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03-28-2011, 06:10 PM

Hello fellow zoners,

Long time no see... and I come back with a help request for HP B9180 owners.

I've just installed a CISS set of Hefger XL inks (reputedly as good as HP ink) to give it a try and I printed a typical test page with skin tones, b&w and stuff. Something was obviously off but not so much. So I launched a "Menu 4 : cleanhead printing" thinking it was maybe due to old inks or whatever and got to print the printhead cleaning diagnostic page.

I happened to have an older one printed only with HP genuine inks to compare at hand and all colours are a very good match except for two patches that should be some lighter shade of magenta. Not so annoyed, I thought I'd just swap some cartridge to identify the culprit. After many combo of HP + Hefger (including with black & grey inks), I just get the same patch which really starts to puzzle me.

Please see my picture in my DPR posting : http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/readfl...d=38082276

Can any HP owner willing to help tell me if their patches are like the left page or the right page? Any help, comment or suggestion is welcome.

Thanks in advance,

S.

joachim · 03-28-2011, 06:33 PM

[quote name='Sylvain' timestamp='1301335855' post='7182']

Hello fellow zoners,

Long time no see... and I come back with a help request for HP B9180 owners.

I've just installed a CISS set of Hefger XL inks (reputedly as good as HP ink) to give it a try and I printed a typical test page with skin tones, b&w and stuff. Something was obviously off but not so much. So I launched a "Menu 4 : cleanhead printing" thinking it was maybe due to old inks or whatever and got to print the printhead cleaning diagnostic page.

I happened to have an older one printed only with HP genuine inks to compare at hand and all colours are a very good match except for two patches that should be some lighter shade of magenta. Not so annoyed, I thought I'd just swap some cartridge to identify the culprit. After many combo of HP + Hefger (including with black & grey inks), I just get the same patch which really starts to puzzle me.

Please see my picture in my DPR posting : [url="http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/readflat.asp?forum=1003&thread=38082276"]http://forums.dprevi...thread=38082276[/url]

Can any HP owner willing to help tell me if their patches are like the left page or the right page? Any help, comment or suggestion is welcome.

Thanks in advance,

S.

[/quote]

Hi Sylvain,

good to see you again. You need to get it profiled. With any printer you need a profile for the printer, inkset, paper combination you are using. If you change any of the three you need a new profile (most of the time). Does Hefger not supply profiles for download? If not, you need either of:

A print profiler similar to a huey, spyder for a monitor
A company which profiles the thing for you
Return the hefger kit and return to HP inks

I am using Canon printers with Canon inksets. I don't buy paper from manufacturers which do not supply profiles for my model. It is a waste of time, ink, etc.

Actually I think what you show at dpreview looks surprisingly good for "unprofiled"

Hope that helps.

J.

03-28-2011, 08:20 PM

Hello Joachim,

Thanks for your input and the kind words. I've been reading the site regularly but haven't found time to take part in it as I'm "back" to work after a break.

I'm well aware of the profiling world that opens to one when entering the printing world but Hefger claims no profiling is required for their ink and they go as far as guaranteeing it (returns etc). Moreover, two things lead me thinking I could do without profiling to get 'reasonably'(for a start) good results :

1-primary colours are pretty much spot on -valid point given they mix the same way, but I'm trusting Hefger's claim here.

2-doing systematic cartridge pairing (HP + Hefger) to isolate the issue gave no conclusive results.

I'm guessing something else is wrong. This HP B9180 is really a dog. And many different things have appeared to be extremely hard to debug. My favorite was the incorrectly plugged USB cable : it would only alter the red channel on the whole page and make a skidmark only on the very first mm of printing. Go figure. That is only to name one issue.

The "good" news is that HP has discontinued it.

Greetings,

S.

03-28-2011, 10:05 PM

Speaking of calibration, I just remembered the printer is able to do a "closed loop calibration" and HP seems to recommend it!

We'll see ! Sounds promising.

I'll keep you posted.

03-29-2011, 09:37 AM

No improvement after closed loop calibration. But it seems now pretty obvious it comes from the light magenta ink. I guess the simple test charts weren't requiring enough ink to purge the printheads. I'll try a larger print with Genuine HP light magenta ink to confirm.

If it's the culprit, I'll get one of these HP70 130ml cartridge to replace it. Seems reasonably cost efficient : about twice the price of a normal HP38(35ml) cartridge for about 4 times the capacity.

Greetings,

S.

03-29-2011, 01:17 PM

Maybe off topic question.

Did you ever try http://www.profotonet.nl â€“ they do deliveries in Belgium too. Firstable you have to download their ICC profile and use it in Photoshop. Most of the people from our fotoclub prints there. However we have people who prints at home. They run regularly to issues like yours. Anyway printing home for me stays interesting hobby sport.

Just my thoughts,

It doesnâ€™t mean that it match the most of audience.

Greetings,

Miro

03-30-2011, 11:16 AM

Thanks miro,

It is a little offtopic but still welcome ! I already have a few addresses and I'll add this one but I'm really willing to do my printing for a while as I feel I'd like to learn these aspects too, even if not cost efficient.

More news soon. Hefger support doesn't disappoint so far, they're really willing to help.

Greetings,

S.