Affects the Epson SureColor P6000, P7000, P8000, and P9000

** If you own an Epson SureColor P6000/P7000/P8000/P9000 – you’ll want to read this. **

Epson has announced that, due to ongoing chip shortages, they will be changing chips that are used in the SureColor P6000/P7000/P8000/P9000 inks. And the new chips will not be recognized unless you have updated your printer to the firmware version LW008N5 (date 05.24.23) or later. Thankfully, updating the firmware is pretty straightforward and is explained below.

It is Spectraflow’s understanding that the new chips are a bit less precise at determining remaining ink than the old ones, so there is the potential for a “replace cartridge” indication with a bit more ink remaining than before. This is a safety measure to ensure the cartridge doesn’t run dry and introduce clogged nozzles. Consequently, Epson has decided to lower the price on these inks by about 20%, so your net cost per millimeter should be about a wash old vs new. There is no chemical or formula difference between the old and new inks. 

Please note that the new firmware is backwards compatible with the old inks, so an upgraded machine can accept any cartridge, any size, new or old.

Please ensure that there is enough ink on-hand so that firmware updates can be managed before running out of the old inks and before needing to order the new inks with new SKUs. 

These new inks are anticipated to be available for end users when supplies of the old inks are exhausted. Epson does not have a precise date, but Spectraflow expects the transition to start around the beginning of July, 2023 and be completed over the following month or two.

Here’s a link to the official announcement from Epson. 

And here are simple instructions for updating your firmware.

1. Make sure your computer is connected to the printer either via ethernet or USB.  
2. If you are using a RIP (like many Spectraflow customers), make sure you have the Epson driver for your model loaded. If you have a P9000SE, for instance, both the driver and the firmware for the printer can be found at www.epson.com/P9000 under the Support link.
3. Clear all print jobs from the Epson driver and/or any RIP software that you are using to send jobs to this printer. Power the printer off and then back on to ensure that the print job queue is empty.
4. When you have confirmed that the printer is connected via the driver, download and install the firmware. Here are some screenshots from having recently updated our P9000 firmware. The entire process took just a few minutes. The updater turns off the printer, so you have to restart it, and then you are good to go!

For more information, call us at 415-382-8681 or contact us on our website.