do I need to clean parts under the cartridges before putting the cleaning solution cartridges in?

Before using the printer after a few days pause always:

1. Toss the remaining whites away (to avoid clogging) as JTS had done

2. Refill ink cartridges (+ whites) and then close the refill plug and the vent hole

3. Shake the carts a bit

4. Swap the ink cartridges in and opening the air vent but not the plug and then couple of head cleans

5. Print

 

Something wrong with the procedures or any other maintenance tips that I should be aware of ?

That procedure sounds good, the issue your going to have is getting the printer to hold up with all that over time. 
 

the weak spot is the cartridge seals too. 
 

for infrequent use, the very best printer is the P400/R2000. This unit will do what you are asking, without any problems, given you do what you said and clean the wiper also daily. 
 

P600/p800 have hoses, built in ink systems. These settle with ink every 48 hours of non use and must be flushed entirely. p800 is much easier to flush/get going, so I’d not the P400 my next recommendation is the P800. 2 heavy cleans and it’s ready to go. The p600, always took me about 20-30minutes or cleaning to get goin, wasting a ton of ink. 
 

all in all, you can use your 15000 for this, but I seriously doubt it will hold up to what your asking if It for long, even following your above understanding. It has a weak ink system, ink connections, and a weak capping station. 
 

P400 is the literal best for infrequent/not 100s a day printer.

($500 for p400)
 

p800 is the best for printing infrequent, and constantly mixed. 

( $800, $300 if you sell the ink). 
 

p600 is good for printing a minimum of 20 designs daily. 
 

( MIA- don’t recommend)  

Edited July 29, 2021 by johnson4

[davekk]

Thanks for the quick reply. Problem is that cannot get hands on any P Series devices here. Out of stock in every european store that I've found. Probably going in with the XP-15000 and continue searching for better one (P400 mainly) at the same time. If the machine breaks it won't be the end of the world. At least should give me experience with curing & other phases of the whole process and would have most of the stuff ready if I find a better machine.

[johnson4]

1 hour ago, davekk said:

Thanks for the quick reply. Problem is that cannot get hands on any P Series devices here. Out of stock in every european store that I've found. Probably going in with the XP-15000 and continue searching for better one (P400 mainly) at the same time. If the machine breaks it won't be the end of the world. At least should give me experience with curing & other phases of the whole process and would have most of the stuff ready if I find a better machine.

Right, I find mine on ebay, Epson refurbished direct, garage sales etc. 

 

your not going to find a new one, but most of mine were refurbished or used and I’ve been fine. 

[carsten]

What are the best settings with the XP15000 with EKprint for a good White Underbase ?

[gurnay1973]

Hello friend, I need your help. I bought an xp-15000 and still no logo to print with ek print.
Could you help me with screenshots of the program settings and the output channels please.
@Mdrake2016
Thanks

[Jessierich19]

On 4/6/2021 at 12:01 AM, johnson4 said:

You can get the demo for it without purchasing EKprint just in-case you run into an issue. It's fully functional, no time limitation, just prints a small watermark ( which you can get around if you know what your doing). 

 

Keep us updated, I'm sure it'll be fine. I'm still waiting on epson to ship mine.

How to get around the watermark issue?

[johnson4]

3 hours ago, Jessierich19 said:

How to get around the watermark issue?

You can’t, you just place

your print around it. 

[Chevelle]

Hello 

When i go to print an error comes up in Acrorip with Print Error: WHITE (EMPTY). New chipless cartridges. 

It is also smudging the the ink at the end of the print.

Any ideas and suggestions would be so greatly appreciated. xx

[johnson4]

6 hours ago, Chevelle said:

Hello 

When i go to print an error comes up in Acrorip with Print Error: WHITE (EMPTY). New chipless cartridges. 

It is also smudging the the ink at the end of the print.

Any ideas and suggestions would be so greatly appreciated. xx

You need an output tray to stop the printhead strikes.

the 15000 doesn’t have Chipless carts, it has Chipless firmware. The cartridge chips are one time use, just in case you didn’t know. 

 ive heard acro doesn’t work with the 15000, users who tried are riddled with problems. 
 

i don’t know this exact white out issue, but I know you’ll also encounter feed issues with acro 10. 
 

ekprint has a demo and works great with it

Edited September 28, 2021 by johnson4

[johnson4]

There is a great support page mainly around the 15000 on Facebook. 
 

dtf printing facts no bs dtf support

Edited September 28, 2021 by johnson4

[Chevelle]

Thank for that info.

Ive just spent the money buying Acrorip to the tune of $650 as that is what was recommended by the company.

So i would really like to try and sort the issue out first. 

[johnson4]

8 hours ago, Chevelle said:

Thank for that info.

Ive just spent the money buying Acrorip to the tune of $650 as that is what was recommended by the company.

So i would really like to try and sort the issue out first. 

Acro 10 only costs $395, $150 on aliexpress. 
 

good luck though.

Edited September 29, 2021 by johnson4

[Kuipersh]

On 6/28/2021 at 10:36 AM, johnson4 said:

The roll is super easy to use, I posted photos and a video about it, while it’s not the best case scenario, it’s pretty easy to do. Two settings in EKprint, and whatever to hold the roll, boom. Roll printing, in which you can cut the sheet and cure normally, no feeding hassle, no wasted film, no improper feeding. 

 

I had the fake paper jam problem with my first xp15000. It was easily fixed with power cycling the unit and making sure it was not connected via WiFI, or USB. 
 If the printer is “ aware” an update is available, this happens every time. I call them phantom jams( maybe strawberry flavored). 
 

it’s not really all that complicated, the hardest thing about the printer is not spilling ink. I roll printed like 80+ prints, sheet printed, made Chipless, let sit for a week+, kicked it around my shop and it still worked. I intentionally didn’t give a shit in any aspect of the conversation and it still worked for me 100% outright, but I have dealt with this kind of crap for years. 
 

i gave up on recommending it though, over the issues that people have with the aftermarket cartridges and spilling liquid, and of course the issues you have trouble with. It’s not worth my time to try and save someone else a few hundred dollars, so I’ll agree this printer shouldn’t be used because it’s not beginner friendly. Pick up a P800, or even better a pre modified printer now that there are a lot of cheap offerings from alibaba. 
 

in the end, it’s not worth fighting to save a few hundred if you don’t know exactly what you are doing. While a ready to go system costs a bit more, not printing and selling will cost you more than what those few hundred will “save you” doing it yourself. 
 

remember, the printer is only a tool, or step “ 1 out of 10” to have a successful sale and ultimately end with a profit. No reason to waste precious time on something if you are not well experienced in the subject, over a few hundred bucks. 

 

I had the fake paper jam problem with my first xp15000. It was easily fixed with power cycling the unit and making sure it was not connected via WiFI, or USB. 
 If the printer is “ aware” an update is available, this happens every time. I call them phantom jams( maybe strawberry flavored). 
 

lol love the strawberry flavored phantom jam but what exactly do you mean power cycled the unit?

[johnson4]

1 hour ago, Kuipersh said:

I had the fake paper jam problem with my first xp15000. It was easily fixed with power cycling the unit and making sure it was not connected via WiFI, or USB. 
 If the printer is “ aware” an update is available, this happens every time. I call them phantom jams( maybe strawberry flavored). 
 

lol love the strawberry flavored phantom jam but what exactly do you mean power cycled the unit?

Turn it off, unplug it, press and hold the power button for a moment, turn it back on. I did this for a few hours on and off, to make sure. The only time it paper jammed was when it popped up on the screen an update was available. 

If your using Acro, Quite a few users are saying that RIP doesn't work well with it and does this without the update on the screen, I don't know personally. 

[Kuipersh]

EK print and seriously have been making successful prints for about a month and randomly this started when I am halfway through 325’ roll of transfer film and literally nothing had changed. 

[johnson4]

30 minutes ago, Kuipersh said:

EK print and seriously have been making successful prints for about a month and randomly this started when I am halfway through 325’ roll of transfer film and literally nothing had changed. 

Are you using the form feed so it prints continuously or by sheet? 

[Kuipersh]

I cut the roll to sheets 12”x12” roughly 

[johnson4]

16 minutes ago, Kuipersh said:

I cut the roll to sheets 12”x12” roughly 

try cleaning the pickup roller, the gray roller in the back with alcohol. 

 

Also, if that doesn’t help, Try a sheet that has issues, and put some white tape/ sticker at the bottom of it and see if either of of those things help.
 

 

[Kuipersh]

And now I get the error 031002???

[johnson4]

1 hour ago, Kuipersh said:

And now I get the error 031002???

[johnson4]

So it just happened? or because of one of the two things? Did you get your firmware from inkchip?

[Kuipersh]

No chip solutions or maybe it was chipless solutions.com and yep the error literally just happened after I cleaned the roller and then tried to tape the back of a junk transfer film and print on it

[johnson4]

1 hour ago, Kuipersh said:

No chip solutions or maybe it was chipless solutions.com and yep the error literally just happened after I cleaned the roller and then tried to tape the back of a junk transfer film and print on it

Weird, neither of those things would cause that. Do you have any ink leaking around your carts? The Reason for the Sticker, film quality is all over the place- even in the same roll. So it's possible 1. the roller was dirty, or two the film isn't being detected by the printhead sensor, It's why some people use double sided film, since it's more opaque. I use white stickers from my label printer and put across the bottom of the film when that happens, enough to detect the film, but not enough to interfer with the print. 

Edited October 6, 2021 by johnson4

[Kuipersh]

No, I don’t see any ink leaking ☹️ And I figured film quality is all over the place.  I have new film coming at least and I can do a couple of print head cleanings and it gives me that error again too so I’m not sure what’s going on.  I will use a paper towel and soak with cleaner and soak the heads for a bit I think 🤷‍♀️ At this point not sure what to do… and of course it has to happen when I have a few orders to fulfill 🙄

[johnson4]

3 hours ago, Kuipersh said:

No, I don’t see any ink leaking ☹️ And I figured film quality is all over the place.  I have new film coming at least and I can do a couple of print head cleanings and it gives me that error again too so I’m not sure what’s going on.  I will use a paper towel and soak with cleaner and soak the heads for a bit I think 🤷‍♀️ At this point not sure what to do… and of course it has to happen when I have a few orders to fulfill 🙄

That’s how it always happens. Imagine if you had 500 to fill and that happened. 
 

the xp-15000 is prone to leaking. If your using aftermarket carts, it happens a lot. The way the printhead is in there, the ink runs down and inside the connections. On mine, I had run a bead of silicone all the way around it to seal it so any leaks couldn’t do that. But, I throw mine away when the printhead fails from clogging. I too experienced this once, and for me it was small traces of liquid had gotten down inside in the electronics. 
 

I actually disassembled and and checked to see what happens. That square hole on aftermarket carts, doesn’t seat well to the original printer. I’ve read of some people simply reusing the stock carts and never heard of a problem after that. Personally, I’m making an adapter to use a damper and be done with the whole issue- if that is what it is. 

Edited October 6, 2021 by johnson4