Skip to content
Get Free Shipping on Epson Ink Orders Over $100 (Lower 48 United States Only)
Get Free Shipping on Epson Ink Orders Over $100 (Lower 48 United States Only)

Epson TM-C3500: Setting Up Your Printer

Congratulations! You’ve purchased your very first Epson TM-C3500 inkjet color label printer.  This machine is ready to change the way you operate your label printing workflows!

However, before we get ahead of ourselves, we need to set the printer up correctly.  Once you open the box, make sure it contains: 

  • The printer. 
  • The power cable. 
  • A maintenance box. 
  • A set of CMYK ink cartridges. 
  • A label catch tray. 

There will also be a couple of user manuals and an installation disc.  You won’t need the disc, because you can get the most recent driver software from Epson’s website.

Now we can break the rest of the process down into steps. 

  • Place the printer on a flat, stable, vibration-free surface.  You’ll need to access the ports on the bottom-rear of the printer, so you can gently turn or flip the printer if you need a better view.  Plug the provided AC power cable into the wall, and the other end into the printer’s power port. 
  • Next to the power, there is another port for an ethernet connection.  If you are going to hood the printer up to a network, now is a good time to connect this as well. 
  • If you had turned the printer over to get to the ports, you can now place it upright again. 
  • Press the power button on the front of the printer until the green status light is illuminated and begins blinking. 

  • Next, we will install the maintenance box.  Open up the one provided with your printer.  There will be a silver foil on one side of the box- do NOT remove this foil. 
  • There is a small, ridged tab above the power button on the left side of the printer.  Push down on this, and pull out, towards yourself.  The maintenance box cover will not come all the way off, since there is a plastic tether holding it to the printer at the bottom, so just lay it to the side for now. 
  • Insert the maintenance box so that the arrow on top is facing toward the printer, and the text on the label is upright.  Once the box is in position, you should hear and feel a light ‘click’. 
  • Closing the maintenance box cover can be a little tricky, but you should begin by inserting the plastic hook on the bottom of the cover into its position on the printer, and then carefully swinging the cover upward and back into position.  This cover will snap into place when you get it right. 

  • Now we will insert the ink cartridges.  Pull outward on the tab on the right side of the printer (below the status display) to reveal the ink compartment. 
  • Open up the provided ink cartridges, and find the label for each color where it is marked on the printer.  From top to bottom, it should be KCYM.   
  • Holding them upright (so the text is readable), insert each cartridge into the corresponding slot.  When the cartridge is fully installed, you should hear and feel a light ‘click’ (similar to the maintenance box) and the cartridge should remain in place. 
  • Once you have inserted all four ink cartridges, you may close the ink compartment cover again.  At this point, the printer will go into maintenance mode, where it will begin to push the ink up to the print head and prepare for the first job. 

Now that your printer has charged the ink and performed the initial maintenance, you’re ready to print!  If you had any trouble with this setup, please feel free to reach out to us and don’t forget to check out our other blogs on the Epson C3500 color label printer. 

About Integrated Productivity Systems LLC (IPSi):  IPSi specializes in optimizing mission-critical business processes around enterprise label printing and barcoding data collection in manufacturing and distribution companies.  Our areas of expertise include fixing inefficient workflows in product and shipping label generation, mobile barcode data collection, inventory and warehouse management,  automated label application, and automated bagging and labeling of finished goods.  By helping companies streamline and re-engineer mission-critical workflows, our customers are able to reduce costs, eliminate errors, and sustain flexible and scalable operations.  We are passionate about helping our customers leverage technology to develop simple, cost-effective systems that ensure their operations run efficiently all day, every day.  IPSi's Website
Previous article Epson CW-C6000/C6500: Maintenance Box Replacement
Next article Epson TM-C3500: How To Clean Your Printer