JV33 Initial fill not starting

[Stick It On]

Hi

I attempted to run a discharge and wash on my JV33 as I have been having trouble with ink not passing through to the heads. Ended up wasting the ink in the lines that were making it through the heads, while the ones with blockages did not drain at all. To top this off I did not realise I needed 8 cleaning cartridges to perform the discharge and wash, so had to abandon the process.

My problem now is that when I try to perform the initial ink fill up, I insert the ink cartridges but nothing happens (instructions say fill should start automatically). Some of the cartridges are empty but at least one of every colour (4 colour setup) contains ink. The Yellow cartridge is at about 10% but I am not getting an INK NEAR END error message so I assume this is not a problem.

Has anyone encountered an ink fill problem like this?

Thanks

 

[MikePro]

when i do wash/fills, I only use 4 cartridges as well... i run a mimakijv3, so i assume its relatively the same if you're rocking 8 slots. You should have the option to disable half of the ink lines from doing the wash/fill when you choose the headwash option. (note: triangle/bordeaux make wash cartridges for the same price as mimaki, but you get 440mL instead of 220mL from mimaki.)

you've also most likely have yourself an airbubble inside your ink lines if you've abandoned the headwash process without letting it cycle wash/ink like it should... if you think you have it in you to siphon ink out through the lines/damper (i buy $0.25 syringes from walgreens and let them keep the needles, DON"T DRIP INK ON ELECTRONIC PARTS), then that should do the trick without having to keep burning ink on trying to run the fillupink. Just pluck the damper out of its slot, making sure not the squeeze the clear membrane on the ink side, and keep drawing out of the bottom of the damper until you get a constant pull of ink coming out of it, and then put the damper back in place without shaking it too much (to keep the ink from dripping everywhere as you position it)

even after this, you still might need to do a fillupink anyways to get the ink to pull through the head

 

[Stick It On]

Thanks for the info Mpro, I think I will try to manually flush cleaning fluid through the heads to clear the blockage and then draw the ink through the lines/dampers as you suggest to get rid of the air bubbles. still leaves me wondering why the ink fill is not automatically starting... I will probably replace the Yellow cartridge to see if its 10% capacity is the problem.

 

[Stick It On]

Replaced the empty yellow ink cartridge but that didn't solve the problem; ink filling still doesn't start automatically.

Anyone know if all 8 cartridges need to have ink in them for the ink fill to start? I currently have 2 empty ones (M & K), setup is 4 colour.

 

[Stick It On]

All 8 cartridges need to be installed with sufficient ink in each... even though its 2 cartridges per colour.