My wife and I live in a house with two levels. The main floor (upper level) includes the living and dining rooms, kitchen and breakfast area, master bedroom and bathroom, a half-bath, and a laundry room. Because the property has a fairly dramatic slope, the lower level has large doors that open onto a stone patio. This level also includes a bedroom, bathroom, family room (perhaps called something else where you live; this is the room with the TV, hi-fi, comfy couch and chairs, lots of properly-lighted display space for art, and a corner area I use as office space). This level also includes an unfinished room. When we designed and built the house in 2004, the plan included this room as a third bedroom. We knew we'd never use it for that purpose, and we left it unfinished—bare concrete floor, exposed studs, joists, insulation, etc. It has a large window with a southern exposure, bringing plenty of light into the room and providing emergency egress, as required by building code for any below-grade room that may be used as a bedroom.
When I telecommuted in the tech industry for a company in Ohio, this room was my office, filled with computers and the products on which I worked. When that job ended a few years ago, my wife took over the office space. The room now has her desk, computer, files, phone, bookshelves, etc.
This is also the room where my 7900 lives, and provides storage for my paper, ink, framing and matting supplies, and other printing and display essentials. The printer is on my network, so it doesn't require immediate proximity to my Mac Pro out in the family room area.
We've decided it's finally time to finish the room. It's basically a rectangle, 13 x 15 feet (4 x 4.5 m), with a large walk-in closet. The walls are wood studs with fiberglass bats for insulation. The ceiling is also insulated. With only one exterior wall, the rest of the insulation is for sound, making for a very quiet room. Lighting is provided by two overhead florescent fixtures. The room is bright enough, but not exactly an inviting workspace.
Beginning next week, a contractor will build an additional closet, hang sheetrock (aka "drywall"), paint, and add the finishing trim. Sometime later I'll install a floor (perhaps bamboo—TBD) over the concrete, build some cabinets for storage, and a large work surface for framing and matting. I'll also install track lighting, and hang a large steel panel under a track with dim-able, color-corrected bulbs in track fixtures. I'll be able to hang prints on the panel with magnets, making this area a viewing booth of sorts.
Naturally, before the work can begin, everything must be removed from the room, including the 7900. So far, while installing additional wiring, adding insulation (sound-proofing), and doing other preparations, I've worked around the desk, table, shelf units, and the printer. Finally tired of tripping over stuff, yesterday I began moving things out of the room, including the printer. I moved it into the adjacent room. This area includes my network/audio/video/telephone wiring "closet" and my file servers, the circuit breaker panel for the lower level of the house, and other "mechanical" systems for the house. It's also my main storage area for framed prints. It's a small room, so it's going to be pretty cramped for a while.
After some rearranging to make room in the new location, I unplugged the printer's UPS from the wall outlet. This kept the printer, which is in standby, powered up during the move. It also made the UPS beep at regular intervals, by design a maddening sound. This was incentive to move quickly! The printer rolls very nicely on the hard concrete, but I had to negotiate a tight corner on carpet. This proved to be easier than I expected. I had the printer in place and its UPS plugged in to power in under 10 minutes.
The new location is several degrees warmer, and, according to my hygrometer, a bit more humid than the machine's usual location. The room is not well lit and is currently very crowded. This is far from an ideal situation, but the printer is accessible and, while inconvenient, in theory it can be used. I will make several prints this evening (for a show next weeks) to test that theory.
It'll be a while before I can move the printer back to the newly-finished room. I'm really looking forward to a nice working space, good lighting, a viewing booth, and new wall surface for hanging artwork. In other words, a print studio!
--Jay
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Monday, March 12, 2012
Is ANC Off When it's Off?
As mentioned in my last posting, I'd switched to MK ink for a series of client prints on mat paper. Since the printer was set up for that, I made a few of my own prints on the same paper. I rarely use mat papers for my photos, but for these pictures I wanted the softer look one gets from these papers.
Today I made seven prints for my client who shoots only panoramas. Per his preference, I printed these on HW Satin paper (see the sidebar for definitions); this required switching back to PK ink. I pressed the button to make the change. As reported earlier, this takes a couple of minutes, during which a progress bar is displayed. But the process isn't really completed until a print is made. When the job is run, the printer stops and performs a cleaning. Based on before-and-after comparisons of ink levels, this cleaning cleans all colors. As best I can determine, this cleaning isn't optional. When finished, more than just the MK/PK inks are reduced slightly, as is maintenance cartridge capacity (as one would expect).
Since I knew this cleaning would take place, I made the ink change, and then inserted a piece of plain bond paper to run a nozzle check print. When I initiated that, the cleaning happened. As before, I was required to swap my LK cartridge, showing 1% ink remaining, with a new cartridge, so the cleaning could continue. However, this time I was also required to swap out my LLK, also with 1% remaining, with a new cartridge. As mentioned in my last posting, the printer only shows the need to replace a cartridge. It does not specify which. Since I knew I had two at 1% (or less), it was easy enough to guess which to replace. Once the cleaning finished, the nozzle check printed (no clogs). I then swapped back the two 1% cartridges.
Next I loaded a roll of HW Satin, and then sent the first print job. The printer came to life as it usual, but then stopped. It insisted I replace a low ink cartridge so it could run a cleaning. Having just done that, followed by printing a perfect nozzle check, I had no idea why a cleaning was necessary. Why would the printer think a cleaning was necessary? If you've been reading this blog for a while, you'll know I disabled the 7900's ANC (auto-nozzle check) months ago, so the machine shouldn't be checking nozzles by itself, right?
With no other choice, I swapped the 1% LK with the new LK. The printer then performed a cleaning, not stopping to ask for a full LLK. During the cleaning I watched the printer's LCD. At one point it's "Cleaning, please wait" message was briefly replaced by "Auto Nozzle Check". This flashed on the display for just a few seconds, after which the "Cleaning, please wait" message returned. A minute or so later, that message disappeared, and the print job I'd sent several minutes earlier began. The job completed without issue. However, the full LK ink was in place and being used.
When the print finished I checked the setup (via the printer's control panel); I confirmed that ANC is turned off. I then completed the client's print jobs with the full LK in place.
So, a mystery. Perhaps the low ink level in LK, which has been showing 1% for several weeks and several dozen prints, somehow triggered this, but I have my doubts. It's pretty well documented around the Web that one can print until a cartridge is quite empty, replace that cartridge in the middle of a print job, and printing will continue as it should. That has yet to happen with either of my lowest inks. Later in the day I made a print, on a B size sheet of Canson Infinity Platine Fiber Rag, of my newest snowy owl photo. Before making that print I put the 1% LK cartridge back in the printer. The print is fine; there were no complaints, messages, or cleanings from the printer.
--Jay
Today I made seven prints for my client who shoots only panoramas. Per his preference, I printed these on HW Satin paper (see the sidebar for definitions); this required switching back to PK ink. I pressed the button to make the change. As reported earlier, this takes a couple of minutes, during which a progress bar is displayed. But the process isn't really completed until a print is made. When the job is run, the printer stops and performs a cleaning. Based on before-and-after comparisons of ink levels, this cleaning cleans all colors. As best I can determine, this cleaning isn't optional. When finished, more than just the MK/PK inks are reduced slightly, as is maintenance cartridge capacity (as one would expect).
Since I knew this cleaning would take place, I made the ink change, and then inserted a piece of plain bond paper to run a nozzle check print. When I initiated that, the cleaning happened. As before, I was required to swap my LK cartridge, showing 1% ink remaining, with a new cartridge, so the cleaning could continue. However, this time I was also required to swap out my LLK, also with 1% remaining, with a new cartridge. As mentioned in my last posting, the printer only shows the need to replace a cartridge. It does not specify which. Since I knew I had two at 1% (or less), it was easy enough to guess which to replace. Once the cleaning finished, the nozzle check printed (no clogs). I then swapped back the two 1% cartridges.
Next I loaded a roll of HW Satin, and then sent the first print job. The printer came to life as it usual, but then stopped. It insisted I replace a low ink cartridge so it could run a cleaning. Having just done that, followed by printing a perfect nozzle check, I had no idea why a cleaning was necessary. Why would the printer think a cleaning was necessary? If you've been reading this blog for a while, you'll know I disabled the 7900's ANC (auto-nozzle check) months ago, so the machine shouldn't be checking nozzles by itself, right?
With no other choice, I swapped the 1% LK with the new LK. The printer then performed a cleaning, not stopping to ask for a full LLK. During the cleaning I watched the printer's LCD. At one point it's "Cleaning, please wait" message was briefly replaced by "Auto Nozzle Check". This flashed on the display for just a few seconds, after which the "Cleaning, please wait" message returned. A minute or so later, that message disappeared, and the print job I'd sent several minutes earlier began. The job completed without issue. However, the full LK ink was in place and being used.
When the print finished I checked the setup (via the printer's control panel); I confirmed that ANC is turned off. I then completed the client's print jobs with the full LK in place.
So, a mystery. Perhaps the low ink level in LK, which has been showing 1% for several weeks and several dozen prints, somehow triggered this, but I have my doubts. It's pretty well documented around the Web that one can print until a cartridge is quite empty, replace that cartridge in the middle of a print job, and printing will continue as it should. That has yet to happen with either of my lowest inks. Later in the day I made a print, on a B size sheet of Canson Infinity Platine Fiber Rag, of my newest snowy owl photo. Before making that print I put the 1% LK cartridge back in the printer. The print is fine; there were no complaints, messages, or cleanings from the printer.
--Jay
Saturday, March 3, 2012
Finally, an Ink Change (Temporarily)
To print the series of painting files I mentioned a couple of posts back, I did a PK/MK swap. These prints will be made on Epson "Ultra Premium Presentation Paper", formerly known as Enhanced Matte Paper. The driver installation for the 7900 includes profiles for this paper for both PK and MK ink. When I printed my profile test image on this paper some time ago, the result was clearly superior with MK ink, just as one would expect.
I pressed the button to initiate the swap. The process takes only a couple of minutes; the printer's LCD displays a progress bar while this is happening. However, it's not really finished when the progress bar reaches 100% and the printer returns to its ready mode. After the ink swap, I inserted a piece of plain bond paper and ran a nozzle check print, as usual. Instead of printing as one might expected, a full cleaning cycle ran.
If you've been reading this blog for a while, you know that my LK ink has been showing 1% remaining for some weeks. After the cleanings I ran earlier in the week to clear the clogs in the LLK channel, that ink too dropped to 1%. When the cleaning cycle started today, the printer displayed this.
The display alternated between the two screens. Notice it does not specify which ink is too low to clean. I assumed, since LK had been showing 1% for some time, that it was the one to change.
The procedure is simple; press the button to open the ink bay (you can choose to open the right bay, the left bay, or both). LK is in the right bay. Making the choice from the control panel pops open the appropriate cover(s). I opened a new LK cartridge (150ml) and shook it as indicated on the package. I then pressed in to unlatch the old LK, slid out the cartridge, and inserted the new one, pressing it in place to latch it. When I closed the bay cover, the printer started the cleaning. This took several minutes to complete. There were no further complaints about low ink, despite the LLK being at 1%.
When it finished, the nozzle check printed on the sheet I'd inserted previously. The nozzle check looked fine. I then opened the right ink bay cover, removed the new LK, and inserted the old one. I put a piece of tape over the opening on the back of the new cartridge. It's probably not necessary, but it can't hurt. I've no way to know how long this cartridge will sit on the shelf before being needed again.
I ran the print job, which required five Super A3/B sheets (13 x 19 inches), and 27 inches (69 cm) from a 17 inch roll.
In the next day or two I'll make a number of prints of my snowy owl images to fill orders that have come in recently. While all of these look good on my preferred gloss papers (GGFS and EEF), several look very nice on the softer surface of mat papers. I'll print those on mat, but to complete the orders I'll have to switch back to PK for the prints I'll make on GGFS.
--Jay
I pressed the button to initiate the swap. The process takes only a couple of minutes; the printer's LCD displays a progress bar while this is happening. However, it's not really finished when the progress bar reaches 100% and the printer returns to its ready mode. After the ink swap, I inserted a piece of plain bond paper and ran a nozzle check print, as usual. Instead of printing as one might expected, a full cleaning cycle ran.
If you've been reading this blog for a while, you know that my LK ink has been showing 1% remaining for some weeks. After the cleanings I ran earlier in the week to clear the clogs in the LLK channel, that ink too dropped to 1%. When the cleaning cycle started today, the printer displayed this.
The procedure is simple; press the button to open the ink bay (you can choose to open the right bay, the left bay, or both). LK is in the right bay. Making the choice from the control panel pops open the appropriate cover(s). I opened a new LK cartridge (150ml) and shook it as indicated on the package. I then pressed in to unlatch the old LK, slid out the cartridge, and inserted the new one, pressing it in place to latch it. When I closed the bay cover, the printer started the cleaning. This took several minutes to complete. There were no further complaints about low ink, despite the LLK being at 1%.
 |
The right ink bay, with the LK cartridge unlatched and ready to remove. |
When it finished, the nozzle check printed on the sheet I'd inserted previously. The nozzle check looked fine. I then opened the right ink bay cover, removed the new LK, and inserted the old one. I put a piece of tape over the opening on the back of the new cartridge. It's probably not necessary, but it can't hurt. I've no way to know how long this cartridge will sit on the shelf before being needed again.
I ran the print job, which required five Super A3/B sheets (13 x 19 inches), and 27 inches (69 cm) from a 17 inch roll.
In the next day or two I'll make a number of prints of my snowy owl images to fill orders that have come in recently. While all of these look good on my preferred gloss papers (GGFS and EEF), several look very nice on the softer surface of mat papers. I'll print those on mat, but to complete the orders I'll have to switch back to PK for the prints I'll make on GGFS.
--Jay
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