HP Latex 260 - printheads question

[FJH]

Hello: I am new in the forum and this is my first question. Two months ago I bought an HP Latex 260 and I am until now trying to make it work good. I bought new ink (non HP) for all the color, I cleaned the printheads many times and also I replaced the "Printhead Cleaning Cartridge". Finally I printed the all test plots. But still I think something is still wrong. In the images attached I marked with a circle what I believe is wrong reading the imagen printed by the printer. I believe that printhead "1" is wrong but I am not sure. Could someone help me o someone had a similar problem with this kind of printer.? Thanks in advance.

 

[balstestrat]

Clean the connectors and do few cleanings. Swap 1 and 2 see if problem moves. Replace the head if you can't get anything out.

 

[Ian Stewart-Koster]

head #1 with light cyan is kaput...
Constant head cleaning of just C/LC may help.

Remove the head & clean the contacts at the back of where the head sits (cotton & isopropyl alcohol wipe)
or replace the head #1 with another head.

Sometimes in the rip, you can apparently tell it to do everythng using only the fullstrength inks, not the LC & LM, but I've neber tried.

If you could work out how to do that, it would help - ie turn off the use of LC and force it to use C for those lighter shades.

 

[StephenOrange]

You're correct, head 2 for the Cyan is missing the light colours, and generally speaking there is very little chance of getting it back. Where you've remarked about it should be yellow = the pattern is actually correct. HP does this thing where it places the yellow on top of the light magenta for viewing for some stupid reason. As Ian Stewart-Koster mentioned you can run the machine without the light colours, I've done so for years on my 280 because of the constant pre-mature light colour failures. You'll need to create a profile for this though and this varies depending on the RIP you're running. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but you've purchased yourself a bit of a dead-horse. Heads are simply not available for these machines anymore. I've semi-succesfully used heads from newer machines by replacing the front IC on the head, but it's cumbersome and not fool-proof.

 

[dasigndr]

I have a used one of these 260 Latex if someone wants to take it for cheap. Have a few extra NEW printheads and inks also.

 

[FJH]

Thanks for all advices and recomendations. This is what I did. I Swaped printheads 1 and 2 and cleaned printheads C - LC. I printed the all test plots. Finally analizing the imagens attached, I think the printer is good now. However, any additional opinion is more than welcome.

 

[Ian Stewart-Koster]

Well done - looks like it's fixed!