rows of dots on epson r2400

thortate

Hi folks,

I see a few folk have the epson r2400, have you guys seen rows of tiny dots, very close almost like perforations or as if tiny cog wheels rolled across a wet print... (the ruler in the pix is in cm)

I've had the printer for 6 months with no hint of trouble... til this

thortate

thortate wrote:

Hi folks,

I see a few folk have the epson r2400, have you guys seen rows of tiny dots, very close almost like perforations or as if tiny cog wheels rolled across a wet print... (the ruler in the pix is in cm)

I've had the printer for 6 months with no hint of trouble... til this

here is the pix ...

David_S85

Still under warranty?

System

what kind of paper are you using-have you tried a different paper-

have you tried a different print setup-

is this occuring on every print-

do these dots match up with whatever feeds the paper-

does it look like these are an absence of ink or a part of the photo or is there any kind of imprint-

I'm extremely interested in what's going on because I have the 2400--no problems like this--but I don't print all that much-

george

thortate

It was the paper!!!

gefillmore wrote:

what kind of paper are you using-have you tried a different paper-

have you tried a different print setup-

is this occuring on every print-

do these dots match up with whatever feeds the paper-

does it look like these are an absence of ink or a part of the photo or is there any kind of imprint-

I'm extremely interested in what's going on because I have the 2400--no problems like this--but I don't print all that much-

george

It was the paper! I woke up and thought, change the paper! And I saw your answer too... Sure enough it was fine with different paper.

I had changed the set ups but it never changed. The guilty paper was Xerox Color Inkjet Photo Paper High Gloss, I should have guessed it was that because the ink was taking ages to dry. Sometimes to speed it up I put the print in my oven and just turn on the fan (ie: no heat), but that never helped with this paper.

Each 'perforation' was 1mm apart, so I think there must be a series of wheels (there was 35mm between each row) with poiinted 'teeth' that help move the paper along. The ink wasn't sticking well enough and must have simply got lifted off on contact with the 'teeth'.

The team at CSI would be proud of us!

As I had said I've never had bother with the printer before. I do print a lot, here are a couple of things you may have heard about before, that work for me...

I print panoramas and I let a cartridge run dry to see if there would be any problem in the print... there wasn't. Now I just change when the cartridge is empty

I leave the printer on standby and ink consumption is significantly lower

When you print A3 do use the tray at the bottom to it's full length, or the paper bends when it comes out and scuffs (the ink) against the output slot

Equally, printing panos, push tray right in for the same reason...

Maybe you have spotted these points already Gifilmore,

Thanks again

System

glad you got it straightened and I'm glad to know what it was-

something like that can be very frustrating-

and thanks for the other pointers-

I'm thinking you can run out of ink in the middle of a print and change the cartridge- true?-

are your prints coming out the way you want them, i.e. colors?-

george

LuckyBob

I own a 2200 and it has the same roller setup as the R1800 / R2400 / etc. The line of dots is caused by the rollers which continue to grip the paper when printing at the extreme bottom edge of the paper (if you open the lid on a 2200 you can see the fore and aft rollers just fine; can't vouch for the R2400). As long as the paper you're using either dries quickly enough as you print or can hold the ink well enough that the rollers don't pull the ink off the paper you'll be fine. I found this one out the hard way when I accidentally printed on the backside of the paper on another Epson borderless printer - the PictureMate.

thortate

gefillmore wrote:

I'm thinking you can run out of ink in the middle of a print and change the cartridge- true?-

are your prints coming out the way you want them, i.e. colors?-

george

Yes, that what I was referring to, I've never had any trouble changing a cartridge during a print, there is no visible difference. I've heard warnings about air getting into nozzles (not in direct reference to the 2400), but i've never had trouble like that

I'm really happy with the colours and the detail particularly
i've not had bother (touch wood!) at all - any time i've seen something irregular (banding strange colours) it was because of an oversight of mine with the settings.

I don't know if it is a factor for a healthy printer but I always print at least once a week - if your printer has been ok with longer inactive periods that'd be interesting to know

I haven't done any B&W yet and this is a special srong point with this machine, soon I'll go into a B&W phase, I've accumulated a few of the matte black cartridges! Have you tried to do B&W?

Thor

thortate

LuckyBob wrote:

I own a 2200 and it has the same roller setup as the R1800 / R2400 / etc. The line of dots is caused by the rollers which continue to grip the paper when printing at the extreme bottom edge of the paper (if you open the lid on a 2200 you can see the fore and aft rollers just fine; can't vouch for the R2400). As long as the paper you're using either dries quickly enough as you print or can hold the ink well enough that the rollers don't pull the ink off the paper you'll be fine. I found this one out the hard way when I accidentally printed on the backside of the paper on another Epson borderless printer - the PictureMate.

You can see the offending rollers with their little teeth under the lid of the r2400 too!

As we can see the rollers aren't the problem it's the paper. in the UK Jessops paper is comparatively low priced but it suits the espon ink well. The Tesco paper made dull colours. Ilford was very good. That Xerox paper wasn't specially poor.

The 2200 has an excellent history, I hope the 2400 has inherited these qualities!

System

I'll sometimes use a printworks matte paper which works fine and is cheap-

usually stick with epson, though-

I do try to print once a week at least-do not want to go through dealing with dried-out nozzles-

I bought the 2400 for the bw capabilities-I'm extremely pleased with it-

if and when you print bw and you have any problems, let me know-but if your color prints are good you shouldn't have any problem with bw-

best
george