Epson L18050 Manual

Introduction

The controller allows you to fully emulate the operation of the tray, paper feed mechanism, pump, paper width detection, paper presence sensor. You can also manually pump ink and lock/unlock the carriage.
Additionally, the controller allows you to connect a fan to cool the carriage motor.
Optionally, you can connect a UV LED to get a UV DTF printer.

General connection diagram

1. FPC instead of the standard control panel
2. External control panel. Used when installing in another case, instead of the standard panel
3. Control panel
4. Fan connection and UV LED control output
5. Power, 15-24V
6. Pump stepper motor
7. Paper feed stepper motor
8. Output to external stepper drivers with STEP/DIR signal
9. FPC signal to the motherboard and carriage
10. Sensor output
11. Connection of ASF and PF motor emulators

Additionally, a detailed pinout is on the back of the board:

Controller status indicators

The board has controller status indicators

1. Power is present
2. Pump stepper motor operation
3. Paper feed stepper motor operation
4. ASF, PF encoder indicator group, PE and PW signal

When using stepper drivers on the board, it is possible to adjust the maximum torque

It is recommended to adjust if there are skips during operation. In other cases, the settings can be left alone.
If powerful motors or other mechanisms are used, external stepper drivers can be connected

Connecting stepper motors power supply and external devices

The maximum motor current is 2A.
The maximum current of the fan and UV LED control line is 0.3A
The UV line is intended ONLY for control and does not allow you to connect the LED directly!
If after connecting the stepper motors the rotation is in the wrong direction, then swap wires 1 and 2.

Connecting emulators

The controller emulates encoder signals, so the wires from the PF and ASF motors must be connected to the board.
The wire to the ASF sensor on the tray is used to connect to the board. Use the Red and Black wires.
If after connecting the wires to the board and turning on the printer an encoder error appears, check the polarity (swap the wires if necessary), and check the correct connection of the motors to the controller, as well as the encoder output cables.

Attention! The motor wires are connected ONLY to the specified terminal blocks. If an error occurs, the controller will fail.

The controller has a group of connectors for connecting the cables to the motherboard.
The cable that comes from the carriage is connected to the CR connector. The other names of the connectors indicate where to connect on the motherboard. Particular attention should be paid to the position of the first contact. On the board, the first contact is marked with a triangle.

All connectors are labeled on the motherboard, so connecting will be easy.

Switching on procedure

You can supply power to the controller after connecting all connectors and wires.
After switching on, a beep will sound, some indicators will light up and go out.
To make sure that the stepper motors are connected correctly, press the forward button on the control panel. If the shaft rotates in the right direction, then everything is fine. If not, then swap the wires of one phase of the stepper motor.
To check the pump motor, press and hold the CLEAN button. If the cap is raised and the pump works, then the motor is connected correctly. If not, then swap the wires of one phase of the motor.
After checking that the stepper motors are connected correctly, you can turn on the printer.
If the printer turns on without an error, then everything is fine. If there are errors, then depending on it, you need to look for the cause: either the motors for the encoder emulators are connected incorrectly, or the FPC output cables from the emulators are connected incorrectly.
This completes the setup and startup process.
Operating procedure
The controller has 2 operating modes: sheet and roll. In standby mode, press the MODE button until the beep to change the mode. If the Roll is on, the ROLL indicator will light.
By briefly pressing the CLEAN button, the carriage will be locked or unlocked. If the LOCKED indicator lights, the carriage is locked. By pressing and holding the CLEAN button, the pump will be turned on for pumping. If the carriage is in the parking zone, the pump will pump ink. If automatic cleaning mode is required, press CLEAN, and then MODE. This will turn on the automatic ink pumping cycle. Convenient to use before starting work with the printer.

You cannot pump or lock/unlock the carriage when the printer is on! Only when the printer is turned off.

In standby mode, use the FORWARD and BACKWARD buttons to manually advance the paper/film forward and backward.
The START button turns on the print mode.
If printing is enabled in SHEETS mode, i.e. the ROLL indicator is not lit, then when printing starts, the PRINT indicator will light up, you can manually move the film/paper back and forth. In this state, the controller is waiting for printing. When printing starts, the indicator will start blinking. If you need to cancel printing, press START.
If printing is enabled in ROLL mode, i.e. the ROLL indicator is lit, then when printing starts, the PRINT indicator will light up, the controller is waiting for printing and you can manually move the paper/film. When the printer starts printing, the PRINT indicator will blink. At the end of printing, if the job was printed on a sheet, after about 50 mm the feed will automatically stop, and the printer will finish printing the job. Thus, the controller allows you to print on a roll the same jobs as for sheets. If a RIP is used and the printer has the roll mode enabled, then when printing is finished, the printer will stop, the feed will stop. There will be a wait for the next job.

Attention! After 4-5 meters of printing in roll mode, the printer will automatically start the print head cleaning procedure, and the controller will automatically recognize this and the feed will turn off automatically, and the printer will switch to the PG cleaning mode. After cleaning, the printer will resume printing. To turn off the roll printing mode, press and hold the START button until the sound signal sounds.