Discuss the various aspects of heat press technology. Transfer paper, inks, plastisol transfers, vinyl cutters, printers, commercial usage, durability, suppliers, etc.
Just an FYI to the Epson R1900 owners. I just got my CIS from Inkrepublic.com and decided to throw out my opinion so it will help others decide which brand to go with.
Let me start by saying the instructions were pathetic. They were written in mostly Engrish. Phrases didn't make sense and the pictures were even worse. I ended up having many more questions than answers. The documentation is mostly on the R1800 except for 1 page they throw in specifically for the 1900. It too was pretty bad. I won't go into all of the issues I had but once installed, it's not bad at all. The colors are slightly lighter, so far, compared with the Epson inks. Anyway, if anyone needs any help/advice on installation, I'll be glad to help out.
I recently purchased the CIS for the r1900 and I agree with you that the instructions were pretty bad, but I got it figured out finally. The problem that I am having is that everything will be going along smoothly when all of a sudden the printer stops and gives me the message that "Ink cartridges cannot be recognized", at this point I have to try a little bit of everything to get it back working and I usually do after a combination of things (turning the printer off, unplugging the printer, pressing the ink recycle button, pressing the little buttons on the cis) I'm wondering if I'm doing something wrong or is there a fix for this. The ink savings is great but if I can't keep this thing printing it doesn't balance out. Thanks for any help
From what I can tell Donkor, these chips are a little touchy. I reseated them no less than 5 times before they worked. Every time they were in the exact same spot as before as best I could tell. I also swapped them a couple of times. Put the right in the left and vice versa. You could also have faulty chips. There are quite a few posts with people having this problem and getting the chips swapped out fixed them......How long have you been using yours before the problems started? I've only had mine in for 1 day now. thx. Mike
Mike, I've had my r1900 with the CIS for about a month now and the problem started as soon as I installed (The CIS was shipped to me on a Friday and I had an event that Saturday). I plan on trying your solution of swapping the chips and hopefully that works. Thanks
Donkor,
Have you printed any photos on glossy photo paper as of yet? I just printed a few last night and noticed that the darker colors (esp. black) don't tend to blend with other all that well. The other colors seem fine. I'll take some Macro photo's to show you what I mean when I get a few extra minutes.
Mike, I haven't did any glossy photos yet since I mainly use it for transfers. I have been disappointed with the colors when using the CIS, The colors seem to be too light and a little washed out.
I don't think the colors are as good as the Epson but I have managed to get mine better than they were when I first installed the CIS. One thing that made a huge difference was when I started using the "Presentation Paper Matte" type. I was originally using the plain paper setting and the transfers were indeed faded/washed out looking. The premium/ultra premium matte settings will flood the transfer paper with ink. It will still look O.K. but will have areas with too much ink and have visible drops. What are your print settings on the transfer paper and what type/brand transfer paper are you using?
Update:
I've finally got all of my problems straightened out. I'd been dealing with Amanda at inkrepublic.com with my CIS and she got everything smoothed over for me. Turns out I had a couple of items in my initial kit that weren't really compatible with the 1900. She immediately sent out the correct stuff and my CIS works great. Turns out the prints and colors I was having issues with were directly related to the type paper I'm using and my color profile. That I'm still trying to get a good grasp on. I also worked with Amanda to get some better instructions and wrote up another quick installation guide. As it stands now, I'm extremely happy with my CIS and the inkrepublic guys/girls have everything ironed out now and offer a really nice polished CIS. I'll be more than happy to answer any questions anyone has, just post up.
Epson R1900 CIS 
