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Ideal Image Systems will make every effort to update this area so that you have as trouble-free printing experience as possible. If you have in put please contact us with your comments. DIRTY MACHINES It is very important that you keep the lid closed when printing and if possible keep the machine covered when not in use. You should perform weekly maintenance outlined in the maintenance kit. Many print and machine problems originate from dirty machines. DIRTY ENCODER STRIP The number one support call is calls related to the encoder strip. The encoder strip is the "brains" of the printer. It can get dirty and then cause the head to not read correctly. The problems you will see if the encoder is dirty is the head printing partial images in the wrong location, the head dumping ink on the shirt in large bands, the printer just plain not printing and much more. See cleaning Encoder strip in the Video Vault The key item to check are: Head Height If you have the head set to print too high (too far from the garment) you will get more misting. If you have to clean your encoder strip after just a few dozen shirts you probably have the head set too high. It should be NO MORE than 1/8" from the shirt to get a good print and minimize misting. Hose Length On some of the older T-Jet printers, the bulk system hose was too long and the excess slack could cause the hose to flop around inside the machine. The hose can pickup ink from the shirt and transfer this ink to the encoder strip. If your hose is loose in the center holding clamp, place a small piece of cardboard inside the clip to make the hose tight. Do NOT cut off the flow of ink through the hoses. Note: Make sure when cleaning the encoder strip to clean towards the spring and not away from the spring (on the left). If you clean away from the spring you may stretch it. FLASHING RED LIGHTS This can have a variety of causes from the printer thinking it is out of ink to a dirty encoder strip to a bad chip on the cartridge. Check the Troubleshooting section for more help. HEAD CLOGS If you follow the maintenance suggested in the NEW T-Jet Manual you should not have any clogging issues. If you are using the printer in a hot shop with low humidity or dirty and dusty conditions, the printing head can get clogged. If you leave the machine for more than a few days the heads might clog. It is VERY IMPORTANT to follow the suggested maintenance and if leaving the machine unused for a day or two to replace the ink cartridges with the cartridges filled with cleaning fluid. PROBLEMS WITH UNDERBASE ON GARMENTS The most common problem with using FastARTIST to create an under-base are the settings for the Under-base Wizard. For the best results use TWO versions of the artwork (one with white in the canvas and one with black in the canvas as outlined in the FastArtist manual). And, use these settings:
BETTER WHITE PRINTS Boost the under-base. The under-base should put white under most of the image except where you want a little shirt to show through. More is actually better so if you have a choice, add more under-base. Reduce the highlight. The highlight should ONLY print where there is white or very, very light colors. Boost the original so it is actually bright and not dull. Dull originals make duller prints. Re-read the section of the manual that discusses talks taking ownership of fixing poor artwork that customers will provide. REMEBER: Web graphics are usually not good for printing. They are 72 DPI and will print very jagged and pixelated. ONE WHITE INK PASS The new in FastArtist (version1.5) the Under-base Print Mode to allow to one pass of the Under-base then one pass of the color\highlight white. This will allow for quicker production times with a brighter white. The new Printer Packages have the new 1440 for the Under-base. The Under-base Cartoon 1440 HS, Under-base Cartoon 1440, Under-base Photo 1440 HS, and Under-base Photo 1440 will let you print the under-base in 1 ink pass. The Under-base 1440 Print Modes are laying down more ink then 360 or 720 dpi. IMPORTANT NOTE: If you are updating your FastArtist printer package to include the new 1440 white under-base, you need to be aware of an issue with compatibility with the older versions of FastARTIST. Please check in FastARTIST under Help and About FastARTIST. The Production Date needs to be December 8th or later, or the 1440 print mode will not work with your version of FastARTIST. In this case you will need to contact our support staff at support@usscreen.com and request a software upgrade before you may use the new printer package. If you have a T-Jet (red machine) you will most likely need an upgrade. INSTRUCTIONS FOR INSTALLING NEW PRINTER PACKAGES:
BANDING IN THE IMAGE The banding can be caused by clogged nozzles or the High Speed option is turned on. Run 4 Head Cleanings in a row from the Epson 2200 driver or the Ink button on the T-Jet. If you are running Windows, you can use the SSC Service Utility. With the SSC Service Utility run 1 Power cleaning. Print a Nozzle check through the Epson 2200 driver. If the Nozzle Check does not come out correct, repeat this process if necessary. If the Nozzle Check prints correctly, see if the High Speed option is turned on. Go under Properties of the Epson Stylus Photo 2200. Click on Advanced button. Turn High Speed off. If the Media Type is set to Plain Paper, High Speed will be left on. For this put a check by Edge Smoothing. Edge Smoothing helps keep the image sharp when 2 passes are made for High Speed. PREVENTATIVE MAINTENANCE Like any other piece of machinery, the Fast T-Jet requires a certain amount of preventive maintenance to ensure that it continues to provide optimal performance. There are daily, weekly, and monthly tasks that must be performed. To make this more convenient, there is a maintenance log to help keep track of the upkeep on the Fast T-Jet. Make copies of this schedule as it will prove to be a valuable tool for maintaining your printer. Should the T-Jet printer every require warranty service, the maintenance log will need to be sent in with the printer. CLICK FOR PDF OF MAINTENANCE SCHEDULE If the Print Head moves like it is printing with no ink from one of more colors, This happens on Macintosh and Windows computers. If the color is not matching the image on screen, the Profile may be setup wrong. In Photoshop 7 or CS go to File/Print with Preview. In Photoshop 6 go to File/Print Options. Under the Preview of the image, bring the Output menu down to Color Management. Under Print Space is Profile. If Profile is set to the Epson 2200 profiles like SP2200 Enhanced Matte_Mk, the image will not print like it is on screen. Have Profile set to Working RGB - Apple RGB. RANDOM INKS SPOTS OR SPLATTER Inspect the any fibers on the Bottom of the print head. You can use tweezers or paper towel to grab any fibers on the print head. Make sure to be gentle when doing this, so not to damage the print head. Once the fibers are off the print head, then run Head Cleanings. Run 4 Head Cleanings in a row from the Epson 2200 driver or the Ink button on the T-Jet. If you are running Windows, you can also use the SSC Service Utility. With the SSC Service Utility, run 1 Power cleaning. INK CARTRIDGE LIGHTS(S) ARE ON SOLID RED Check the connection of the chip on the cartridge is not connecting correctly to the prongs inside the carriage. Press the Ink button on the printer. This slides the print carriage over. Take the ink cartridge out slightly and snap it back into place. Press the Ink button again. If the ink light(s) are solid red then turn the printer off. Take the ink cartridge out and snap it back in. Turn the printer back on. If the T-Jet printer still has ink light(s) solid red then replace the chip on the ink cartridge with the extra chips sent with the bulk system. You can also clean the contacts on the chip with an eraser, before replacing cartridge chip. GREEN POWER AND INK LIGHTS ARE FLASHING The printer may have Ink Pads that are full and will need replacing. INK HAS EMPTIED FROM INK CONTAINERS AND SPILLED IN TJET The height of the bulk system on the side on the printer makes a difference to whether the bulk system works correctly or not. If the ink has spilled into the printer, then the bulk system is sitting too high. The printer should already have velcro on the side for the correct placement height. The height for the bulk system should measure 7 1/4 inches from the top of the red side case and 6 3/4 inches from the bottom of the red side case. This is measuring from the bottom of the clear bulk system container. PRINTER STOPS IN MIDDLE OF PRINT JOB You cannot delete a driver if there is a print job in Windows Print Manager. Make sure to "kill" the print job by going to the small printer icon on the lower right Task Bar and double-clicking on it. Select the print job and Cancel All Jobs before trying to delete the Epson driver. PRINTING FROM COREL THE BLUE IS NOT THE CORRECT SHADE The teal turns green or the blue in the image does not print. In Corel Draw go to File/Print. Select the printer driver. Go to the Misc tab. Uncheck Apply ICC profile. If Apply ICC profile is checked then Corel Draw tries to assign a Generic CMYK printer profile and overides what is set within the printer driver. This does not have with all files in Corel Draw. fonts are not printing on the garment as they appear on the computer screen. FONTS, ESPECIALLY SCRIPT FONTS DO NOT PRINT CORRECTLY This can happen in vector programs. The T-Jet driver may not download the font correctly causing the image to print incorrect. Simply change the font to a graphic image. Depending on the graphic program, it may be called Convert to Curves or Create Outlines. You may also need to do this if you are printing vector fonts along with a bitmap. CUSTOMER ART WAS 72 DPI AND THE PRINT QUALITY IS POOR Resolution at 72dpi is for viewing the image on a computer monitor only. Images which are intended for printing, need to be a high resolution. If the image is not at a resolution between 125dpi and 200dpi it causes the image not to have a good number of pixels therefore losing detail when the image is printed out. Increase the resolution of the image between 125dpi and 200dpi. This increases the number of pixels of the image and will improve the quality of the image printed. WHEN PRINTING DIRECTLY FROM CORELDRAW FILES TAKE A LONG TO PRINT (SOMETIMES NOT AT ALL) Printing from Corel Draw, any version, can cause the job to spool too large of spool files. This happens when one or more copy is sent to print when you are trying to print a number of prints and are making a second pass with the printer. It can also happen if bitmap images are placed in the document. If the spool files are larger than your physical memory, the file may not print or take a long time processing. Ways to reduce this is to export the file as a low-resolution jpeg, then bring the file back in Corel Draw using the Import function. If the bitmap was created in Adobe Photoshop, open it in Photoshop. Reduce the resolution to around 200dpi. Save this file and Import it back into Corel Draw. Try to print from a different program like Adobe Photoshop, Acrobat Reader, or Adobe Illustrator. These graphic programs do not create as large spool files as Corel Draw.
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COMMUNICATION ERROR BETWEEN TJET AND COMPUTER INDIVIDUAL INKS LIGHTS ARE FLASHING OR OR OR OR OR
SHIRT COLOR IS SHOWING THROUGH PRINT OR OR GREEN LOAD BUTTON IS FLASHING The printer is being jammed or blocked by a shirt or obstruction. Remove the obstruction and press the Load button to continue printing. INK COLORS (MAINLY CYAN) HAVE CONTAMINATED WHITE CARTRIDGES There is a viscosity difference in the colors and the white ink, if the white ink level in the bulk system is LOWER than any of the the ANY of the color levels, the colors can siphon into the white cartridges. Always make sure the white ink levels are HIGHER than the colors. REFILLING INKRemember to inspect the ink levels of the bulk ink system each day. Do not allow ink to go lower than one inch from the bottom of the bulk ink canisters. If ink is allowed to go below this mark (below one inch from bottom) starvation of a color will occur and prints will first band and then omit that color from the design.Do not over fill when adding ink! Problems will occur if you over fill the bulk ink canisters. Do not fill more than 2/3 of the canister. If the inks are over filled over pressure will occur in the ink lines and drops of ink will flow out the nozzle onto shirts or directly into the base of the machine.With a piece of tape mark the fill (bottom) line and the maximum ink (top) line of the middle white canister as a reminder. These are the proper lines for all colors. CENTERING PRINT PLACEMENT Center placement of art on garments is best done in FastRip. There are 9 pre-sets (9 red arrows on the top tool bar) that will insure accurate placements of prints. Do not worry about art placement in FastArtist. WHITE UNDERBASE PRINTS OUTSIDE OF COLORS If the 'highlight white' prints slightly larger than the rest of the print go to the FastRip set-up. Click the under-base set-up tab. The top box named 'Shrink Under-base and Base of Color Duotones" enter the value 0.005. This will very slightly shrink the highlight and they will not be visible around the rest of the print. This is the digital equivalent of 'choking' the art, an old screen printers art trick. WHAT GARMENTS NEED PRETREATMENT? There has been some confusion, probably courtesy of competition, that all garments require pre-treatment. This is false! Only dark shades require pre-treatment. FastBrite can be used for light garments (optional). UNDERBASE IS SQUARE Check the under-base setup within Fastartist.Within Fastartist go to File, then FastRip Setup, then the Under-base Setup tab. Make sure the top checkbox that says"Under-base all items" & the very bottom checkbox, "Highlight all items", are not checked. If they are unchecked them. Print your image to FastRIP and before printing use the view raw data feature to make sure that it is just not printing a big white box. INSPECT BREATHER CAPS REGULARLY The breathing caps on the bulk ink containers should be inspected regularly. Remove them from the containers and blow air through them. Also twist them open and apart and inspect them for dirt or dried ink. If these filters become clogged it may cause an air bubble to develop in the feeder lines resulting in mis-prints'. If the bulk ink containers are not allowed to 'breathe' as ink is being allied a vacuum will cause and air pocket to develop in the feeder lines, and cause print interruptions. PRINTS ARE NOT SHARP This is most likely caused if the printing bed is too far away from the print head. This will cause the ink to spray in a wider arc and look blurred or haloed. It can look feathered, almost air-brushed. Raise the bed using the knob on the front. AFTER SENDING PRINT TO TJET NOTHING HAPPENS Check the port settings in FastRip. In the fastRip window go to Printers, Manage Printers. The port should be set to Epson stylus photo 2200_usb00* All the way to the right there is a box that says control panel over it. Make sure the box is checked.Make sure the bed is in the load position.ORIs the green power light flashing? If not, the job did not make it to the printer. Check your printer cable connections.ORMake sure there are no other jobs already in the print queue.ORCheck and see if any of the ink cartridges are showing empty. ERROR EJECT LIGHT IS FLASHING Power down the printer (turn off machine) then unplug it.Also unplug the USB cable. Check the print queues and clear all jobs. Make sure there are no jobs in the FastRip active list. Restart the computer. After the computer is back up, reconnect the USB cable and the power cord to the T Jet and turn it back on.ORClean the encoder strip on the inside of the printer.
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