low ink warning &^%&&^%$

[gabagoo]

I know it is not the fault of my Mimaki and I run Flexi as a rip which generally has worked fine (I have nothing to compare it to lol) MY problem is this.... If I have a low ink warning it could take days before the ink actually runs out so basically you can tell I don't digitally print on an ongoing basis although I feel we print quite a bit, we still do a lot of vinyl cutting and Edge work. So here's the problem. I can't be expected to babysit the printer because of a low ink warning so I set up a print job and go about my tasks which can take me away from my print room and onto the shop floor for anywhere up to 30 min or more. If I run out of ink during the print and I am not there to exchange cartridges within (i'm not really sure) about 5 minutes or so, when I continue the job after wards I get a beep from the Mimaki and it continues printing. The beep is indicating lost data I suppose as within an inch or so in the contiuation print you can clearly see that it has missed a pass. On a large banner this might result in me putting my fist through the wall (cheaper than hitting the printer..) but even on a cut decal job this can be quite annoying as now the question is will the cutter screw them all up or just those after the lost data...who knows I can't remember from the last time this happened. Anyone else get this error happening?

 

[Letterbox Mike]

I'd get that checked out, we never have that problem. I've sent long runs to print before I leave at night, come in in the morning to find out it ran out of ink, load a new cartridge and it keeps printing, and I've never been able to see where it ran out of ink. The printer is supposed to stop printing before it runs completely dry, saving the print heads. You shouldn't see any change in the print at all and it should not lose any data. It just pauses itself until it gets fed. If you're seeing missed passes, loss of ink density, or lost data, I'd find out why that's happening, but I suspect, like so many of your problems, it's related to Flexi and not the printer.

 

[gabagoo]

Flexis answer will be to upgrade at my expense and hope it goes away.!!!

 

[Letterbox Mike]

I know I've said this before and I'll keep saying until I'm blue in the face...

d i t c h f l e x i a s f a s t a s y o u c a n

 

[DRPSignsNGrafix]

I run flexi and have never had that issue. I've run out of ink and not been around a lot. Let it sit all weekend once as well, came in monday saw it changed the ink and off it went no problems.

 

[gabagoo]

I not to sure about letting a machine sit for days waiting for ink. The problem is very occasional and for the most part the screw up is not to bad as if I am running a long job and feel I may not be around I will change the ink and then later put the older one back in when I feel I can be around. I just can't justify spending thousands on new software in this economic environment right now and then the dreaded learning curve. lol

I can only usrmize that the rip is continually sending data to the Mimaki and somewhere along the line either the buffer is deleting info or flexi is.

 

[scallahan]

I know this was a problem in earlier versions of Flexi, but I haven't had a problem with this since I believe version 7.6. Short term solution would be remove cartridge that is low on ink and replace with a full cartridge. You can then use the partials when printing short runs.

 

[ChicagoGraphics]

I agree with insignia 100%, I left my Mimaki on overnight to and it ran out of ink sometime during the night, when I got in the next morning I put in a new cart in and it started printing right where it stoped. Not once did I ever get any type of gaps before.