Epson Stylus Pro 4880

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About

The Epson Stylus Pro 4880 is an 18" roll printer equipped for photo printing. There are two of them! The first one is located near the laser printer. The other is attached to the Ordibooth as an optional full color photographic output mode!

Ink cartridges run in the hundreds of dollars, so if you run a print job for more than a 2"x2" passport photo, drop some dollars in the donation bin.

Please, sometimes replace the power towels in the maintenance tank.

Paper can be fed into the printer in many ways. There is a manual feed insert on the top, a paper tray in the front and a roll feeder in the back.

Software

You'll need the software to print.

On Linux, the Gutenprint driver system has high quality photo priting support. On Debian, the package names are

gimp-gutenprint escputil printer-driver-gutenprint foomatic-db-gutenprint

Manual

There is a manual. There is a paper copy of the user's guide in the space.

There's a more concise printer guide. This is not printed on paper because trees.

Howto

  1. Install software drivers for your OS
  2. Make sure you have the right paper
  3. Know what you are doing
  4. There's a manual (RTFM)
  5. Donate!

Inks

Ink cartridges are pretty big and expensive. There are none possible ink cartridges and eight slots on the printer. It's a CMYK printer. The black (K) ink has two options, Matte Black or Photo Black. There is also light black (LK), light light black (LLK), light cyan (LC) and light magenta (LM). It seems that the matte black is better suited for graphic design sources like sinage or drawings where the photo black is better suited for RGB photographc sources.

There are many other types of inks which can be used in this printer, such as dye sublimation ink, silk screen ink, various heat transfer inks, electrically conductive ink, etc.

Refilling Cartridges

We have not refilled cartridges yet. The cartridges have a chip that estimates as the ink goes down. We need to use a chip resetter on an empty cartridge to tell it that it is full again. Trent has a chip resetter.


Some Error Messages

Here is a list of error messages.


Error Messages We Have Seen

MNT TNK NOT INST - The maintenance tank had a bent pin when it arrived. I was able to gently unbend the pin. Let me know if this happens again, it requires a good amount of care and precision to fix.

MNT TK NEAR FULL - The maintenance tank is reusable. Gently pop the plastic grating off using a tiny flathead screwdriver in one of the six tiny holes on the side. Replace the paper towels inside. This needs to be done semi regularly so it does not overfill.

MNT TNK FULL - CHIP RESET - if the maintenance tank fills up, it is actually just an electronic chip claiming it is full. This chip needs reset using a "chip resetter", trent has one. The maintenance tank paper towels need replaced occasionally.


Nozzle Cleaning

The nozzles need cleaned manually as the auto clean doesn't work and uses tons of ink.

An excellent youtube video guide exists.

It is necessary to press the allen screw in this video, allowing the print head to slide along its axis. Then use a blue shop towel with windex original to release any dried ink from the nozzle. The windex cannot be the foaming type, and it should have ammonia in it.

If it's not that clogged you can try using the nozzle cleaning utility run via the printer software.


Hacking the Chip

People hacked the chip and there was a lot to it. You can learn more here.

It may be possible to read any brand new chip that has never touched a machine and write it to the old one, but there's some weird stuff in eddiem's chip hacking article.