# dtg kiosk 2 stopped printing bright colours



## minority1 (Nov 23, 2011)

hi all

im hoping somebody could help me with a problem im having

this morning my dtg kiosk 2 has stopped printing bright colours.

it was fine yesterday, infact it had never been printing better.

the problem is the designs i print daily are printing but are printing very faded.

i changed the capping station,encoder strip and flushed the machine through. when i filled it back up with ink however i did notice one of the white inks wasnt going through the line as quickly as the others. infact it wasnt really going through very fast at all.

any help would be greatly appreciated as i am in the middle of an urgent order 

many thanks in advance for taking the time to help

mark


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## equipmentzone (Mar 26, 2008)

minority1 said:


> hi all
> 
> im hoping somebody could help me with a problem im having
> 
> ...





What does your nozzle check show?

_


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## JeridHill (Feb 8, 2006)

Sounds like could be having some clogging happening in your one white line. If the white ink isn't as bright, then it's not laying down enough white. I would try flushing that line to see if you can get it cleared up. How does your nozzle test look?


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## minority1 (Nov 23, 2011)

my nzzle check is awfull to be honest guys, showing hardly anything at all


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## equipmentzone (Mar 26, 2008)

minority1 said:


> my nzzle check is awfull to be honest guys, showing hardly anything at all




Try doing a head cleaning and then another nozzle check.


_


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## JeridHill (Feb 8, 2006)

minority1 said:


> my nzzle check is awfull to be honest guys, showing hardly anything at all


Yeah, that's the problem. Always check your nozzle test if your prints are not coming out the way they ought to. Do a head clean like Harry mentioned and do a test afterwards to see where you are.


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## minority1 (Nov 23, 2011)

ok guys, iv done the nozzle check and head clean several times, however theres no improvement  new printhead needed?


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## equipmentzone (Mar 26, 2008)

minority1 said:


> ok guys, iv done the nozzle check and head clean several times, however theres no improvement  new printhead needed?




You mentioned that you replaced the capping assembly. Did you do that now or several days ago?


_


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## JeridHill (Feb 8, 2006)

I wouldn't replace the printhead that quickly. If it was printing yesterday and now it's not, then the head is either clogged or air locked in it. When you compare the nozzle test, does it look like the same nozzles are clogged or is it moving around? If it's moving around, then it's air, if it's the same, then it's clogged.

If it's air, you could let it sit for an hour and try it again. If it's clogged, you could let your printhead soak in something like straight ammonia or if you have a head cleaner that could work too. Fill your capping station with it and park the head and let it sit. Come back after an hour and run a head clean then a nozzle test to see where you are.

To test your capping station, you can fill it up with liquid, then run a head clean and see if it clears out.


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## minority1 (Nov 23, 2011)

i did that this morning after the problem started, however i changed the encoder strip 2 days ago when i was getting an unwanted line on my t-shirts. this solved the problem of the unwanted line and was printing better than ever untill this morning


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## minority1 (Nov 23, 2011)

il give that a go and come back to it in an hour as the nozzle check is different every time.

fingers crossed. thank you for now guys


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## JeridHill (Feb 8, 2006)

Mark, it sounds like there could have been several issues hitting you at once. Make sure you are doing thorough cleanings with your daily maintenance. Don't be so quick to replace parts, instead focus on keeping them clean. I'm not saying you aren't doing this now, but the only info we have to go on is you saying you've been replacing all of these parts. This could get very expensive....


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## equipmentzone (Mar 26, 2008)

minority1 said:


> i did that this morning after the problem started, however i changed the encoder strip 2 days ago when i was getting an unwanted line on my t-shirts. this solved the problem of the unwanted line and was printing better than ever untill this morning




Check your capping assembly installation.


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## JeridHill (Feb 8, 2006)

minority1 said:


> il give that a go and come back to it in an hour as the nozzle check is different every time.
> 
> fingers crossed. thank you for now guys


If it's moving around, then it's definitely air trapped in the head. Letting it sit should help. I don't know the kiosk very well, but on our system, I know I can remove the head from the dampers, then do a power clean and would be back up and running. On some of the earlier systems, I believe letting it sit is probably the route to go. If you can purge the system of air then run a power clean, I'd give that a go if you don't have the time to wait.


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## minority1 (Nov 23, 2011)

JeridHill said:


> Mark, it sounds like there could have been several issues hitting you at once. Make sure you are doing thorough cleanings with your daily maintenance. Don't be so quick to replace parts, instead focus on keeping them clean. I'm not saying you aren't doing this now, but the only info we have to go on is you saying you've been replacing all of these parts. This could get very expensive....


im quite keen on the maintenance side of things tbh and give everything a clean at the end of the day, capping station,dabbing printhead, cleaning encoder strip ect ect

however i used to leave my machine on constantly, but this last week i have started to turn it off, could this be the cause of the problem?


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## dazzabling (Sep 21, 2011)

Did you properly prime your dampers? How old are they?

Doing an ink fill is not enough. Makes sure your dampers are primed and holding ink.

Make your capping station is properly suctioning fluid into the waste ink tank.

Always do a nozzle check..every time you start your machine. 

Make a note to remind your self


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## minority1 (Nov 23, 2011)

JeridHill said:


> If it's moving around, then it's definitely air trapped in the head. Letting it sit should help. I don't know the kiosk very well, but on our system, I know I can remove the head from the dampers, then do a power clean and would be back up and running. On some of the earlier systems, I believe letting it sit is probably the route to go. If you can purge the system of air then run a power clean, I'd give that a go if you don't have the time to wait.



how do i perform a power clean? sorry for the silly question

also thank you guys for taking the time to help me


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## minority1 (Nov 23, 2011)

dazzabling said:


> Did you properly prime your dampers? How old are they?
> 
> Doing an ink fill is not enough. Makes sure your dampers are primed and holding ink.
> 
> ...


i kind of do this as routine, run a few head cleans every day before i start, and the end of every night run some cleaning fluid through the capping station the end of every night,clean the printhead with toilet paper and windex ect ect

however if the t-shirts look good i dont bother with the nozzle check
and they were great yesterday.

the dampers are about 4 months old?


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## JeridHill (Feb 8, 2006)

I'm not sure if that would be the problem, I imagine it depends on how you shut it down. On mine, I fill my capping station up with fluid and park the head and power it off. When I turn the system back on, I run a head clean and all is good. Our dampers don't allow the ink to flow back up and it won't drain the inks. I've heard on the earlier systems people creating a syphoning effect and draining all of their inks or it backs up into their system. Unfortunately I don't know how your system handles this method. For me, it's been good.


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## JeridHill (Feb 8, 2006)

minority1 said:


> clean the printhead with toilet paper and windex ect ect


I wouldn't use toilet paper. In the UK, maybe it's different than here, but there is quite a bit of fibers that easily come off. I would use a foam tip swab.


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## minority1 (Nov 23, 2011)

JeridHill said:


> I'm not sure if that would be the problem, I imagine it depends on how you shut it down. On mine, I fill my capping station up with fluid and park the head and power it off. When I turn the system back on, I run a head clean and all is good. Our dampers don't allow the ink to flow back up and it won't drain the inks. I've heard on the earlier systems people creating a syphoning effect and draining all of their inks or it backs up into their system. Unfortunately I don't know how your system handles this method. For me, it's been good.


i only started turning the machine off as i was getting a back flush of other colours in some lines from time to time. but pretty much the same as you, a few head cleans and leave a little cleaning fluid in the capping station over night. turn on in the morning, half a dozen head cleans and away


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## minority1 (Nov 23, 2011)

JeridHill said:


> I wouldn't use toilet paper. In the UK, maybe it's different than here, but there is quite a bit of fibers that easily come off. I would use a foam tip swab.


sorry i meant kitchen roll, not toilet paper  however i shall start to use a foam tip swab


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## dazzabling (Sep 21, 2011)

JeridHill said:


> I wouldn't use toilet paper. In the UK, maybe it's different than here, but there is quite a bit of fibers that easily come off. I would use a foam tip swab.


Or use a lint free cloth..some use a scrap of a tshirt. But, don't let good printing fool you..always do nozzle check it uses less ink then head clean after a head clean

DTG parts don't have a shelf life..prime each individually not using an ink fill.
Make sure each one is properly holding ink and not flowing back into in the line.
Don't over prime them you can burst the
Bladder of the damper. Also,I have had bad dampers that were brand new..nothing is perfect.


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## JeridHill (Feb 8, 2006)

If everything is functioning correctly, then one head clean in the morning should be all you need. As for the foam swabs, it is non-abrasive and will not harm your printhead, anything else (if abrasive) could possibly scratch the surface of your head and cause a misdirection of nozzles. I would focus on your ink system and try to find the correct height in comparison to your head. The correct positioning of your inks will cause the system to perform much better. I don't know the open containers very well, but I do know you should try to keep a consistent amount of ink in them. Too much of a change in how much ink is in them will change the performance of your printer.

If the ink is too high, you can get drips and build up on the bottom of your print head. It could also cause banding, but mainly because the ink is building up and blocking the nozzles. If it's too low, the reverse happens and the ink pulls back. My guess is it's too low because you are talking about your ink backing up into the lines. If you are getting ink starvation, or colors dropping out while you are printing, but there is no build up on the bottom surface of the head, then I would raise your ink up a little.

We were in Texas at the NBM show and our printer was printing fine, then after about 4 shirts we started to get banding. Our ink was at the height to in which we were used to (here in Florida), but I ended up lowering the ink try about 1/2 inch and everything printed fine from there. Geographic location and weather conditions will effect your printing.


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## minority1 (Nov 23, 2011)

thats interesting, i keep my ink at varied levels tbh. its not something iv given much attention too. i kind of fill the bottles up and just refill them when i notice there running a little low. i will give it more attention from now. thank you


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## JeridHill (Feb 8, 2006)

When you find the machine printing the best, mark your ink levels and try to maintain those levels. Did you put more ink in your system since yesterday? Just curious....


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## minority1 (Nov 23, 2011)

i did funnily enough, just before i turned the machine on


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## JeridHill (Feb 8, 2006)

An open container system can be fickle, but once you find the limitations and work with them, you should be able to get a consistent print time after time.


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## dazzabling (Sep 21, 2011)

Unfortunately, a Jerid mentioned environment is key since his machine is in bags the simple level adjustment did the trick.

Well with bottles, you must worry worry and worry more about humidity, air in the lines, and level adjustment.

Not saying the bags are prefect but pretty close less problems, less worrisome with maintenance.

The closed ink delivery system is a whole other thread. But, proper maintenance, keeping the capping station clean and doing nozzle checks are very important.

When we switched to bags we still did it at out of habit. But it was a good habit to have, human error was always a majority of our problems. You live and learn and you come here to help others.


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## equipmentzone (Mar 26, 2008)

Do not leave any liquid on top of your capping station at the end of the day on your Kiosk printer. Doing so may create a syphoning condition overnight which can draw all the inks from your bulk system into the waste tank.


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## minority1 (Nov 23, 2011)

this is a whole new issue i shall be paying more attention to in the future guys. thank you for pointing that out to me.

the consistency in the ink levels kind of makes sense now as some days she prints better than others for sure.....i bet its down to the ink levels without me realising. im guessing somewere around the half way mark

im gonna get a bath with a can of beer and de-stress while she is soaking, then come back to her in a different frame of mind......

ink levels......food for thought. thank you very much


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## minority1 (Nov 23, 2011)

equipmentzone said:


> Do not leave any liquid on top of your capping station at the end of the day on your Kiosk printer. Doing so may create a syphoning condition overnight which can draw all the inks from your bulk system into the waste tank.


should i turn the machine off with nothing in the capping station,

or should i leave the kiosk on overnight Harry?

im guessing that somewhere along the line, this is the root cause of my problem  as i am pretty good with the maintenance side of things

everything was running well when i was leaving the machine on, however this could just be coincidence?


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## dazzabling (Sep 21, 2011)

Do not overflow the cleaning solution in the capping station.

Leaving it moist is fine..as Jerid mentioned and I agree we left cleaning solution in the capping station over night all the time never had the siphon problem.

Just don't over do it.do a head clean before shutting down , wipe around the printhead to remove lint, ink and dust. Flush out the capping station and simply put in a small account of solution in the capping station

Soaking the head is when you are still using it or have a slight clog and you have time to spare or forced to have time to spare. 

If you have the machine set up to do head cleans though out the night the cleaning solution gets cleaned out any way but you extend the life of your capping station by keeping it clean

If you don't have it set up, then just leave barely enough to keep the nozzle plate moist because once you dry out the capping station there is no coming back.


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## minority1 (Nov 23, 2011)

yes, iv gone from leaving the kiosk on overnight, leaving it to clean itself every so often, to turning it off and an ''overflow'' of cleaning solution.

im sure as a result i am now paying the consequence......? another lesson learnt the hard way i guess 

back to the matter in hand

still not getting a good nozzle check, cant help but wonder if the white ink line filling very very slowly is in some way connected?

i did notice that compared to the last time i flushed her out, i used a lot less distilled water this time. probably half as much, flushing for twice as long

it was getting through to the waste bottle, but very very slowly

this is what prompted me to change the capping station. i had a spare one and thought it couldnt do any harm to change it

thanks again guys, i cant say how much i appreciate your help


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## dazzabling (Sep 21, 2011)

One white line?


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## minority1 (Nov 23, 2011)

dazzabling said:


> One white line?


yes just the one white line (light magenta) the rest went through as normal, however this one white line took a good 10 minutes to flush and another good 10 minutes to fill back up with ink


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## dazzabling (Sep 21, 2011)

minority1 said:


> yes just the one white line (light magenta) the rest went through as normal, however this one white line took a good 10 minutes to flush and another good 10 minutes to fill back up with ink


Now, if you are able to get to some household ammonia (still haven't found an alternative from US to UK) but a warm ammonia flush (50/50 ammonia and distilled water) of the ink lines and a 100% warm distilled water to clean out the lines would be helpful. 

But, usually a line flush and a damper will help with ink flow. 

Last resort, filter your ink (use an empty ink bottle or something similar in size of your ink bottle) and place a coffee filter over the top of the empty bottle rubber banding to stay in place. Then take your ink and pour into the empty bottles, look for sediment and other particles. If its really bad do it a couple of times (back and forth) clean bottle to clean bottle new filter to new filter. When do replace the ink back in its bottle and see how the lines prime through. 

Last resort > replacement of just the lines is suffice, as well. 

Please remember that some ink lines have a history of deteriorating from the inside causing clogs and there is nothing you can do about it because its breaking apart from the inside so its flowing into your damper straight to your printhead. 

Ink isn't always the one cause the clogs, the tubing is known for this too. There is good ink lines here in the states that have been tried and tested with DuPont ink that don't have this problem. You can PM if you are interested and I can direct to where to get them because I am not sure about exactly what they are called. 

Back sure you are priming from the dampers not from the printhead, so you aren't wasting the good flowing ink.


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## minority1 (Nov 23, 2011)

ok iv bit the bullet and ordered a new printhead from equipment zone

the strangest thing is, my kiosk has stopped running a head clean when i press the ''INK'' button. it also seems to of stopped talking to my computer

everything else works, load,eject,ink fill. but nothing at all when i press the ink button

iv tried powering on/off the machine with no effect. funny thing is it was working fine only 2 minutes before?

any ideas guys?


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## dazzabling (Sep 21, 2011)

minority1 said:


> ok iv bit the bullet and ordered a new printhead from equipment zone
> 
> the strangest thing is, my kiosk has stopped running a head clean when i press the ''INK'' button. it also seems to of stopped talking to my computer
> 
> ...


can you run a head clean from the Epson status monitor from your computer?


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## JeridHill (Feb 8, 2006)

Do you have any flashing lights? Maybe the waste counter needs reset?


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## minority1 (Nov 23, 2011)

no i cant run it from the computer & no flashing lights

id only just run a head clean with no problem 2 minutes before


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## dazzabling (Sep 21, 2011)

minority1 said:


> no i cant run it from the computer & no flashing lights
> 
> id only just run a head clean with no problem 2 minutes before


check your USB cord , if you have a spare use another one


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## minority1 (Nov 23, 2011)

dazzabling said:


> check your USB cord , if you have a spare use another one


yes il give that a try. thing is i can run a head clean wether the computers plugged in or not usually. im baffled tbh


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## equipmentzone (Mar 26, 2008)

minority1 said:


> ok iv bit the bullet and ordered a new printhead from equipment zone
> 
> the strangest thing is, my kiosk has stopped running a head clean when i press the ''INK'' button. it also seems to of stopped talking to my computer
> 
> ...



From J in our Support Department:

On the Kiosk 2 / T-Jet 2 there are some connections and ribbon cables that you want to inspect for damage.

The thin flat wire that is apx 1" wide should be inspected for the entire length for any cuts, nicks tears etc. If this cable is damaged it will cause the issues you are seeing (first image).

Also check all the various connections for the power button/ink button as well to ensure they did not become accidently unplugged (second image).

If no damage is found to any of these connections I would recommend checking the head cable set that connects into the print head for any damage.


_


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## minority1 (Nov 23, 2011)

thank you very much Harry. that is very usefull and could well be the cause as iv been doing a bit of poking around.

il check that in morning as its been a long day.


thank you all so much for taking the time to help me

mark


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## equipmentzone (Mar 26, 2008)

minority1 said:


> thank you very much Harry. that is very usefull and could well be the cause as iv been doing a bit of poking around.
> 
> il check that in morning as its been a long day.
> 
> ...





No problem - happy to help. Our support technicians know the printers well. Please let me know what it turns out to be.


Harry

_


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## minority1 (Nov 23, 2011)

well guys, one thing lead to another and i have ended up with a ''eclipse D1'' 

iv got it at a good price knowing it has been stood for a little while and more than likely the printheads will need changing & possibly more

iv budgeted £2000 to get it back up and running, bringing the total cost of the machine to a total cost of £5000. i imagine yes ltd would be charging me well over £10,000 for this machine, so in my mind i have a bargain 

im just in the process of doing a little homework on the D1 (something im aware i should of done before but this machine just came up and i jumped at it) and trying to get to know it a little before i jump in with a screw driver, observing parts and comparing the machines set up to the kiosk

i have just about rebuilt the kiosk over time so i was pretty confident in my new purchase, however they are quite different in appearance.

a couple of questions if i may:

am i right in assuming the D1 is more or less a bigger version of the HM1?

do the kiosk and the D1 use the same inks?

are the 2 print heads different for the front and back head .ie colour & white

i liked the kiosk support videos on youtube, as they gave me the confidence to do any job. is there support videos out there somewhere for the D1?

any info or help would be greatly appreciated as i wrongly assumed the kiosk and D1 would be more or less the same to maintain and change parts

in particular any info on flushing the D1, changing the dampers,ink lines and print head as im sure this is all this machine needs to get it up and running again 

again thank you for taking the time to help me

mark


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