Anyone still remember anything about the Epson Stylus 3000?

December 19, 2008 2:24 PM

Print Filter(heh): I just bought a spandy-old Epson Stylus 3000 Big-A$$-Inkjet, and I have a couple questions about it that fairly persistent Googling failed to answer.

It came with the network interface, but no booklet, and I don't know how to set it. I'm also going to want to set it up for Bulk/Continuous Ink, but Lyson appears to have stopped making a setup for that model. And finally, Epson used to have a bundled version of (I think) Birmy's Postscript 2 RIP called "StylusRIP", but I can't find any evidence that they still do, and I'm not clear whether they sold the software, or bundled it. Any graphically inclined typed got any pointers for me?

posted by baylink to computers & internet (7 comments total)

you can still download drivers and manuals for it on the epson website.
posted by lia at 2:38 PM on December 19, 2008

What OS are you using? My Stylus (Pro7600) is entirely configurable through OS X's Print & Fax setup or the individual application Print dialogue.
posted by lekvar at 2:56 PM on December 19, 2008

According to the Epson Stylus 3000 manual on the Epson website, the network interface is part C12C823912, so this manual might cover it. Here's the TLDR: Your network interface should have, from left to right, a philips screw, a network connector, two status lights, a status sheet button, then another phillips screw. With the printer online and ready to print, press and hold the status sheet button. With a bit of luck it will print you a status sheet

Epson StylusRIP Pro seems to be a commercial product - or at least "what's in the box" is a CD and features include "no need for a hardware dongle" which both say "commercial software" to me.
posted by Mike1024 at 2:58 PM on December 19, 2008

I googled Even More, and found a college's setup page, which revealed the status sheet button trick to me, and it turns out that the interface has not only IPP capability, but a webserver for setup, and while I haven't gotten it to reliably prime from the ink cartridges I was sold (which were, at least, pulled and taped up), I could just barely read the old IP, so I'm past that hurdle.

I also managed to find the StylusRIP page, which says $199, but also didn't mention my model of printer, which I knew was $3k new -- hence my wondering if they didn't include it with that particular model. And the link you provide, Mike, doesn't list the 3000 either, though it wasn't the one I'd found.

They tease you with "free download", but those are only updates, and I don't see any way to buy from that page.

I *also*, though, had found reviews that said StylusRIP sucked, so I'll probably check with Birmy directly... and try to build a rip out of Ghostscript. :-)

I'm using Windows XP SP3, and now that I've gotten the network interface working, I should at least be able to get to the point where I can try to print native from Windows...
posted by baylink at 4:00 PM on December 19, 2008

I'm using Windows XP SP3, and now that I've gotten the network interface working, I should at least be able to get to the point where I can try to print native from Windows...

If you have trouble look at the manual I linked (this one), starting at page 6-2. It says "windows 2000" but it's practically identical in windows XP. lia's post above can point you to drivers if you don't already have them.
posted by Mike1024 at 4:17 PM on December 19, 2008

For the archives, while I had no problems getting it to talk to windows once I figured out how to set the IP, I couldn't get it to prime properly until I read this page. It's priming now; hopefully that will make it print -- it did *not* make this much noise for this long, previously.

Now to build a RIP. Maybe it will drive my NovaJet 50 (via HR-RTL), too. :-)
posted by baylink at 4:52 PM on December 19, 2008

(Yup. It primed. :-)
posted by baylink at 5:02 PM on December 19, 2008