Need Help Any Experience with Chinese flatbed products?

[Auder]

Hi everyone

I have bought a WPR330 from a chinese UV printing company. I never thought about having this kind of stuff but printing on various items is kind of interesting so I wanted to try the product at the lowest price possible just to see the results. The printer is based on an Epson R330 head and works with stylus R290 and Epson L800 drivers. Obviously some heavy reverse engineering here. The printer came with a free RIP software version 8.1 White and Color. Once everythinng setup correctly, I have been able to do various printing but was not happy with default inks levels in the RIP software: "CYMK" was set at 80% and RIP was set at 1440x1440.

The print results with these parameters were thick and really dark. I tried to correct this with curves etc but the results were even more horrible.

So I tried another resolution which is 5760x2880. With this very high resolution and some ink level tweaking I was able to have wonderful results and very thin and detailed prints. The printing time was almost 5 times longer but the results were worth the wait.

I've been using this printer with these parameters for 5-6 days and 0 problems until some days ago.

The new prints are bllurry, doubled on some parts of the pictures, colorimetrics are off (way too much of yellow or cyan, depends ) and the ink is smearing and some small black dots (rarely) are ruining my prints...

From then, I cleaned the whole printer:

-Encoder Strip cleaning with water and a UV ink cleaning solution
-cleaned the head both manually and via software at least 5 or 6 times
-tried to run the alignement test (but it was not the problem)

Maybe there is something I'm missing or haven't cleaned yet so please if you have info or experience with this thing please help me

I'll be posting photos later.

 

[Pauly]

Im afraid this is the problem with Chinese stuff. Lack of tech support.

Try a different print mode again. see if it does the same thing. eliminate the software.
I've had something similar happen. Called canon and we resolved it. Turns out it was a setting in onyx.

So rule out your software first, The software tells the printer what to do.

 

[Auder]

Thanks for your input Pauly.

Im afraid this is the problem with Chinese stuff. Lack of tech support.

That's exactly what I was afraid of.. China is on vacation until 4th of february but I just can't wait that long.

I went back to factory settings on the RIP software and tried the 1440x1440 resolution and the basic 80% ink limit and the print went really well (still dark and over contrasted but no smear or anything like that)

So it might be just as you have said a RIP software configuration problem. I will try to reinstall everything and try again.

Thank you!

 

[Auder]

Hi again.

I finally found some time to get back to the printer problem and try to fix it, unfortunately a fresh new install didn't helped:

As Pauly suggested I uninistalled every Epson driver and related register key I could find. I also deleted the printer from my windows devices and printer devices.

From there I was able to start a fresh new install. All parameters were set back to default and I reconfigured both the RIP and the L800 driver. Once RIP opened I set the right parameters and removed any ICM management or anything that would alter the print. I then manually went back to my own ink settings for a 5760x2880 resolution print.

For now i dont think that my parameters are wrong. It Could be a Hardware problem. I can share screenshots of my L800 and RIP configuration if it can help to fix the problem.

Also I took a photo example of before and after the problem. Notice how the colors are completely off and how the ink is smearing and blurry.. (even after 2 cleaning cycles...)

GOOD PRINT (First ones)

BAD (latest, head manually cleaned, software cleaned..)

 

[ikarasu]

A change that bad sounds like something is wrong. Are there any diagnostics your printer can print?

 

[Auder]

A change that bad sounds like something is wrong. Are there any diagnostics your printer can print?

The nozzle check test is running perfectly, no missing lines on the CMYKW channels, and my head is clean. I can also confirm this because the 1440x1440 resolution prints are great. I just don't understand why suddently the 5760x2880 won't work anymore.

I called a UV print company recently and they shared with me interesting ideas: It could be a communication problem between the RIP and the printer. The tech said that a long serie of 5760x2880 prints might have saturated the EEPROM data which results in a bad data decoding and therefore a bad print. How strange is that? If my EEPROM is full of messy infos why could it still decode a 1440 print perfectly? I think I need some enlightenment here ^^

Is it possible to reset the EEPROM to factory settings? (I doubt ..)

I also tried to use the Epson Adjustement Program to reset the Waste Ink pad. But the print still comes out bad with the highest resolution (5760x2880) and ok with the 1440x1440 resolution.

 

[alevit53]

The nozzle check test is running perfectly, no missing lines on the CMYKW channels, and my head is clean. I can also confirm this because the 1440x1440 resolution prints are great. I just don't understand why suddently the 5760x2880 won't work anymore.

I called a UV print company recently and they shared with me interesting ideas: It could be a communication problem between the RIP and the printer. The tech said that a long serie of 5760x2880 prints might have saturated the EEPROM data which results in a bad data decoding and therefore a bad print. How strange is that? If my EEPROM is full of messy infos why could it still decode a 1440 print perfectly? I think I need some enlightenment here ^^

Is it possible to reset the EEPROM to factory settings? (I doubt ..)

I also tried to use the Epson Adjustement Program to reset the Waste Ink pad. But the print still comes out bad with the highest resolution (5760x2880) and ok with the 1440x1440 resolution.

 

[alevit53]

I had the same issue with a Canon 60" printer. We found the main board which had the EPROMM on it and removed the board AND the battery for two days.
Basically we mad it STUPID again. Put it all back together and started from scratch. Everything worked great for another 5 years.

 

[Auder]

I had the same issue with a Canon 60" printer. We found the main board which had the EPROMM on it and removed the board AND the battery for two days. Basically we mad it STUPID again. Put it all back together and started from scratch

Are you sure about that ? It seems risky as hell but if I have no choice I will do it.

Also I'm thinking about buying a brand new L800 motherboard, remove the EEPROM and dump the factory code.
Then modify my actual board to be able to remove and plug the EEPROM without any soldering whatsoever (Not sure if possible)
From then I would be able to wipe out the old data and replace it with the factory code whenever I need it.

Everything worked great for another 5 years.

LOL my printer is only 3 months old

 

[ikarasu]

Are you sure about that ? It seems risky as hell but if I have no choice I will do it.

Also I'm thinking about buying a brand new L800 motherboard, remove the EEPROM and dump the factory code.
Then modify my actual board to be able to remove and plug the EEPROM without any soldering whatsoever (Not sure if possible)
From then I would be able to wipe out the old data and replace it with the factory code whenever I need it.




LOL my printer is only 3 months old

Mind if I ask how much you paid inuding shipping? Was it a lot cheaper?

I'd ask the Chinese company you bought it from. This may not even be the issue... Before you pull any boards, or risk damaging the printer permanently, I'd speak to the place you bought it from. There may be a software option to reset the eeprom. And if not, I'm sure they'll best tell you how to reset it without damaging the machine.

 

[dale911]

Mind if I ask how much you paid inuding shipping? Was it a lot cheaper?

I'd ask the Chinese company you bought it from. This may not even be the issue... Before you pull any boards, or risk damaging the printer permanently, I'd speak to the place you bought it from. There may be a software option to reset the eeprom. And if not, I'm sure they'll best tell you how to reset it without damaging the machine.

I, too, am curious about the cost.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Auder]

The price for the WPR300 is quite cheap. If I remember correctly it was 1600$ shipping included to europe. I had 300$ of tax via DHL.
The after sale service is not the best and there are no warranty at all.. So at your own risk.

 

[Auder]

I'd ask the Chinese company you bought it from. This may not even be the issue... Before you pull any boards, or risk damaging the printer permanently, I'd speak to the place you bought it from. There may be a software option to reset the eeprom. And if not, I'm sure they'll best tell you how to reset it without damaging the machine.

Thanks for your input. I will definitely ask them before proceeding to any hardware modification or disassembly.
I will have to wait for the end of the chinese holidays before getting an answer though (4 feb)
But for now, the EEPROM is the n°1 candidate for causing the issue..

 

[ikarasu]

The price for the WPR300 is quite cheap. If I remember correctly it was 1600$ shipping included to europe. I had 300$ of tax via DHL.
The after sale service is not the best and there are no warranty at all.. So at your own risk.

$1600? That is cheap! I'd say if you can get it working, it's worth the hassle.

If you can't wait until the 4th (I wouldn't want to either!) Take it apart and look for a battery. One of the watch type batteries... If you remove that for an hour or so, and unplug the machine, it should reset the eeprom. Depending on what kind of eeprom is used.

Thats the only suggestion I can provide, sorry. I know it sucks when hardware is down, and you're wondering if you threw away $1600... But at least even if you don't get it fixed, you're HQ mode still works. If your printer is only 3 months... I know chinese products suck, and support sucks, but they might be willing to exchange / send a new board to you for free / cheap, to rectify the issue. Just keep pushing and dont take no for an answer... Threaten a credit card chargeback / etc. Usually works in the end...

 

[netsol]

you may not see a button or other recognizable backup battery. you could try unplugging interconnect cables off the power supply board, if you can recognize it. cmos power would be either 5volt or 3.3v most likely. leave the board disconnected for 12 to 24 hours. the only risk i would expect would be losing user settings. this would be safer than inverting a battery. there is always a risk of damaging circuitry when you invert a battety, although we all do it. disconnecting cables would be safer. (inverting battery works faster, though.

you will wait 12 hrs so capacitors on boards discharge to 0 volts

if this works, mark the cables in cse youneed to do it again some time.
by the way, what size flatbed? i might want to get one,

 

[Auder]

Hi again.

Thats the only suggestion I can provide, sorry. I know it sucks when hardware is down, and you're wondering if you threw away $1600... But at least even if you don't get it fixed, you're HQ mode still works.

Thanks for the support guys! Without you I would still be in the dark so no worries

you may not see a button or other recognizable backup battery. you could try unplugging interconnect cables off the power supply board, if you can recognize it. cmos power would be either 5volt or 3.3v most likely. leave the board disconnected for 12 to 24 hours. the only risk i would expect would be losing user settings. this would be safer than inverting a battery. there is always a risk of damaging circuitry when you invert a battety, although we all do it. disconnecting cables would be safer. (inverting battery works faster, though.

you will wait 12 hrs so capacitors on boards discharge to 0 volts

if this works, mark the cables in cse youneed to do it again some time.

Thanks for your advice, I have teared down the "beast" and took some photos of the guts of the machine. I have located what I believe to be the power plugs that link the main board to the PSU. Unfortunately they have glued every chip and every plug of the circuit. It's a real mess to unplug all of this. I have not found any kind of battery, CMOS or watch type... Here's a photo of the area, if you see something I've missed please tell me. Also notice how the mainboard is not an official L800 board. Looks like they've built their own.

by the way, what size flatbed? i might want to get one,

It's an A4 format, accepts item as high as 10cm thick (maybe slightly more) It's a good product overall .. but the prints in 1440 and 5760 are like day and night...

 

[netsol]

do they make a larger size?

where did you find them?.

Hi again.



Thanks for the support guys! Without you I would still be in the dark so no worries



Thanks for your advice, I have teared down the "beast" and took some photos of the guts of the machine. I have located what I believe to be the power plugs that link the main board to the PSU. Unfortunately they have glued every chip and every plug of the circuit. It's a real mess to unplug all of this. I have not found any kind of battery, CMOS or watch type... Here's a photo of the area, if you see something I've missed please tell me. Also notice how the mainboard is not an official L800 board. Looks like they've built their own.




It's an A4 format, accepts item as high as 10cm thick (maybe slightly more) It's a good product overall .. but the prints in 1440 and 5760 are like day and night...

do

 

[netsol]

you may be able to reset your electronics by leaving it unplugged for a day or two.
(i know each day down costs you money, but there may not be a better answer, at least none that i know)

 

[Auder]

you may be able to reset your electronics by leaving it unplugged for a day or two.
(i know each day down costs you money, but there may not be a better answer, at least none that i know)

Thanks for your advice, do you think that the print head will clogg if I don't clean it for a day or two ?

The company name is Wayprinter. Type it on google and you'll find it.
Here's a link: http://bit.ly/2kmfIHU

 

[netsol]

Thanks for your advice, do you think that the print head will clogg if I don't clean it for a day or two ?

The company name is Wayprinter. Type it on google and you'll find it.
Here's a link: WPR330UV A4-UV Flatbed Printer-Flatbed Printer-PRODUCTS-DTG UV Digital Inkjet A3 A4 Flatbed Printer

thank you. i don't know how quickly you will clog. do a test print or nozzle check just before

my thinking would be, i wkuld like to add a couple "test points" to ground,perhaps througha resistor, so we don't do any damage. if this works, a workaround could make the printerr usable long term. a good workaround is almost as good as a fix, especially in the absence of real tech support