photomaniac wrote:

Regarding the IR dampers, just how are they held in place? If I weren't in a situation now where my CFS outlast my printers I might not be so intrigued, but I am seduced by the flexibility of their approach.

Well, they work by plugging their exist ports over the ink receiver stems in the carriage unit. The problem comes in that, unlike MIS or Nexxtech kits you don't get the tubing being directed into a path with tubes carefully cut to help guilde them down a pre-determined route. Granted this is part of what makes them versatile but you end up with this mess of tubes exiting straight up and it takes a lot of fiddling to get the tubes to bend the way(s) you want without kinks, rubbing or damage.

If you check some of the pictures here:
http://www.inkrepublic.com/ProductImages/C88-3.jpg
http://www.inkrepublic.com/gallery/12.jpg
http://www.inkrepublic.com/Members/1280/index.asp?C=8

You'll see that there's no clip to stop any lateral movement and in many cases the tube will be pushing the buffer head around, unless it's secured somehow to the carriage unit which is what I did with my own IR kits eg:
R200
C86

The problem became even more pronounced in my D88 (C88) model which the buffers do not sit in particularly well (I think the ink receiver stems are thinner) and the amount of twist and torque is particularly worrying. My only solution with that set was to add small bits of padding between the buffers to hold them in place and repeat the C86 mod to secure the tubing (above).

This twist places more strain on the carriage, the tubing and the buffers and I don't think I'm being out of place suggesting that the added strain adds up to wear and tear that negates any potential reusability in 2 years time as I suspect the tubing will be beyond re-use. Of course that's pure guesswork on my part but common sense tells you that less strain means longer life. Add to that, the IR kits are not something that offer the option to replace buffers or tubing, unlike Nexxtech or MIS (assuming of course you have the technical expertise and tools to try it).


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Printers: (Canon) MP500/830, MX700, iP4000/4200/4300/4500/5200, iX4000(A3) (Epson) C84/86, D88, CX6600, R285/800/1900 (HP) K550, K850, K5400, L7680

Great info, Snailz. I see your points.

Thanks.

Photomaniac, the Nexxtech kit is available from The Source in Canada (formerly Radio Shack). The Source is owned by Circuit City. I checked www.thesource.ca and they don't seem to ship to the USA. Checked RadioShack.com and CircuitCity.com and they don't have the kit. Circuit City does seem to carry some Nexxtech brand products. I would recommend bringing a printout of the web page of the Nexxtech kit http://tinyurl.com/awlrd and see if they couldn't special order it. This might peek their interest and make it available as a regular stock item if there is enough interest.

This kit seems to have gotten popular since it's sold out online!

Mooseman

Thank you Martin,

And thanks for your help.

http://tinyurl.com/pptp8 Original post, R220 vs R200

Here is a link to a solution for the R220 not being recognized by the printer. (Chipset)Rather than repeating it all please refer to link. I will be posting photos of how mine is set up.

Gumby

Mooseman, after reading your post on that NexxTech CIS. I went out and bought one from The Source.
Im from Vancouver, Canada.
I havnt even open the package yet but I can see that there are air bubbles in the tubing..... how would I remove those? because the manual says nothing about it

thuglife wrote:

Mooseman, after reading your post on that NexxTech CIS. I went out and bought one from The Source.
Im from Vancouver, Canada.
I havnt even open the package yet but I can see that there are air bubbles in the tubing..... how would I remove those? because the manual says nothing about it

Air bubbles in a CIS system are normal it's if you can't see any ink at all in the tubing that you should worry..

The key thing is to ensure that you the air isn't blocking the ink exit port (the bit where the ink feeds from the cartridge to the printer) so you will want to unpack your kit and sit the cartridges right way up for a few hours to make sure any air relocates to the top of the catridges.

If you're still having problems with the air issue in a big way then post a new thread and we'll put together a few suggestions to solve it..


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Printers: (Canon) MP500/830, MX700, iP4000/4200/4300/4500/5200, iX4000(A3) (Epson) C84/86, D88, CX6600, R285/800/1900 (HP) K550, K850, K5400, L7680

thuglife;

Mooseman, after reading your post on that NexxTech CIS. I went out and bought one from The Source.
Im from Vancouver, Canada.
I havnt even open the package yet but I can see that there are air bubbles in the tubing..... how would I remove those? because the manual says nothing about it

http://www.continuousink.info/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3818

Read the last paragraph of my thread.(If you have an R220, read the whole post) I also had bubbles, big time in my system. After the initial purging they all disappeared with no further steps needed.


Good Luck Gumby......(Victoria)

thanks Gumby and Martin

when i installed it, it ran through a head clean and the air bubbles were gone, but there are some near the carts, does that matter?

when i installed it, it ran through a head clean and the air bubbles were gone, but there are some near the carts, does that matter?

thuglife;

When I let mine sit idle overnight and just did some printing they seemed to be moved into the carts, no problem. If you are not getting perfect nozzle checks then I would use the tips posted to try to purge the troublesome colors. Just give it a chance to settle down first.

My thought is that as there is a negative pressure in the ink feed lines, atmospheric pressure (barometer, weather) can influence where these bubbles appear. This is just MHO.

Gumby

oh ight, I am getting perfect nozzel checks
where do yall get your inks from?