The best way to start is by going downloading the Piezography Community Edition. This has The Piezography Manual in it which gives you a comprehensive overview of the whole system and how it works. Also check out our over-view of Piezography K7 and Piezography Pro while you're at it!

On desktop printers, you do not need to flush because when you remove the color carts less than 1ml of ink remains in the print heads. That ink will ejected into the capping station when the printer goes through an auto clean cycle when you install a new or different set of cartridges.

On large format printers in each of the ink channels there can be as much as 15ml of color ink inside the ink line and damper. You can decide whether to flush this ink out with Piezography ink or invest in a second set of cartridges which are filled with PiezoFlush. In the end, the results will be the same. If you perform enough POWER CLEANS with Piezography ink it will eventually flush out the color ink. There may be just a little residual stain in the shade 7 that is installed in the yellow channel. Most people flush with Piezography ink. Some people like to have a set of flushing carts available to them for when they may not be printing for more than 3 weeks. They opt to flush with PiezoFlush. It does allow for a much quicker start up.

Piezography Opaque Photo Black is a new ink developed to be opaque on film. Jon Cone developed this ink for Piezography Backlit. Piezography Opaque Photo Black (PZK7-WN-110-1) must be used for all gloss K7 and digital negative (PiezoDN) printing. Piezography Pro ink uses a brand new black ink called Piezography HD-PK.

No it is not. Baryta is considered a non-matte media. You will need to use Piezography Glossy K7 options which include a photo black shade 1 (Warm Neutral Shade 1) and a second printing of Piezography Gloss Overprint. If you are primarily interested in printing on baryta-silica papers, we really suggest using our new Pro ink. This is actualy built for baryta surface printing and does not require a second pass of GO.

A few things will happen. Initially, the print will look like it is not quite "developed". The GO produces the final tonal separation in the shadows. But, it also eliminates the bronzing and gets rid of the gloss differential so that you will not be able to tell the difference in reflection between the paper and any tone range of ink.

We designed the K7 Gloss system to eliminate gloss differential which is the difference in reflection between ink and paper. We believe that a believable glossy or barya black & white print should not look like an inkjet print. If you do not want to overprint the paper you will need to duplicate the GO curve and devise an edit to it. The standard GO curve has an exponent value in what is the 255 location of the LLK channel of 30000. When this curve is used to print anything that is 255 (paper white) prints with GO. So this value would need to be changed to 0. The last exponent in the column of 256 exponents bellow the LLK channel is 0. At this point in your edit all of the 256 exponents are 0. The last exponent represents the dMax value of 0. If you change this to the value that was located in the 255 location (30000) and you create a pure black canvas and try and align the paper again carefully for the overprint - this will work to the degree that your Epson print has good overprint registration reliability. Before you edit the GO curve. Duplicate it and give it a name that will be recognizable. Open it to edit in an application like Text Edit (Mac OS) or Word Pad (Windows). Make the edit but do not Save and do not Save As. Both of these operations can introduce formatting and make the GO Curve unreadable to QTR. Instead Quit the editing application and agree to save the document upon quitting. You will then need to re-run the installation command in Mac OS where this new file is located. Windows should automatically recognize it.

They are since about 2010. The only ink shade that is not glossy compatible is Matte Black Shade 1 (previously known as Neutral Shade 1). That is our Matte black. Glossy K7 printing requires the Warm Neutral Shade 1 followed by a second printing of Piezography Gloss Overprint. Read the manual on how to do that!

Yes you did. The inks will no longer react correctly to the K7 curve and we can not produce a custom for you when something like that happens. You will need to empty the cartridge and refill it with fresh ink.

The only difference is that K7 has an additional lighter shade than K6. Shade 7 is unique to K7. Shades 1 - 6 are the same in each kit.

We give them a two year shelf life. But, if tightly sealed it is not unheard of for our customers to be using five year old ink. We do not recommend that of course! It is important that you tightly seal an opened bottle so no evaporation occurs. If your bottle is well sealed, you can keep it horizontal (like a wine bottle) and turn it 90 degrees every month. This will maintain the carbon particles in solution and your ink will last much longer.

All pigment ink falls out of suspension. Epson advises that their ink carts should be discarded within six months of first use. You may not notice slight color changes using stale inks. But, with Piezography you will notice a slight drop in density of one or more inks. Fortunately, the fix is easy. Remove the ink cartridges and gently shake them. To remove the ink that is currently in your printer perform one head clean on a desktop printer. On a large format printer you must perform three POWER CLEANS to remove the stale ink from the ink lines and dampers. If you leave your printer for more than 3 weeks you really should consider installing flush carts and flushing out the pigment ink. Restarting with pigment ink will be quick!

Of course! Shake gently and store the new mixture in an air tight PP bottle. Never use PET. But, you can also make your own special edition inks by mixing any ratio of similar shades numbers together. Simply search for "special edition" above and you will see the recipe.

Technically, the X800 and X880 and X890 printers can use the same curves. So for example, curves for an Epson 2880 printer will work for an Epson 7880 printer as well as an Epson 3800.

If you go several weeks or months without using the printer, I recommend removing the ink (which is much easier when using cartridges than a CIS), install a set of refill cartridges that are filled with PiezoFlush solution, do 2-3 cleaning cycles to flush ink out of the print head on a desktop, or 2-3 PowerCleans on a large format. Print a nozzle check to make sure the ink is flushed and all nozzles print light pink (there is some dye in the PiezoFlush solution so you can see the nozzles printing) then you can turn the printer off an let it sit unused for a long time without any problems. Store the set of ink cartridges upright in a sealed plastic bag so they don't dry out over time. When you are ready to print again, simply turn the printer on, do a cleaning cycle and print a nozzle check to make sure all nozzles are printing, then remove the set of flush cartridges, gently shake the ink cartridges to get the pigment in suspension as pigment will settle over time when left sitting still, install the set of ink cartridges (refill them with ink first if any are low) into you printer, wait about 10-15 minutes to let the ink settle and air rise, do 1-2 cleaning cycles or Power Cleans and print a nozzle check to make sure all positions are fully printing before printing images. If you are using an R3000, Epson did not include a Power Clean function and it would take nearly 70 head cleans in order to bring PiezoFlush or fresh ink to the print head. Instead we recommend that you download the Epson Service Utility software from 2manuals.com and run an INIT. You will need to be on PC or run Windows on a Mac.

This is covered in the new Piezography manual!

The only way that the GO can print is when it encounters a L value of 255. 255 is dMin or paper white. With regular Piezography and all other inkjet printing no ink ever prints in the dMin. Otherwise, the margins of the paper and specular highlights would be filled with ink. If you are using the GO curve correctly - GO will print on the image margins. But for the GO to print on the image you must make a small image (does not have to be same size as the image you printed with ink) that is an RGB image of pure white (RGB255,255,255). This white canvas is what you print the GO with. If the GO did not print evenly on the image then you either attempted to print the image file with GO rather than a small white cavas - or your white canvas is not RGB255,255,255.

They are available now.

The Piezography Pro Package is available now.

No. Piezography Pro ink is entirely new from the ground up including the black inks, gloss optimizer, and everything in between.

We suggest that you keep things clean and organized and get new carts. However, if you are on a budget, you can clean the cartridge out very carefully with distilled water (!!!), let it drop out over night, and fill with Pro ink.

If you are going from a Piezography K7 to Pro ink set, no. We suggest you PiezoFlush your printer between color and Pro, however, this is entirely up to you. Color staining is not as much of an issue when going from Color to Pro as it was from color to K7, but it’s still there. It takes a lot of ink to completely eliminate color in printer dampers and PiezoFlush can save you money and then you have a flush kit at the ready.

Yes. We have built PiezoDN master curves for the Pro inks. We recommend you stick with K7 ink for you digital negatives if this is working for you well right now. But, if you wish to upgrade to the more flexible Piezography Pro inks - check to make sure your printer model is supported by downloading the latest Piezography Curves.

No. The new Gloss Chroma Optimizer prints at the same time as the ink.

We are measuring a dMax of 1.81 on Hahnemuhle Photo Rag paper with this new ink. This may change slightly when we have the final production ink done but it will be very very dark indeed regardless.

PiezoDN is a set of tools and QuadtoneRIP curves for printing and calibrating high-quality negatives using Piezography ink. PiezoDN is also a set of quality standards and ideas for revolutionizing both darkroom printing and digital printing as a whole.

You can buy it right here. You will get an email with a username and password to this site (piezodn.inkjetmall.com) that will allow you to download the PiezoDN package and all its updates forever. It may take up to 24hrs for us to build your username and password if you buy PiezoDN on a weekend. It’s a manual process right now. Just like the darkroom!

The only film that we support and the only film that is capable of absorbing the amount of ink that PiezoDN prints is Pictorico OHP Ultra Premium Film. Regular Pictorico OHP or other films will not absorb the additional ink that PiezoDN prints. 

The first place to look for information is The Piezography Manual 2016 Deluxe Edition that comes installed with PiezoDN and includes detailed instructions on PiezoDN workflow and calibration. This website also has a private members-only forum that you’ll be able to post questions on and share curve-files on. This will be the place to ask questions. Lastly, there is tons of general Piezography support at our general forum found at http://inkjetmall.com/tech

Currently PiezoDN  works on both OS X and Windows. Both OS X and Windows versions will print “linear” just like Piezography. Windows does not allow printing with ICC profiles. The OS X version of PiezoDN gives you two choices:  printing a linear print (slightly lighter than the monitor) or combining with an ICC profile to match the print to the monitor.

You can print BOTH! PiezoDN is compatible with many of our ink sets. For example, it is compatible with Piezography Pro inks and any of the Piezography P2 ink sets on all supported printers with 8 or more ink channels. It is also compatible with some specific ink sets. On the Epson 1430 or 1500W which has only six channels, the Photo Black cartridge can be replaced with an optional Matte Black cartridge to print regular Piezography K6 prints. The PiezoDN system requires the photo black and gloss optimizer options which are included with the aforementioned ink sets. The easiest way to pick out an ink set is on the Inkjetmall website using this page which has been pre-filtered for PiezoDN compatible ink systems. Then choose your printer model and the type of ink set you prefer.

We include some pre-built curves for the Selenium ink set, but PiezoDN can be calibrated for any Piezography Pro, K7, K6, or P2 inkset that is PiezoDN compatible on a Piezography supported Epson printer.

Of course! The other ink-sets may not match the exact tonality guaranteed by the Selenium ink but PiezoDN comes with tools able to calibrate your system. If you have some smarts, you can use any Piezography gloss-capable inkset you like and PiezoDN will work perfectly with it.

While PiezoDN comes with a full set of initial curves built for specific processes, at its core it is a “profiling” system. That means there is no reason why PiezoDN wouldn’t work with the classic “Piezography Digital Negative” curves that have been the pinnacle of digital negative printing up to this point. The only requirement to make PiezoDN work with Meth1 and Meth3 curves is a conversion and we’ve done that. PiezoDN includes the converted “classic” PZDN Meth1 and Meth3 curves located inside of the CURVES/PZDN_to_PiezoDN directory. 

These curves will act like PiezoDN curves: aka, they will invert the image so there is no need to invert in Photoshop. These curves can then be calibrated exactly like normal PiezoDN curves can. This means that you can no longer use any Photoshop Adjustment Curves if you have been using them with Meth 1 and Meth 3 workflow. You will print the unadjusted 8bit, 16bit or raw image file with PiezoDN and it will print linear after you have calibrated with PiezoDN. 

If you are new to all this and don’t have a classic system already installed, don’t get the classic “PZDN” ink-set. Get the new PiezoDN one!

No. In this sense, PiezoDN is meant for people already adept at darkroom printing. PiezoDN is a digital negative solution. PiezoDN does include datasheets for each of the supplied curves that sketch out the darkroom conditions that were present when each turnkey curve was built.

That said, the private forum that you have access to after buying PiezoDN does have some goldmines of darkroom information. 🙂

Yes. PiezoDN has a set of tools for modifying .quad curves in very unique ways that allow for truly calibrated darkroom work with up to 129 individual calibrated data-points. PiezoDN also allows you to LIMIT your neg density to allow for printing on “delicate” darkroom emulsion such as gum bichromate and cyanotype.

You can share the curves with your friends (who are customers) only at piezodn.inkjetmall.com/forum but not out in the world. We have put such an investment into the Research and Development of PiezoDN that the package is sold with a software license. PiezoDN can be installed on up to three individual computers owned by the buyer or on up to 10 computers in a classroom setting.

PiezoDN is built only for Piezography ink. Piezography ink is micro-encapsulated and uniquely gloss compatible with finer carbon particles than leading OEM inks. The PK1 (previously WN1) Piezography black ink is also incredibly opaque and full resolution on gloss material. This enables PiezoDN negatives to be printed and manipulated in very unique ways for processes like Ziatype and Salt. Other inks just can’t cut it and PiezoDN will not work at all with other inks. Piezography can be a complex system.

The best way to learn Piezography is to take a class with us at Cone Editions. The alternative is to research Piezography at http://piezography.com and also to download the Piezography Manual, 2016 Edition.

Yes it does. Many models are now supported in USA and Europe. 

The P400, P600 require our special refillable cartridges. The P800 requires our special decoder board which the user must install to disable the mechanism that Epson is using to prevent use with non-Epson branded cartridges. The P5000 is not currently supported. The P6000, P7000, P8000, and P9000 are supported. The newer SureColor printers released in 2020 are not supported yet.

PiezoDN supports the following Epson Printer models: 1400, 1430, 1500W, R2000, R2880, R3000, 3800, 3880, 4800, 4880, 4900, 7800, 7880, 7900, 7900, 7890, 9900, 9890. SureColor P400, P600, P800, P6000, P7000, P8000, P9000.

No. This is to prevent foreign matter from entering the cartridge during manufacturing and storage prior to your use. When you install the cartridge, this thin film gets pierced by the ink stem. There is a valve inside the port that this film protects. When you remove the cartridge to refill it, the valve closes and no ink will escape.

Yes. If your desktop cartridge has a vent tab it must be removed or the ink will not be able to be drawn out of the cartridge by the print head. Instead a vacuum forms.

Yes it is. All it takes is a one or two head cleanings once you switch inks. The only exception is that you should clean off the ink stems (where the cartridges sit on) with a Q-Tip before installing a set of Piezography ink cartridges so that the residual color ink on the stem does not contaminate the Piezography inks.

You can buy an optional chip resetter. The reason the chips do not reset when you remove them from the printer is because the Epson Status Monitor did not write the empty chip to those "other" cartridges. So they can't reset when they are reinserted into the printer. The system works this way so that you can remove the cartridges without their resetting each time you do. The danger in that is that they might prematurely empty. If you would rather reset them when you want them to reset - use a chip resetter.

When the ink and paper lights on your printer flash alternately and you get an error that says "parts inside your printer have reached the end of their life", this means the waste ink sensor has gone off. If you just get the error message, that means you are just about at the point when the pads are full and the printer will lock you out. All desktop printers have absorbent pads in the bottom, which is where waste ink goes when the printer does cleaning cycles. The sensor tracks the waste ink and estimates when the pads need to be replaced. When the sensor goes off, you need to either bring the printer to a repair center to replace the pads and reset the sensor (which costs about $200) or you can install an external waste ink bottle to redirect future waste ink (so no more goes into the pads) and reset the sensor yourself. We sell 4oz waste ink bottle kits that come with tubing and clear instillation instructions, which you can find here: http://shopping.netsuite.com/s.nl/c....&category=-118

You can get the waste ink sensor reset program here (only Windows compatible): http://www.2manuals.com

Chips are very sensitive to static and can easily be shorted. We recommend that you keep a set of spare chips on hand. If your printer is a 4800/4480/7800/9800/7880/9880 you can always pry off a chip from a used Epson cartridge and replace yours. The color position and printer model must be the same as yours. Our chip resetter can reset Epson chips to full. Otherwise, you will need to replace your chip with a fresh one.

It is very easy to slightly mis-align the resetter prongs to the chip's sensors when you are resetting a chip. The resetter has a circuit to prevent it from shorting. The safe circuit shuts down the resetter so that it does not short the chip or short itself. If you remove the small screws that hold the resetter together and remove the batteries for 30 seconds - the unit will reset itself. Then replace the screws and try resetting the chip again.

Although the printer has both matte black and photo black inks, it does not auto-switch between them. When you select a printer setup that calls for the matte black ink or calls for the photo black ink - you must switch to the required ink using the printers LCD control panel. This is covered in the Epson users manual.

So if you have selected a media type that requires the printer to use Photo Black ink, but the printer is set to Matte Black ink - this error message is displayed. And of course, if you had selected a media type that requires Matte Black ink, but the printer is set to Photo Black ink - this error message is also displayed. You need to use the menu on the R3000 printer and change black ink type.

The exit valve cover gets pierced by the ink stem when you first install the cart. it is only in place to keep this port clean during manufacturing. You can ignore it!

You may have neglected to remove the air vent tabs. These are the small color tabs at the rear of the cart. If they are left in - no ink can exist the cart after a short time of printing because a vacuum forms that prevents the ink from leaving the cart. Simply remove the vent tabs as instructed in the manual and on our video!

First, please check the cartridge chip to make sure 1. it's correctly seated on the cartridge (pressed down all the way), 2. gold contacts are clean and free from anything that may interfere with the printer's ability to read it (like melted plastic). Second, the refillable carts are sometiumes slightly wiggly in the cartridge chamber and tend to lean to the right. We suggest pushing carts towards the left may give a better connection between the cartridge chip and printer's chip sensor, eliminating the error. With both cartridge bay doors open and all refillable cartridges locked into the printer: push all cartridges towards the left, so the bottom/left corner of each cartridge is touching the left edge of the railings in the cartridge chamber. Close the two bay doors, and the printer should then read the chips and pressurize the cartridges. At this time, check the LCD panel to see if all cartridges are correctly recognized by the printer (no error message), then print a nozzle check to make sure all positions are fully printing and the printer functions correctly without displaying any errors.

This test is important for us to determine if the cartridge mold is slightly off, causing a poor connection between the cartridge chip and chip sensor, and that is causing the chip errors- or if the chips are in fact faulty.

Chips occasionally go bad and need to be replaced. When the printer gives a cartridge error which is not resolved by resetting the chip, this usually means the chip has shorted out and is no longer read correctly by the printer. We recommend everyone have a set of spare chips on hand to be prepared if a chip needs to be replaced, which is very quick and easy to do. The cartridges themselves are very robust and will likely last the life of your printer.

We have replacement chips available for all of our carts on our website.

New chips already read full, so do not need to be reset. Pry the current chip off the cart using a straight edge screw driver or something similar (I use a straight edge razor blade to remove chips from carts) then attach the new chip in place of the old one using a small piece of double sided tape (don’t glue chips into place). Make sure gold contacts are facing the front of the cartridge (same direction as the one you removed). Chips are sensitive to static, so against what you may think, it is best to handle them with clean, dry hands instead of wearing cotton gloves. With the new chip in place on the cart (with a small piece of double sided tape on the back of the chip), press straight down with your clean + dry finger or thumb to secure the new chip to the cartridge- making sure it sits flat in the chip area of the cart and nothing is on the chip contacts that would interfere with the chip read.

Occasionally, chip resetters need to be reset just like any computer does. The turn themselves off when they detect that they are not correctly aligned and may short the chip as a result. To reset your resetter, please open it by unscrewing the two screws then inside you will find a board with three round batteries attached (batteries are on the same side of the board as pins that touch the chip contacts). Gently pry up one tab holding each battery down and slide the three batteries out of place. Wait 30 seconds then slide them securely back into place (it doesn't matter which battery goes into which spot, they're all the same) and put the resetter back together. Test the resetter on a different cartridge chip (sometimes a faulty chip can short out the resetter, so testing on a different cart chip rules out the chip).

The triangle area on the bottom of the cartridge is where the cartridge locks into the printer's cartridge chamber.

If the triangle locking area does not lock into place in the printer, then it may be the metal arm that holds carts into the printer that needs a slight adjustment.

At the far end of the cartridge chamber at the bottom, is a thin metal arm with a knob at the top- this is what locks the carts into the printer. In my experience- this arm was slightly bent down (compared to the other "arms" in neighboring chambers), so it couldn't grab the cart- I simply used a pen and gently lifted up under the arm to raise it up slightly so it was at the same level as the others- then the cartridge easily locked into place and I haven't had a problem since.

Please remove carts from the printer and compare the "arms" in the chambers- if you see the one in the chamber that will not lock a cart into place is lower than the others, please gently lift them up and try reinstalling the cart into the cartridge chamber.

Our 4800 and 4880 efillable cartridges are longer than standard Epson cartridges and hold about 100ml more ink than the standard Epson cartridge, but this is no problem. With refillable carts, simply leave the cartridge bay doors open so the carts can stick out.

Chips can occasionally short out (they're sensitive to static and electric shock) and can wear out over time, so we recommend everyone have a set of spare chips on hand in case they're ever needed. Chips are very quick and easy to replace, but can really hold up production if you don't have them and have to wait for them to arrive in the mail. Some people save Epson chips from their old carts (separated in color position labeled bags), as they can be used on refillable carts. They are easy to pry off and attach to the refillable cart using double sided tape. You can reset them just like our replacement chips. Try and find a spent empty Epson cart that matches the position of the cart you have a problem with.

Note:You can reset Epson 4000, 7600/9600, 7800/9800, 7880/9880 and 4800/4880 Epson chips. You can not reset Epson 4900, 7900/9900 and 7890/9890 chips.

But, if your printer was recognizing theLLK cart until you refilled and re-installed it, and the resetter gives a solid green light when you reset it, then it may be a strange communication error between the chips and printer and I might suspect the chip reader pins inside are bent or dirty. These are very fragile but very cheap to replace. You would probably need to buy a new one and they are only sold at the Epson parts depots - about $12.00. So, I hope you can just find a replacement chip local! Make sure to keep spares on hand for deadlines!

Sometimes the 7900/9900 carts (because they are not exact replicants of the OEM cart) do not line up squarely and the chip is not making full contact with the printer's chip reader. When this happens - it will trigger the x-s all across one side. Epson uses a paired chip scheme in the 7900/9900 printers. The strange pattern is that carts on one side of the printer are paired with chips on the other side of the printer. So if your x's pertain to the right side, then a chip is not being fully read on the left side and visa versa. The slight dimensional difference in the carts is enough to do this and we suggest that you make sure that the bottoms of all the carts are pushed towards the left side of the printer and this usually straightens them up - as they tend to lean bottoms towards the right. In other words the bottoms of the carts may be leaning in..the top towards the left and the bottom towards the right. That slight diagonal is enough to have the chip being partially read. So, simply and gently push the carts by their bottoms to the left to straighten them up. This should accomplish a good chip read.

If it is a persistent problem in your printer - you can use a cardboard wedge to keep the carts perfectly aligned. We intend to work with the factory on a new mould that does not violate any intellectual properties pertaining to dimensional measurements - and yet fits as perfectly as possible so that the chip is always read.

From your explanation, it sounds like you are occasionally experiencing a poor connection between a cartridge chip and printer's chip sensor, but the cartridges and chips are working well and as they should be when they are positioned properly in the printer.

It is important to make sure the Epson chip is correctly positioned on the refill cartridge, and reset chip is pressed all the way down over the Epson chip for a good connection. The plastic base of every 3880 reset chip should have three small plastic tabs around the side that hold it onto the cartridge. If any of these tabs are broken or bent inward, the chip will not stay secured to the cartridge, therefore not have a good connection with the Epson chip underneath, which will cause an error. Also, on the back of every reset chip, there should be three metal pins that stick out and touch the Epson chip- the three pins should be equal length for proper contact with the Epson chip. Please check the plastic base to make sure there are three plastic tabs, and if they are all in place, gently bend them outward slightly to ensure they catch and hold onto the cartridge. Also check to make sure the three metal pins are present and equal length. On the front of the chips, please check the gold contacts to make sure nothing is on the contacts that would interfere with the printer's ability to read it- if you see anything on the gold contacts, gently clean them with either an alcohol pad or pencil eraser.* After checking all these things, push the reset chips back onto their corresponding cartridges and make sure they are pushed all the way onto the cart for a good connection with the Epson chip, then reinsert the cartridges into your printer and see how the printer responds.

When installing refillable cartridges into your printer, after locking the carts into the chambers, look at the printer's LCD panel to make sure it says "Cartridge Door Open. Close Door" before closing the cartridge bay door. If the LCD panel displays any other message, such as "NO Cartridge" or any cartridge error, push the carts into the printer one at a time while watching the LCD panel to see how the printer responds (this way you will know what cart is causing the communication error, to focus on that one).

You can try our PiezoFlush print head cleaning kit and desktop printer cleaning tips, but if you don't have significant improvement after this, I recommend getting a new printer- 5 years is a long life for a desktop printer. You can get our print head cleaning kit here: http://shopping.netsuite.com/s.nl/c....category=31348Please watch our YouTube video on small format printer maintenance to see these two procedures preformed (as well as other cleaning procedures), here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUysQFDH6u0

We recommend using a printer on a regular basis for best function. To keep the ink moving thru the cartridges and head moist, print a small image or do a cleaning cycle at least once a week. It is not recommended to leave pigment inks installed in a printer that will be unused for an extended period of time. It is best to remove ink by installing a set of flush cartridges to flush ink from the lines, dampers and print head. This will allow for safe long term storage.

Even Epson warns that you must not leave inks standing in a printer. The reason is that all pigment ink is subject to settling. The pigment falls out of suspension. When you restart the printer, large quantities of solids can fill your ink dampers (which act as filters) - and that disrupts the flow from the print heads. Most of these clogs from hell are fixed by replacing the ink dampers. It is a good idea to replace them on an annual preventative maintenance schedule anyways!

Just in case, did you open the air vent holes on all the refillable carts? Have you cleaned the capping station, wiper blade and bottom of the print head? Look at our preventative maintenance article.

Always store your printer in flush if you plan on leaving it for three weeks or more. It prevents things like this from happening!

I am afraid that the Epson 4900/7900/9900 print head failures that are being reported in many of the user forums are fatal. These seem to be occurring at a fairly heavy rate. The only solution may be replacement. The users are referring to their problems as head delamination.

We have not had any failures using ConeColor or Piezography inks. But, we are not suggesting that our products are a cure. We recommend that if you own these printers that you buy extended warranties. We purchased a brand new Epson 7900 that had to have its head replaced in its first week, followed by a followup to replace the replaced head. So we speak from experience, not just opinion.

We first reported on this printer model line at the InkjetMall blog on FEB 2012. Read here...

This error code according to Epson is "Parts inside the R2880 Series are at the end of their service life or an unknown error has occurred. Contact Epson for help." What this error means is that the waste ink counter has hit its limit and Epson believes that you should return the printer for replacement of the ink waste pads at the bottom of the printer. It is our experience that the waste ink counter can be reset once without worry of the printer overflowing with waste ink. We recommend if you do reset the ink counter without replacing the waste pads that you install a waste ink bottle kit and direct the waste ink outside the printer. We sell these here:

Waste Ink Bottle kit for Epson desktop printers

However, you need to download the Epson waste ink counter reset utility and a good source for this is 2manuals.com

PiezoFlush can be used by filling up set of refillable cartridges and inserting them into the printer. You then perform a head cleaning operation on a desktop printer. For the R3000 and larger format printers you need to perform enough POWER CLEANs (or its equivalent) using the LCD panel as instructed by the Epson Users Manual. POWER CLEANS move lots of fluid through the printer. You need to run enough POWER CLEANS to bring the pink PiezoFlush to the print head. It will have to travel through the ink lines and the ink dampers before reaching the print heads. Make sure you have enough life left in your maintenance tank. You can verify whether the pink fluid has reached the print head by printing a nozzle check. You should see pink!

For cleaning of the print heads, you can print a nozzle check to see if you need any further cleaning operations.

OR

For storing your printer - you can then simply power the printer off.

OR

For changing out ink sets which require flushing, you can now remove the flush carts and install the ink carts and perform POWER CLEANs to bring fresh ink to the print heads.

In order to use this kit on your Pro 3800 or 3880 or any Epson PRO printer, you would need to remove the print head so that the ink stems could be accessed by this cleaning kit. These printers use remote ink tanks. Desktop printers for which this device was invented, have cartridges that sit directly on the print head. The cartridge is removed and this kit is installed. With PRO printers it is more of a practice to apply PiezoFlush to the print heads by filling carts with PiezoFlush and using them via POWER CLEAN functions. Also, it helps moving PiezoFlush through the ink dampers this way.

Those who are comfortable taking their printers apart can use the kit to slide over the ink stem and inject the flush out until you can see it spray from all the jets. You can visually see when jets are clogged this way. If you are not comfortable, the next best thing is applying it through the cart with a POWER CLEAN. The POWER CLEAN sucks the PiezoFlush rather than having it forced through it. In some ways - it is safer. In other ways, it is not as effective (depending upon the severity of the clog.)