i've got i ciss system i bought about a year ago and over the past few days the black has stopped coming through completely.
i've tried everything i've found on this forum but still no black.

its this sort of one http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/EPSON-R220-PRINTER-WITH-CONTINUOUS-INK-SYSTEM-CISS


i thought it was my trusty old r200 at first so went out yesterday and got a nice new r220 but after fitting the ciss unit i've still got the same problem.

i've primed it and primed it again and nothing.
i've taken the whole thing out and empty'd it and backflushed it so its as new then re fitted it and re filled with ink again and still no black.

i've tried putting the syringe on the outlet on the cart and sucking ink out but i get a little bit but it slowly sucks the syring back. this made me think maybe there's a kink in the pipe so i traced it back and no kink.
i've taken the black cart of and tried it without it being attached to any pipework and its still sucking back in.

could it be the valve in the cart thats at fault and its time to get a new system.

any help and advise would stop me going at this point.

nohope wrote:

i've tried putting the syringe on the outlet on the cart and sucking ink out but i get a little bit but it slowly sucks the syring back. this made me think maybe there's a kink in the pipe so i traced it back and no kink.
i've taken the black cart of and tried it without it being attached to any pipework and its still sucking back in.

could it be the valve in the cart thats at fault and its time to get a new system.

Ok... based on what you've popped up there it seems you've managed to do a lot of the diagnostic stuff yourself..

An educated guess is that the cause is one of the following:
- blockage in the black tubing
- closed or blocked air vent in the reservoir

At this point you're going to need to try and remove the variables further or decide that you've wasted enough time on this and opt for a more reliable kit..

Sticking with it, I would recommend trying to test the tube in isolation, ie: disconnect it from the reservoir and see if you can draw air through it normally... If you can, great, if not, the tube is the problem.

As to the reservoirs, I personally haven't used them as I tend to feel more comfortable with simple bottle arrangements.. but if you can't test it perhaps fashion yourself a simple reservoir with the tube dipping to the bottom centimeter of the bottle.. It should work just fine if there's enough tubing.


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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

Quote:

nohope wrote:-
i've taken the black cart of and tried it without it being attached to any pipework and its still sucking back in.

Martin, I think nohope has eliminated all but the cartridge, since he has done all the sensible things already.

Could it be that the poppet valve is stuck closed, in which case a gentle prod with something not too sharp might help. Be careful not to damage the seal in the exit port if you go exploring that route.

Use the ink inlet port (where the tube attached) to create as much of a vacuum as you can manage, then apply some pressure to the centre of the poppet valve. If the poppet valve moves and the vacuum is maintained, then there must be something severely amiss with the cartridge for no air to enter.

At this point I run out of sensible ideas - no - one further thought, is the cartridge seating properly?. Double check to see that it really is home.

Peter

Peter_G wrote:

Martin, I think nohope has eliminated all but the cartridge, since he has done all the sensible things already.

Ah... thanks for the heads up there.. I see what you mean.

Quote:

Could it be that the poppet valve is stuck closed, in which case a gentle prod with something not too sharp might help. Be careful not to damage the seal in the exit port if you go exploring that route.

That may be a problem and it's simple enough to push a small phillips/cross-head screwedriver in to see if the poppet valve is indeed working.

The reason the attempt to draw ink through the exit port failed though may be because nohope is using a syringe without an adaptor to push the poppet open. I was also tipped off that you can also make the mistake of creating a vaccum by essentially blocking the syringe and adaptor against the poppet valve. A slight tilt of the syringe to break any such self-created seal should do the trick to avoid that.


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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

i disconnected the pipe from the cart and the ink tank and can blow throught it so no probs there.
also washed out the ink tank and both the outlet for the ink and the air side of it are both clear and again i can blow through all holes.

all thats left is the cart. i tried using the syring to fill it with water and when it comes out the other end it only comes out in a very fine spray. i'l go and try it with a small cross head screwdriver in the printer end of the cart and see if it comes out any quicker.

one thing, a mate of mine got the same system at the same time and he's phoned me today because he's having the same problem. thought it could be the black ink even though its ment for the epson ciss. thought it mite be to heavy and noy getting through but i've refilled my black at least 5 times and its never been a problem.

off to try the cart again to see what happens..

when i put the syring in the in hole for the cart there is preasure pushing against it but if i put a small phillips screwdriver in the other end to open the valve it shoots water out so my guess is it works as it should.

now i'm even more confused.

Must be that the poppet valve is not being opened when the cartridge is installed, make sure it is seating properly. Obviously there is no other blockage inside the cart. Good luck!.

Peter

i've re seated the cart in the printer 10 or so times but it didnt make any difference.
i ordered a new ciss today and by the looks of it its the same as the one i've already got so at least i'l have lots of spares for it.

nohope wrote:

i've re seated the cart in the printer 10 or so times but it didnt make any difference.
i ordered a new ciss today and by the looks of it its the same as the one i've already got so at least i'l have lots of spares for it.

Well I guess that's one way of looking at it... In truth I'm not a great fan of the clone CIS kits but that's because of the horror stories we get from people like yourself.

If you still end up having problems, then do come on back and we'll see if we can't come up with a full on troubleshooting routine to help diagnose issues.


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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

nohope wrote:

i've re seated the cart in the printer 10 or so times but it didnt make any difference.
i ordered a new ciss today and by the looks of it its the same as the one i've already got so at least i'l have lots of spares for it.

Each no sponge cartridge has a screen filter built into the exit passage. Over time, the scree will clog if the ink has larger particles thay may clog the printer. So if the screen is completely plugged. it will not feed ink into the print nozzle. Try a new cartridge to see if the problem go away. Just try one and you will be able to verify if this is the cause of the problem.


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Printers: Epson R1800, R800, 2200, R300, R200, C88, C84, CX3200, easyrefill cartridge, Ink System Pro Bulk Ink System

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