[Leica] Third time's a charm for Epson 3800 printer

[leowesson at gmail.com (leo wesson)]

Brian,
i think u figured out why i went to usb after my 10.5 os upgrade.

Leo Wesson
Photographer/Videographer
817.733.9157
www.leowesson.com


On Tue, Mar 24, 2009 at 11:24 PM, Brian Reid <reid at 
mejac.palo-alto.ca.us>wrote:

> I just finished installing my third Epson Stylus Pro 3800 printer; it is a
> replacement for the one Epson shipped me in October 2008 which was itself a
> replacement for the one I bought in December 2006. I'm so glad I bought the
> extended warranty. And since it's new and shiny, it will still sheet-feed
> Museo Silver Rag, which is an awesome time-saver.
>
> When these things work, they are great. When they don't work and have to be
> replaced, they are an amazing pain. Probably my need to drive it via
> Ethernet instead of USB or FireWire increased my pain, but the 
> documentation
> says it's supposed to work via Ethernet.
>
> During the course of this install, I learned that the latest rev of the
> Epson ethernet card can't autoconfig against a GigE switch, and needs to be
> set manually to 100 Full Duplex.
>
> I learned that the Epson LFP Panel software is not compatible with either
> IPP or LPD; it works only if you drive the printer with EpsonTCPIP or
> Bonjour or Appletalk drivers.
>
> I learned that if you are going to replace an Epson pro printer and you
> have downloaded config information or paper profiles into them, you ought 
> to
> extract that information and save it to disk before you ship the bad unit
> back to Epson, else you will have to rebuild everything. The LFP panel can
> export media settings to a file (never mind that it calls that operation an
> import) but I found no tool to export other configuration settings like
> names and ACLs and NTP servers other than "print screen".
>
> I learned that Ultrachrome inks really don't like sitting unused with the
> power off for 2 weeks while their owner goes to Australia, and that you 
> have
> to run a Power Clean to fix it. The Power Clean is of course not mentioned
> in the documentation.
>
> I learned that the Epson network firmware will disable itself if it doesn't
> find link on the Ethernet port, which it won't do if the autosense fails, 
> so
> each time you run an experiment to get the Ethernet working you have to go
> back into the front-panel menu and re-enable Network mode. (Hint: "arp -d;
> ping" is your friend when you are debugging this junk because it will tell
> you if the layer-2 network stuff is working on the printer.)
>
> I learned that the Epson network firmware only DHCPs on power-up, and that
> if you make a DHCP-related change to the configuration, you have to power
> cycle the printer regardless of what the documentation says.
>
> Brian Reid
> recalling a quote on the TV show "House" in which a patient says "Dr House,
> I know you must be a very good doctor, because you are such an obnoxious
> jerk that they wouldn't let you work here if you were a bad doctor." That's
> how I feel about the 3800. It's such a pain in the ass that I wouldn't let
> it into my life if it weren't a fabulous printer.
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Leica Users Group.
> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information
>