GT-541 Basic Operation Manual GARMENT PRINTER Please read this manual before using the printer. Please keep this manual within easy reach for quick reference. GT-541 US support homepage http://www.brother-usa.
Note based on California law (USA) on the use and handling of Perchlorate This product contains a CR Coin Lithium Battery which contains Perchlorate Material – special handling may apply. See http://www.dtsc.ca.gov/hazardouswaste/perchlorate.
Thank you very much for buying a BROTHER printer. Before using your new printer, please read the safety instructions below and the explanations given in the instruction manual. SAFETY INSTRUCTIONS [1] Safety indications and their meanings This instruction manual and the indications and symbols that are used on the printer itself are provided in order to ensure safe operation of this printer and to prevent accidents and injury to yourself or other people.
WARNING Installation Do not set up the printer in a dusty environment. If dust collects inside the printer, it may cause fire or electric shocks or problems with correct operation. Do not bend the cords excessively or fasten them too hard with staples or anything similar to secure cords, otherwise there is the danger that fire or electric shocks could occur. Be sure to connect the ground.
CAUTION Installation Setting up and moving of the printer should only be carried out by a qualified technician. The printer machine weighs approximately 100 kg. Transporting and setting up of the printer should be carried out by four or more people. The machine must be transported using the correct handling points only. Do not use the cartridge housings to move the machine. The machine may fall down and cause injury.
[3] Warning labels The following warning labels appear on the printer. Please follow the instructions on the labels at all times when using the printer. If the labels have been removed or are difficult to read, please contact your nearest Brother dealer. 1 2 Watch your fingers, or you may be injured.
Ink Cartridge Wash Liquid 3932M GT-541 v
Table of Contents 1. Read This First............................................................................................................................................................ 1 1-1. Precautions ......................................................................................................................................................... 1 1-2. Unpacking Your Printer.....................................................................................................................
1. Read This First 1. Read This First 1-1. Precautions Please observe the following precautions before using your printer. Please advise the following to customers. Printed colors may transfer when a printed surface rubs on a white or light-colored synthetic leather made of PVC (polyvinyl chloride). In that case, clean the stains with a soft cloth or toothbrush with a household cleaner or alcohol. The machine is designed to be used within the temperature and humidity levels below.
1. Read This First Never refill ink, never reconstruct ink cartridges; ink may cohere inside the cartridge bag, tube or even Print Head and may cause serious damage to your printer. We assume no responsibility for any problem caused by using them.Only genuine new ink cartridges should be used. The ink cartridges should always be installed; otherwise the needles may stopped up with ink and your printer may be damaged.
1. Read This First 1-2. Unpacking Your Printer Your printer must be unpacked by a Brother representative or a Brother authorized shipping company. After unpacking, check that the following parts are included. Contact Brother Customer Service Hot Line if any of these is missing.
1. Read This First 1-3. Required Condition Please use your printer under the conditions described in this section. 1-3-1. Environment Temperature Humidity 32 °F to 104 °F 20 % to 85 % (0 °C to 40 °C) (no condensation) 50 °F to 95 °F Operating your printer (10 °C to 35 °C) 59 °F to 86 °F 35 % to 85 % For the best print result (15 °C to 30 °C) (no condensation) If your room is dry, we recommend using a humidifier to avoid Print Heads from clogging with dried ink. Keeping your printer 1-3-2.
1. Read This First 1-3-4. Other Requirements When purchasing optional tools, choose one that meets the following requirements. USB cable: USB 2.0-compliant device cable (A/B) Using other USB 2.0-compliant device cable may result in improper connection. CompactFlash: Type I Memory Card, Capacity of 64 MB to 2 GB, FAT16 formatted, SanDisk CompactFlash is recommended. Heat Press: Must be able to handle the Platen 14 x 16, and maintain heat production of 356 °F (180 °C) for 35 seconds.
2. Identifying Your Printer’s Parts 2. Identifying Your Printer’s Parts 2-1. Front No. 1 2 Name Platen Platen Sheet 3 T-shirt Tray 4 5 6 Front Cover Cover Locks Control Panel 7 8 9 Power Switch Waste Cartridge Tray Shoulder Bar Description Holds the T-shirt to be printed. Prevents a T-shirt from slipping so that an image is printed on your desired position. Keeps parts of T-shirt hanging from the Platen (e.g. sleeves) on this T-shirt Tray. Open this to work on the inside of your printer.
2. Identifying Your Printer’s Parts 2-2. Left 5 1 2 7 No. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Name Black Ink Cartridge Slot Magenta Ink Cartridge Slot Cyan Ink Cartridge Slot Yellow Ink Cartridge Slot Ink Cartridge Storage Cleaning Tool Storage Filter Cartridge Storage 3 4 6 Description Load an Ink Cartridge of the appropriate color. Store the new Ink Cartridges. Store the Cleaning Kits. Store the four Filter Cartridges. 2-3. Right 1. CompactFlash slot 2. USB port 3.
2. Identifying Your Printer’s Parts 2-4.
2. Identifying Your Printer’s Parts 2-5. Inside of the Front Cover Cancel any operation and turn off your printer before opening the Front Cover. Open the Front Cover by pushing up the Cover Locks with both hands. If you open the Front Cover while operating, the power automatically turns off. 2 1 3 No. 1 Name Print Heads 2 Obstruction Sensor 3 Wiper Cleaner Cassette Description Jets the ink to the platen. From the left black, magenta, cyan, and yellow.
2. Identifying Your Printer’s Parts 2-6. Under the Platen No. 1 Name Platen Height Adjustment Lever 2 Platen Fixing Lever Description Adjusts the Platen height. Leftmost "A" is the normal T-shirt position. Check the exact height with Platen Button on Control Panel when you print on thicker material. Fixes the Platen. Tighten/Loosen this lever to install/uninstall the Platen and to adjust the Platen height.
2. Identifying Your Printer’s Parts 2-7. Control Panel No. 1 Name Error Lamp 2 3 Platen Button Head Cleaning Button 4 Stop Button 5 Up Button 6 Down Button 7 OK Button 8 Back Button 9 Display 10 Print Button Description Indicates errors or warnings. See “2-7-1. Indication Lamps” for the details. Loads / Ejects the Platen. Cleans the Print Heads. See “7-2-2. Cleaning the Print Heads” in the Instruction Manual for the details. Cancels printing or Print Head cleaning.
2. Identifying Your Printer’s Parts 2-7-1. Indication Lamps The lamps on the control panel indicate the status of your printer as shown below. Lamp Printer Status Off: No print data has been received. Print Button Flashing: Receiving a print data. On: Printing data has been received. Off: No error is detected. Error Lamp On: One or more errors have been detected (See “7-4. Error Messages” in the Instruction Manual for the details).
2. Identifying Your Printer’s Parts 2-7-2. Display Menu Display: This display is used to select an operation for maintenance or setting up. Job/ Status Display When your printer has received a print data, it shows the Job/ Status Display: it displays the information needed for printing operations. No. 1 2 Item Shown Description Shows the last 17 characters of a received data. Amount of Ink Shows how much ink (cc) is required for making one print of the Required received data.
3. Getting Started 3. Getting Started Before using your printer, it needs to be correctly setup as described in this chapter. WARNING Do not handle the power cord with wet hands, otherwise it may cause electric shocks. Do not set up the printer in a dusty environment. If dust collects inside the printer, it may cause fire or electric shocks or problems with correct operation. Be sure to connect the ground.
3. Getting Started 3-1. Placing Your Printer Locate your printer taking the following into account Environmental conditions are suitable. Avoid direct sunlight, dust and extremes of humidity. Never use an extension cable. A working space must be left around the printer. Minimum space of 80 cm on the front, 5 cm on the rear, 30 cm on the left side (for ink cartridges) and 15 cm on the right side (for CF card, USB and power code). Body size is about 120 cm x 95 cm x 60 cm . See the figure below.
3. Getting Started 3-2. Turning On/Off Your Printer Before you connect the power cord, make sure: The Ink Cartridges, Waste Cartridge Tray, and Wiper Cleaner Cassette are installed. The Rear Cover is mounted. Keep the front space as the Platen slides out approximately 30 cm (12 inches) when operating. 3-2-1. Turning On Your Printer (1) Connect the power cord (included) to the power cord socket of your printer. (2) Connect the power plug to the power outlet.
3. Getting Started 3-3. Preparing Your PC This section describes how to install the GT-541 Printer Driver (File Output), manuals (Basic Operation Manual/ Instruction Manual), Brother GT File Viewer, and other tools. Make sure the steps because there are some different dialogs shown by Windows OS. After those installations are over, install GT-541 Printer Driver (USB) by connecting USB 2.0 cable. 3-3-1. PC preparation: For Windows XP / 2000 (32 bit) Do not connect the printer to the PC at this stage.
3. Getting Started (5) During the installation, the following warning appears. Click "Continue Anyway" and continue. Windows XP Windows 2000 (6) After installation, your PC will need to restart. Remove your Install CD and restart your PC. If you are going to use your printer without connecting it to your PC, this will be the end of PC preparation. 3-3-2. Connection with USB 2.0 Cable: for Windows XP (1) Connect the USB 2.0 cable to your printer (power OFF).
3. Getting Started (3) Turn on your GT-541 printer. The following window appears. Select "No, not this time”, and then click “Next”. (4) Insert the Install CD. The following window appears. (5) Select “Install the software automatically (Recommended)”, and the click “Next”. The installation starts. When "Hardware installation" dialog (not passed Windows Logo testing) appears during installation, Click "Continue Anyway". The installation continues.
3. Getting Started (1) Confirm that the Install CD is inserted properly, and then click “OK”. The following window appears. (2) If install CD is not in drive [D:], the following window appears. Click “Browse…” to select the CD drive, and then click “OK”. The installation continues. (6) Click "Finish" when "Completing the Found New Hardware Wizard" dialog. (7) Open "Printers and Faxes" in "Control Panel".
3. Getting Started 3-3-3. Connection with USB 2.0 Cable: for Windows 2000 (1) Connect the USB 2.0 cable to your printer (power OFF). We do not recommend connection via a USB hub to the printer. (2) Connect the other end of the USB 2.0 Cable to your PC. (3) Turn on your GT-541 printer. Brother GT-541 Printer Driver starts installing automatically.
3. Getting Started (5) Click either "Brother GT-541" or Brother GT-541 FileOutput icon and select "Set as Default Printer" on “File” menu. “Brother GT-541” icon is checked and Brother GT-541 is set as the default printer. This helps to do the layout with your application software. The PC setup is now completed. To connect another GT-541 to the PC, repeat the steps 3-3-3. Connection with USB 2.0 Cable: for Windows 2000. From the second GT-541, the printer names automatically become “GT-541(copyX)”.
3. Getting Started 3-3-5. Installing Useful Tools We provide Color Palettes for Adobe Photoshop (GT-541_Colors.aco) / CorelDRAW (GT-541_Colors.cpl) to help you with printing. The colors are the same in ColorChart which is available in "Test Print" menu of Printer Driver. Print ColorChart to check the colors that your Printer actually provides as color formula guide. CorelDRAW template files are also available to help you with final layout. (1) Turn on your PC.
3. Getting Started (3) Insert the Install CD (included) to your PC. Select either [ 32bit_OS ] or [ 64bit_OS ] (depends on your PC) and execute "Setup.exe". (4) The monitor turns dark and the following dialog appears when User Account Control is ON. Select "Continue". (5) The Installer starts installation. Follow the indications of the dialogs. (6) During the installation, the following warning appears. Click "Install this driver software anyway" and continue.
3. Getting Started Connection with USB 2.0 Cable (1) Connect the USB 2.0 cable to your printer (power OFF). (2) Connect the other end of the USB 2.0 Cable to your PC. (3) Turn on your GT-541 printer. Installation starts automatically. The information appears at the right bottom of the PC monitor. (4) After installation, open "Printers" in "Control Panel" of PC. (5) Click either "Brother GT-541" or Brother GT-541 FileOutput icon and select "Set as Default Printer" on “File” menu.
3. Getting Started 3-4. Setting Up Your Printer Adjust the display contrast and the speaker volume as required. 3-4-1. Adjusting the Display Contrast (1) Press the OK Button on your printer’s Control Panel. The following display appears. (2) Use the Up/Down Button to highlight “LCD Contrast”, and then press the OK Button. The following display appears. (3) Use the Up/Down Button to select your desired contrast from 0 to 7, and then press the OK Button. 3-4-2.
3. Getting Started 3-4-3. Language (1) Press the OK Button on your printer’s Control Panel. (2) Use the Up/Down Button to select “Language”, and then press the OK Button. (3) Use the Up/Down Button to select your desired language from English / Español / Français / Deutsch / Italiano and then press the OK button. 3-4-4. Temperature (1) Press the OK Button on your printer’s Control Panel. (2) Use the Up/Down Button to select “Temperature”, and then press the OK Button.
4. Printing Directly from a Graphic Applications 4. Printing Directly from Applications WARNING If a foreign object gets inside the printer, immediately turn off the power switch and disconnect the power cord, and arrange for a service call to resolve. If you continue to use the printer while there is a foreign object inside, it may result in fire or electric shocks or problems with correct operation.
4. Printing Directly from Applications 4-1. Basic Printing Procedure (1) Set the proper color settings and print conditions of the application. For precise editing and output, applications such as Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, CorelDRAW, Paint Shop Pro are recommended. See “4-2. Setting the Applications’ Print Condition” in Instruction Manual (PDF)for further details. (2) Create the artwork using a suitable graphic application.
5. Maintenance 5. Maintenance For optimum product performance regular maintenance is required. DANGER Wait at least 5 minutes after turning off the power switch and disconnecting the power cord from the wall outlet before opening the cover of the control unit. Do not touch as high voltage can result in severe injury. WARNING Do not put your hands in the ink cartridge slot, otherwise the needle inside the slot may cause injury.
5. Maintenance 5-1. Replacing Consumables This section describes how to replace the consumables: Ink Cartridge, Wiper Cleaner, Waste Ink Cartridge, and Platen Sheet. 5-1-1. Replacing the Ink Cartridge The ink indicator on the Display flashes when the Ink Cartridge is getting low. Prepare the new Ink Cartridge, and replace it when “EMPTY XXXX (color)” is displayed. Use the Ink Cartridges described in “1-3-5. Consumable Requirements”. Be careful not to get ink on your hands or clothing.
5. Maintenance (3) Insert the new Ink Cartridge securely ( ensure the direction and the color are correct. Confirm the color of the ink cartridge. Loading a wrong color causes serious damage to print quality, and could damage to the Print Heads. If you have installed a wrong color, immediately contact Brother or your dealer for a service call (4) When you have replaced the Black Ink Cartridge, refer to “5-1-2.
5. Maintenance (3) Press the Up/Down Button to select the “Cap/Wiper Clean”, and then press the OK Button. The Wiper Blade will be at the cleaning position. Follow the message and turn off the printer. (4) Open the Front Cover by unlocking the Cover Locks with both hands. (5) Pull out the Wiper Cleaner Cassette straight and slowly. Do not tilt the Wiper Cleaner Cassette; ink may get on your hands or clothing. Do not touch the Clearance Sensor (the bar above the Wiper Cleaner Cassette).
5. Maintenance (7) Push both sides of the Wiper Cleaner Cassette to open it. (8) Carefully drop off the used Wiper Cleaner And dispose of in accordance with local regulations. Wiper Cleaner Dispose the used Wiper Cleaner in compliance with your local regulations. (9) Insert the two projections of the Wiper Cleaner Cassette into the holes on the new Wiper Cleaner.
5. Maintenance (10) Close the Wiper Cleaner Cassette. Make sure that the bottom of the Wiper Cleaner is set within the two projections on the Wiper Cleaner Cassette. Push in the Wiper Cleaner after closing. (11) Open the Wiper Cleaning Kit which comes with the new Black Ink Cartridge. The following items are included. (12) Wear the gloves, and wet both sides of a Clean Applicator with the Wash Liquid.
5. Maintenance (13) Use the one side of wet Clean Applicator to clean the front side of the Wiper Blade. (14) Use the other side of the wet Clean Applicator to clean the rear of the Wiper Blade. (15) Wet other two Clean Applicators and use them to remove ink or dust from the Print Head Caps. Use one side of the Clean Applicator to clean one Print Head Cap. Do not use dry Clean Applicator; it cannot clean ink or dust. It may damage the Print Head Caps.
5. Maintenance (16) Insert the Wiper Cleaner Cassette straight into your printer. Do not touch the Clearance Sensor (the bar above the Wiper Cleaner Cassette).. (17) Check the top edge of the black Flash Plate on the right and the front/back surface of the Obstruction Sensor, if they are dirty with ink and/or dust wipe off the dirt with a soft wet cloth with water.
5. Maintenance (1) Pull out the Waste Cartridge Tray. The message “ERROR NO WASTE INK TRAY” is displayed. (2) Remove the sticker on the used Waste Ink Cartridge, and use it to seal the hole on it. (3) Remove the new Waste Ink Cartridge from its package. Save the plastic package for storing the used cartridge. (4) Remove the used Waste Ink Cartridge from the Waste Cartridge Tray, and put it in the package, in which the new Waste Ink Cartridge came in.
5. Maintenance (6) Install the Waste Cartridge Tray. When the error display" ERROR NO WASTE INK TRAY " disappears, the replacement of the Waste Ink Cartridge has been completed. Dispose the used Waste Ink Cartridge in accordance with your local regulations. 5-1-4. Replacing the Platen Sheet The Platen Sheet gets dirty in operation. Please replace the Platen Sheet to avoid making smudges on a T-shirt. (1) Press the Platen Button to eject the Platen.
Basic Operation Manual http://www.brother.com/ 1-5, Kitajizoyama, Noda-cho, Kariya 448-0803, Japan. Phone: 81-566-95-0088 © 2005-2007, 2010 Brother Industries, Ltd. All Rights Reserved. This is the original instructions. GT-541 SA6123-801 E 2010.01.
