Black ink swap on the Epson 7880 and 9880

Use this method with care!
Use at your own risk

An unofficial black ink swap technique for the Epson SP9880 and SP7880.

When we swapped the black ink on our Epson 9600 from Photo Black to Matt Black (Pk to Mk) we used some menu options to reduce the amount of ink used up.

The 9600 trick we used can’t be used on the 7880/9880 so this trick might work for you.

Article Index

• Swap procedure

Do read the warnings and comments to this article before trying the procedure.

It worked for us, but that was some years ago, and printer firmware does get updated.

How to save on ink costs

It’s a common criticism of the larger Epson printers that they waste an exorbitant amount of ink when you run a black ink swap. The black ink swap is required due to the differing paper compatibility of Photo and Matt black inks.

This has finally been addressed on the 7900/9900 (and 3800) but older printers are expensive to change.

Black ink swap on an 7880/9880

This method is similar to the original 7600/9600 black ink swap technique

A non chip replacement method (as per our 9800/7800 black ink swap page) for swapping black inks. Should cost under $10 in ink and paper. We have a version of this procedure for the 4880, with pictures of the display sequence.

This necessitates going into a service mode for the printer, so should be used with care. As long as the ink warning light isn’t flashing, you can use this technique with quite low amounts of ink in the cartridges.

Just remember that messing up your machine by doing something like this
won’t be covered under warranty!

It involves simultaneously holding down the “Centre”, “Down” and “Right” buttons (on the control panel) as you turn the printer on.

We have now tried this on our own 7880 and have heard from someone who has successfully used it on their 7800

Notes on our own black ink swap experiences

The first time we tried the original procedure, the printer started up with a desire to do a full ink charging (stage 3)

This isn’t good, since it uses quite a bit of ink.

We added an extra menu sequence (stage 4) to turn off this ink charge

Whilst we suspect you could dispense with stage 3, we’ve now done two ink swaps on the 7880 and followed the procedure exactly, both times.

Remember – the printer is not a cheap bit of kit, and you do this at your own risk!

I’ve tried it twice on our printer and am now happy to use the technique on our 7880 – not yours!

See also the notes towards the end of the article.

You will need to pay attention to pressing the correct buttons in the group of 5 to the right of the display screen.

In particular, the Centre button (*), the Right button (>) and the Down button (v).

We’ve had several comments from people using this technique and are happy to include feedback on its use.

I’ve seen this process mentioned elsewhaere and there has been some confusion with the precise steps involved – As a result I’ve expanded the instructions from the original set that we were sent, hopefully to make things somewhat clearer.

We’re told the procedure won’t work if the low ink warning is on, however we had a report of a successful change when the PK ink cart to be taken out was almost empty. Although an ink charge (S3) was not requested, Stage 4 was needed to get all the level indicators to display correctly.

We have a version of this procedure for the 4880, with pictures of the sequence.

Stage 1

Make sure the printer is turned off

1. Remove the ink cartridge you wish to change (Matte or Photo Black) and put the new different Photo or Matte Black in. Ensure the lever is returned to its usual ‘locked’ position.
2. Turn on the printer and make sure to simultaneously hold down the Centre(*), Down(v) and Right(>) buttons at the same as you turn the printer on.
3. The LCD display will show ‘SELF TESTING’.
4. Press the Down(v) button to scroll down until ‘Parameter’ appears on the LCD display.
5. Press the Right(>) button.
6. The LCD Display shows ‘Initialize’
7. Press the Down(v) button to scroll down the display until ‘Update’ appears on the LCD display.
8. Press the Right(>) button.
9. The display shows ‘JM Init. FILL’.
10. Press the Down(v) button to scroll down the display until ‘INK PARAMETER’ appears on the LCD display.
11. Press the Right(>) button
12. The LCD display will show ‘Set’
13. Press the Down(v) button to scroll down the display until ‘Reset’ appears on the LCD display.
14. Press the Centre(*) button.
15. The LCD Display shows ‘Update Param ?’
16. Press the Centre(*) Button.
17. The menu display returns (not important, but it mentions ‘HeadWashFlg’)
18. Turn off the printer.

Stage 2

1. As before, turn on the printer and make sure to simultaneously hold down the Centre(*), Down(v) and Right(>) buttons at the same as you turn the printer on.
2. The LCD display will show ‘SELF TESTING’.
3. Press the Down(v) button to Scroll down until ‘Parameter’ appears on the LCD display.
4. Press the Right(>) button.
5. The LCD Display shows ‘Initialize’
6. Press the Down(v) button to scroll down the display until ‘Update’ appears on the LCD display.
7. Press the Right(>) button.
8. The display shows ‘JM Init. FILL’.
9. Press the Down(v) button to scroll down the display until ‘INK PARAMETER’ appears on the LCD display.
10. Press the Right(>) button
11. The LCD display will show ‘Set’
12. Press the Centre(*) Button.
13. The LCD Display shows ‘Update Param ?’
14. Press the Centre(*) Button.
15. The menu display returns (not important, but it mentions ‘HeadWashFlg’)
16. Turn off the printer.

Stage 3

1. Put a sheet of paper in the printer (A4 copier paper is OK)
2. Turn on the printer as you would do normally (i.e. no buttons held down)
3. The printer will ask you to press pause to start Ink Charging
   DO NOT Press Pause!
   Note – If it doesn’t ask this then you don’t need to carry out stage 4 – our printer did want to charge inks
4. Turn off the printer

Stage 4

1. Turn on the printer and make sure to simultaneously hold down the Centre(*), Down(v) and Right(>) buttons at the same as you turn the printer on.
2. The LCD display will show ‘SELF TESTING’.
3. Press the Down(v) button to Scroll down until ‘Parameter’ appears on the LCD display.
4. Press the Right(>) button.
5. The LCD Display shows ‘Initialize’
6. Press the Down(v) button to scroll down the display until ‘Update’ appears on the LCD display.
7. Press the Right(>) button.
8. The display shows ‘JM Init. FILL’.
9. Press the Down(v) button to scroll down the display until ‘INK PARAMETER’ appears on the LCD display.
10. Press the Right(>) button.
11. The LCD Display shows ‘Init Fill’ and ‘Set’
12. Press the Down(v) button to scroll down the display until ‘Reset’ appears on the LCD display.
13. Press the Centre(*) Button.
14. The LCD Display shows ‘Update Param ?’
15. Press the Centre(*) Button.
16. The menu display returns (not important, but it mentions ‘HeadWashFlg’)
17. Turn off the printer

Stage 5

You have now swapped cartridges, but there is ‘old’ ink in the lines leading to the print head. You can flush this out by printing something solid black.

On your computer

1. Open Photoshop
2. Create a document the width of your paper 24″ x 50″, 36″ x 50″, 44″ x 50″ fill the page/document with BLACK – RGB 0, R = 0, G = 0, B = 0
3. Print the document with NO COLORMANAGMENT and at 720 DPI.
4. You may need to use a custom print size, however you could easily print out on A4/letter sheets of copier paper. Put each printed sheet next to one another and print one at a time. You should be able to see where the black changes after a several sheets (quite a few for the 9880!).

The amount of ink required to purge the old black depends on your printer.

The SP7880 uses about 10-12ml of ink before the tube is flushed out.

Printing a solid black image of 23″x40″ should suffice,

When you look at the finished print you see that 2/3 is matte ink as it looks dark and the rest of the print looks a little dull with Pk ink on matt paper.

The system is now charged with photo black.

The SP9880 uses about 20-22ml of ink. The black image is 43″x40″.

If you consider that an ink change the ‘official way’ wastes appreciably more ink, you can see why there is such a huge saving.

Here’s a photo showing how many sheets of US Letter paper were needed for a 9800 black ink swap, going from Photo ink to Matte ink (Thanks to a Florida based reader for sending for the Photo!)

If you’ve wondered what over a hundred pounds worth of waste ink looks like – see here :-)

Note — On our 9600 black ink swap we printed four 40″x10″ solid black rectangles on cheap matt paper to purge the black line. The first 3 were a dark black and the third much lighter as the Photo black ink was used.

The original inspiration for this technique (aka ‘westshore’ method) are at inkjetgiclee.com Thanks to an industry insider for pointing us to this one!

Black ink swap – update notes

Feb 2011 – We hear that this works just fine with Asian models of the 7880 (Malaysia) – there have been suggestions that the firmware is different from UK/US versions.

Jan 2012 – Thanks to Ron in the US for sending this note:
“At the end of step #3, rather than the message “to start ink charging- press Pause”, mine indicated that I had insufficient ink (in 3 slots) and needed to replace these cartridges before continuing. I ignored the message, shut down the printer and went on to step #4. How typical of Epson! My on screen ink monitor suggested these carts were 35%-40% full. I printed my first 8.5X11 on lustre paper, then switched to copier paper, and saw the change beginning about half way across the 10th sheet. I printed the 12th sheet on lustre as well, and it was very easy to see the change in black.”

May 2017 – Printer stuck in the fill process? The initial fill process can be cancelled (Info for Epson Pro 4000, 4800, 4880, 7800, 7880, 9800, and 9880 printers]

Cleaning dried ink

You really only need to check out the household products line at your local supermarket ;-)

I’ve written a short guide about ‘cleaning inkjet printers‘