Not sure what I broke after 3 miserable days of failure

[Jeff C]

I have an L1800 Procolored DTF machine that I managed to cripple by making a series of bad decisions on limited sleep and panic, now I am Numb and dead inside lol. The quick story is that I had difficulty trying to print white ink and in the process over 2 days managed to get myself in a situation where I don't know if I shorted a cable, a printhead and/or a mainboard. The printer “appears” to be working but absolutely no ink is moving at this time. 

If you’re interested, below is my hellacious past few days of haphazardly troubleshooting myself in the foot.  I'm certain all of this could have been prevented with better daily maintenance, more patience, more sleep and less urgency but this is the situation I'm in lol , thanks for your time.

I had intermittent problems printing white ink. I tried doing a printhead wipe while it was still mounted to carrier but must have pushed residue into nozzles because color also suffered after that. Head cleaning didn't fix so I left nozzles soaking overnight after flushing with cleaner and water with decent cascade flow in and out. Next morning the colors were weak and white was a no show. So I removed the manifold to blast those hidden filters. Done several flushes and was able to finally print all colors including white. Unfortunately, that started to diminish until white was non-existent again. I done several head cleanings to no avail. White would not print but colors were perfect. I wouldn't know this till later but I hadn't put the three screws back in to lock the printhead to the carrier, and that was potentially why white wasn’t getting primed during head cleanings because the capping station was not met by pressure from printhead??? I don't know if that would have helped the white at that point What do you guys think? How much suction does the capping station put on the printhead during cleanings and power flushes if any? Nonetheless I really shid the bed next when I tried to flush white ports while head was over capping station. Next print, nothing came out and some nozzles, that flowed flawlessly before like Cyan, suddenly seemed to be electronically closed? when trying to Cascade or retro pull fluid. Now I'm thinking that I may have got liquid on the ribbon cable connection to the printhead and shorted something. I don't see any physically burned, components but I haven't looked at the main board deeper inside and not able to see the entirety of the ribbon cable either. I have not checked for continuity of the circuitry because I do not know how and printhead/main board circuitry schematics seem limited at best for the L1800. I have another printhead that I got off Amazon cheaply that doesn’t work currently , but I've only tried it after the OEM head stopped working. I know some vendors notoriously ship these broken and scam but the manifold would have fixed my flow because the white channels were moderately restrictive compared to other 4.
Looking for opinions for what you all think the most likely culprit could be. I know I’m and idiot, hopefully somebody will learn something new from my experience 😆 cheers
 

[johnson4]

5 hours ago, Jeff C said:

I have an L1800 Procolored DTF machine that I managed to cripple by making a series of bad decisions on limited sleep and panic, now I am Numb and dead inside lol. The quick story is that I had difficulty trying to print white ink and in the process over 2 days managed to get myself in a situation where I don't know if I shorted a cable, a printhead and/or a mainboard. The printer “appears” to be working but absolutely no ink is moving at this time. 

If you’re interested, below is my hellacious past few days of haphazardly troubleshooting myself in the foot.  I'm certain all of this could have been prevented with better daily maintenance, more patience, more sleep and less urgency but this is the situation I'm in lol , thanks for your time.

I had intermittent problems printing white ink. I tried doing a printhead wipe while it was still mounted to carrier but must have pushed residue into nozzles because color also suffered after that. Head cleaning didn't fix so I left nozzles soaking overnight after flushing with cleaner and water with decent cascade flow in and out. Next morning the colors were weak and white was a no show. So I removed the manifold to blast those hidden filters. Done several flushes and was able to finally print all colors including white. Unfortunately, that started to diminish until white was non-existent again. I done several head cleanings to no avail. White would not print but colors were perfect. I wouldn't know this till later but I hadn't put the three screws back in to lock the printhead to the carrier, and that was potentially why white wasn’t getting primed during head cleanings because the capping station was not met by pressure from printhead??? I don't know if that would have helped the white at that point What do you guys think? How much suction does the capping station put on the printhead during cleanings and power flushes if any? Nonetheless I really shid the bed next when I tried to flush white ports while head was over capping station. Next print, nothing came out and some nozzles, that flowed flawlessly before like Cyan, suddenly seemed to be electronically closed? when trying to Cascade or retro pull fluid. Now I'm thinking that I may have got liquid on the ribbon cable connection to the printhead and shorted something. I don't see any physically burned, components but I haven't looked at the main board deeper inside and not able to see the entirety of the ribbon cable either. I have not checked for continuity of the circuitry because I do not know how and printhead/main board circuitry schematics seem limited at best for the L1800. I have another printhead that I got off Amazon cheaply that doesn’t work currently , but I've only tried it after the OEM head stopped working. I know some vendors notoriously ship these broken and scam but the manifold would have fixed my flow because the white channels were moderately restrictive compared to other 4.
Looking for opinions for what you all think the most likely culprit could be. I know I’m and idiot, hopefully somebody will learn something new from my experience 😆 cheers
 

We have all been there. 

 

Generally you don't want to go that far that fast with what you are doing. Flushing the head or removing the manifold should be your last ditch effort with the expectation of failure because it usually doesn't help. 

From your description, it sounds like the issue has to do with the ink system itself, maybe the dampers. Not the printhead. Possibly a poor seal/damper connection to the printhead as well. 

 

Absolutely not having screws on the printhead so it can make a good seal on the cap top and wiper is pretty bad. You are correct to assume it couldn't properly be cleaned like this, including the cleaning suction. 

 

IF all of the channels are dead, it's likely a blown fuse on the mainboard, or a combination of needing a new printhead and the fuse. 

 

When my machines started giving me literally 0 problems from my day to day, is when I stopped doing these types of things to them and figured out the majority of the problems were simple maintenance items that I was unaware of, the printhead is the last thing that has anything to do with it in my experience. 

 

Me personally, It sounds like you may have done some damage that could be a simple fix, but these things are very finicky. As much as a trickle in the oscillation to the power supply to these things and you'll run into unexplained problems. Let alone everything that has happened. 

 

I would start by checking, repairing the fuses or replacing the mainboard and printhead. You risk the new printhead if you just pop it in there without repairing the mainboard. 

 

I have NEVER received a good printhead from amazon, or any other seller from any other platform that said it was " refurbished" or anything but new. Definitely not worth it from my experience. 

 

In the end, all I have to do to keep the machines happy are keep the ink circulated, ink fresh, clean the wiper/cap top daily, clean the bottom of the printhead every few weeks and change out my dampers with OEM dampers, or flush them and re-use them as they start to cause the issue you are describing. If I wait too long, or force cleans, It'll also take the printhead with it. Other than that, they work everyday and have done so for over 8 months without incident or failure. Every now and again I'll have to change a faulty capping station, but I never have to get into the printhead like that. 

 

Take a look at this guys article, it shows an explains a bit about the printheads and how they work. Cleaning the manifold and possibly replacing it is totally fine as needed. beyond that, I don't do it unless I have a new printhead on hand especially while the old one is still in the unit.

 

https://myx900.com/x900-printhead-revealed/

Edited August 25, 2023 by johnson4

[Jeff C]

17 hours ago, johnson4 said:

We have all been there. 

 

Generally you don't want to go that far that fast with what you are doing. Flushing the head or removing the manifold should be your last ditch effort with the expectation of failure because it usually doesn't help. 

From your description, it sounds like the issue has to do with the ink system itself, maybe the dampers. Not the printhead. Possibly a poor seal/damper connection to the printhead as well. 

 

Absolutely not having screws on the printhead so it can make a good seal on the cap top and wiper is pretty bad. You are correct to assume it couldn't properly be cleaned like this, including the cleaning suction. 

 

IF all of the channels are dead, it's likely a blown fuse on the mainboard, or a combination of needing a new printhead and the fuse. 

 

When my machines started giving me literally 0 problems from my day to day, is when I stopped doing these types of things to them and figured out the majority of the problems were simple maintenance items that I was unaware of, the printhead is the last thing that has anything to do with it in my experience. 

 

Me personally, It sounds like you may have done some damage that could be a simple fix, but these things are very finicky. As much as a trickle in the oscillation to the power supply to these things and you'll run into unexplained problems. Let alone everything that has happened. 

 

I would start by checking, repairing the fuses or replacing the mainboard and printhead. You risk the new printhead if you just pop it in there without repairing the mainboard. 

 

I have NEVER received a good printhead from amazon, or any other seller from any other platform that said it was " refurbished" or anything but new. Definitely not worth it from my experience. 

 

In the end, all I have to do to keep the machines happy are keep the ink circulated, ink fresh, clean the wiper/cap top daily, clean the bottom of the printhead every few weeks and change out my dampers with OEM dampers, or flush them and re-use them as they start to cause the issue you are describing. If I wait too long, or force cleans, It'll also take the printhead with it. Other than that, they work everyday and have done so for over 8 months without incident or failure. Every now and again I'll have to change a faulty capping station, but I never have to get into the printhead like that. 

 

Take a look at this guys article, it shows an explains a bit about the printheads and how they work. Cleaning the manifold and possibly replacing it is totally fine as needed. beyond that, I don't do it unless I have a new printhead on hand especially while the old one is still in the unit.

 

https://myx900.com/x900-printhead-revealed/

Thank you for the reply. Very helpful information. I wish I would have joined before. Procolored's maintenance seems straightforward to someone with a solid knowledge base but doesn't translate well at all and too dumbed-down with no explanation or reasoning for a newb. Early on, following their educational videos, they had me lifting the carrier bar slightly with the carriage near left of center and swabbing the printhead from the front with an extended swab. At the time I had no clue, and they didn't mention in their video, they obviously wanted me to clean the retention aluminum around the head. Then when I learned about wet capping, I realized that the unit they sent me, didn't have an ink pad in the waste blotter. It didn't seem to cause problems, but I wasnt sure that wet capping would be ineffective. Still confused about what was going on there, if it was by design or accident. Also their ink holder on the side is pretty & heavy duty and all but poorly designed. It had me scratching my head for a couple of days trying to figure out why intermittently white/black wasn't printing, because when I opened that tray, everything looks good, but the door was obscurely clamping white and black when closed. Let's just say I got off to a bad start with it all together and clearer communication would have probably put me on a better maintenance track. I should have went to the forums instead of scouring YouTube.