Video Script

Over the past ten years, Lyson have provided thousands of photographers world-wide, both professional and enthusiast, with professional standard inksets at a fraction of the cost of the brand inks supplied in bottles containing many times more ink than the thimble-full which you find in pre-filled cartridges. In addition, you don't throw away any ink during cartridge change-over, because you don't change cartridges!

Providing inks in bottle form means that we can use a delivery system which continually tops up the cartridges inside the printer, supplied with ink from an external reservoir supplied via flexible tubes – this provides a continuous flow of ink to our printer, transforming it into a high-production device which is capable of long print runs without interruptions for changing cartridges.

Generally, continuous inking systems provide good reliability over many years – with occasional regular maintenance, your CIS system should outlast your printer!

The usual tell-tale signs of trouble are when we experience horizontal printer banding or incorrect colours. The obvious advice here is DO NOT IGNORE THESE SIGNS – Run through this fault finding guide the moment you experience any problem, and if these steps fail to resolve the issue, contact us straight away – EVEN IF YOUR CIS SYSTEM IS FROM ANOTHER SUPPLIER! – We are friendly with all our fellow UK Ink and CIS suppliers, and are always happy to help out photographers using whatever brand of ink and delivery system:

Perform a nozzle check print out – do a head clean – perform another nozzle check print out – do a head clean – perform a final nozzle check print out – Mark each nozzle check 1, 2 and 3.

Look at your nozzle checks. – If you have a bad nozzle check that is incomplete, and will not improve within two cleaning cycles/nozzle checks, place the three nozzle check print-outs above each other. If the nozzle checks are missing in different places each time, it is possible that you have ink starvation, or air is getting into the system:

Step 1: Ensure that you have sufficient ink in your reservoirs – We advise that you should keep your reservoirs topped up to an average of over 50% full at all times, and never let your reservoirs drop to below 20% of their full capacity. If you let all your ink levels drop down too low, your printer is working harder to pull the ink up to the printhead height, and ink starvation may result.

Step 2: Make sure that your ink breathers on top of your ink reservoirs are clear – if in any doubt, remove them, and try printing again.

Step 3: Make sure that your ink is travelling up your feeder tubes without any air gaps or bubbles. If you see bubbles in the line, either your reservoirs are partially empty, maybe the tube connection at the base of your reservoir or the connector which joins the tube with the cartridge is faulty (in which case contact your supplier for a new connector assembly). It is extremely rare, but possible that air bubbles are appearing inside the tubes due to a tiny hole or split tube; if this is the case, your system will need replacing – if your CIS is out of warranty (usually over 12 months old) ask your supplier for a CIS upgrade deal, which will enable you to change your existing inks over to a new system at a reasonable price – usually at cost; see our training movie number 26: CIS upgrade, which shows a simple clean method of transferring your inks across to a new CIS system without wasting a drop of valuable Lyson ink!

Step 4: more likely, you are not achieving an air-tight seal between your cartridge and the printhead. – If this is the case, order up a new CIS cartridge of the correct colour, and look at our training video clip number 9: CIS Cartridge change and maintenance – This video shows you how to change and re-prime a CIS cartridge, and also how to clean the little black plastic spigots which pierce your cartridge, and form an air-tight seal with your printhead.

Step 5: If there seems to be plenty of ink available in the reservoir and feed tubes, it may be that your cartridges are simply being starved of ink, either by the ink feed tubes being kinked, twisted or compressed, preventing any ink from travelling up the line, or ink has managed to dry out inside the tube, which although extremely rare, in nevertheless still a possibility. To check whether a particular colour channel is blocked, disconnect the feed tube from the particular colour cartridge which is causing problems (the tubes are a simple push-fit) and connect up your CIS syringe which came with your kit to the end of the tube. You may need a tapered adaptor, which should also be in your kit, and possibly a connector tube – if you do not have any of these items, contact us, and we will post them out to you free of charge. Any obstruction will then be obvious; - any dried ink within the tubes should be easily shifted with the hard vacuum applied by your syringe.

If your three initial nozzle checks show the same areas missing each time, or parts of the nozzle check are distorted in the same way each time, this usually indicates that your printhead is partially blocked by an area of dried ink on the underside of the printhead, which is preventing the same few printhead nozzles from firing or distorting the nozzle jet. – If this is the case, please refer to our inkjet training video number 27: Bad Nozzle Check Basics, which shows you how to clear stubborn dried inks.

If you need to service the underside of your ink reservoirs, you will need to be able to turn the whole reservoir block upside-down; simply remove all the air breathers on top of the reservoir tanks, and replace the sealing bungs. This will seal all the tops of the tanks, allowing you to safely turn your reservoir tanks over.

Never be tempted to raise the height of your ink reservoirs above their recommended level. Usually this means placing the reservoirs on the same level as your printer. Raising up simply floods the printer with too much ink pressure, and can result in all your inks siphoning back into the printer overnight, wasting all your valuable ink, and prematurely filling your waste pads.

As always, these guides are not the only help you will get from us – Before you attempt any fault-finding and remedial procedures, we are happy to talk over your printing issues before you start: - You may phone us on 01825 764 057 to talk to our Ink specialists, or for printer problems, our in-house fully trained Epson technician, Ian Richards whose mobile number, incidentally, is __________________

Finally: A word of warning: Always perform any surgery to your CIS system in a safe environment! – This means preferably on the draining board of your kitchen sink! We provide these handy drip trays for CIS systems, which is fine to catch minor ink accidents, but your really don't want to risk spilling significant amounts of ink on your beautiful carpets unless you live alone, or your divorce is already under way!

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