Am I defecting to Canon ?

[The Hat]

I don't think I'll let Canon steal much more of my time.

My heart goes out to you, because most of these newer Canon models behave in extraordinary ways, I found the Pro 1 very bitchy, but the Pro 10 just didn’t like me at all.. Needless to say I no longer have either of them..

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

I'm pretty much coming to an end with this TC-20; I printed yesterday some inages and turned the printer off in the evening. Turning it on this morning the printer moves the paper back and forth a few times and tells me that there is a paper jam - no - there isn't , and the paper does not want to load after several attempts, same with another type of paper with similar notifications so that the printer just does not want to load it - after several attempts again. So this answers the question in the title of this thread - no - I won't defect to Canon and will return back to Epson.

I'm currently checking pricing of the comparable Epson models -- the unit with cartridges T3100 runs at about 800€, and the Ecotank version T3100x at 2200€ which is a pretty high pricing hike. The cartridge chips for the T3100 are one-time chips on refill cartridges - such chips for replacement are priced pretty high - about 5€ per chip and color - via Aliexpress - cartridges are pretty small with 50 ml. Epson has implemented similar restrictions for refill on other printers like the Epson P900 , and this for the European models - and more restrictions for U.S. printers.

 

[The Hat]

Turning it on this morning the printer moves the paper back and forth a few times and tells me that there is a paper jam - no - there isn't

Try unplugging the printer for 30 mins and see if that clears the paper issues and errors..

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

Thanks for the tip, but that didn't work, not at the last time already. The printer remembers error conditions over unplugged power off conditions over night and tells me that I didn't shut off the printer correctly and starts some internal action for 5 minutes until I can make the next attempt. It moves the paper in and out smoothly several times and then displays the error condition of a paper jam or missing paper or this or that.............The printer has some internal artificial (?) intelligence to calculate the remaining amount of paper by the actual rotation of the spindle , there is a gear wheel at the end of the spindle connecting into the printer, the printer needs to know the paper type and the thickness with it to get somewhat reasonable results, that's all nice as long as it is working or easy to fix and not taking minutes for every attempt. Anyway - it's over - I got a 12" roll loaded finally and will print it down to use up some of the ink.

 

[The Hat]

The printer remembers error conditions over unplugged power off conditions over night and tells me that I didn't shut off the printer correctly and starts some internal action for 5 minutes until I can make the next attempt

Could you try and create a deliberate error, one that is easy to correct to distract the memory from its current paper errors.. Try removing all the carts while the printer is off, then power on and wait for the reaction and hope that’s enough to refresh its current memory issues..

P.S. I hate these stupid intellect machines, that are programmed by muppets…

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

I hate these stupid intellect machines, that are programmed by muppets…

My printer can send you an e-mail in case of problems as part of its 'intelligence'; I even can define that this should happen at 1 m or 2 or 3 or 5 or 7 or 10m before the end of the roll.
Thanks for trying to help me - I'm coming to the conclusion that part of the problems are stemming from the 'intelligence' of the printer trying to calculate the remaining paper amount from the length of the horizontal paper movement and the rotation of the paper roll - the diameter changes by the thickness of the paper with every turn. The printer does not take roll paper on 3" rolls but I have several rolls of those ; I rerolled one onto a 2" core but you don't get it as tight as a fresh roll of paper on a 2" core. The top layers loosen slightly and all calculation with the rotation angle going wrong. I haven't found an option yet to disable this function, and plenty of such functions - probably considered as helpful - are active by default - it should be the other way around that they all are disabled and the user can turn them on as he needs it and only after he found the default admin password and changed it and installed a root certificate that the printer accepts communication witrh that particular computer, just installing a driver is not enough.
The TC-20 takes 2" paper rolls up to a diameter of 10 cm , that's o.k. for most standard papers but does not work with paper on 3" cores - a range of photo and special and Fineart papers come on 3". I didn't get it working yet on 2" with half of the paper. I think Canon does not want the user to find out that prints on glossy or semiglossy or Fineart papers are actually pretty good. The Epson T3100N provides 11cm for the paper roll compartment and does not do much of the paper length etc intelligence.

I see at aliexpress that refill cartidges are available for the T3100N and as well one-time chips. Since Epson is pricing the Ecotank T3100x exorbitantly high - about 3x of the T3100N price - I can pay for chips for quite a while. Anyway - I'll order some of that to have it available , aliexpress shipments may take a week or 2 months so I just have it if and when I get a TC-20 replacement. I'll try to use up some of the paperrolls in the meantime as the TC-20 accepts them .

 

[The Hat]

I rerolled one onto a 2" core but you don't get it as tight as a fresh roll of paper on a 2" core. The top layers loosen slightly and all calculation with the rotation angle going wrong.

One of the ways to rewind paper to a smaller core is to stand the paper and core on its end (vertical), then glue or tape the paper to the 2” core and wind the paper on, don’t be to bother to wind it tight at the start, just keep on winding till you reckon you have enough paper on the new core.

Then use an electric screwdriver with a home made attachment to fit the 2” core and wind it tight slowly using that method, whilst its stands on its end, this gives a good tight fit..

P.S. wear gloves to prevent finger prints..

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

Yes, I use cotton gloves to handle that glossy paper. I went through various submenues and disabled various options like scew detection - left edge detection and more of those , none explicitly state that they deactivate the paper length identification but one does - I could load a 2" glossy paper roll and the status display does not show anymore any amount for the length of the available paper. Other error messages popped up but I could fix them - e.g. the same paper type needs to entered into the driver on the computer and via the panel into the printer. Anyway - I'll continue to watch how I can get along with that printer .

 

[pharmacist]

What about the Canon TM-240 24 inch printer using 5 colours: it has both MBK and PK pigment ink included ? Would that be a suitable alternative to your ecotank printer. It has cartridges, but they seem to be very easily refilled. One could buy a set of refillable cartridges and transfer the chip of the original chips onto them and put Canon G-53 dye ink into them (dye PK, C, M, Y). This printer has a dedicated photo black, so contrast should be better.

 

[Ink stained Fingers]

​

There is as well a Canon TA-20 24" printer apparently pretty similar to the TM-240, but it's for me not an ink issue or similar, it's the overall interface of the printer/driver intelligence with the user which I don't get along with. I would assume that other similar Canon printers overall have a similar layout of the user interface as the TC-20. I have the printer standing on a board with wheels underneath so that I can roll the printer away under a desk. But the small front panel is mounted vertically and cannot be moved so access is inconvenient, the display at the Epson T3100 is on the top of the printer cover and can be turned so that I could read it from the top.

The TC-20 has an interesting paper parameter option that I can use different ink limit/ink density versions for a particular 3rd party paper and test them out.

Please see here in the manual

https://ij.manual.canon/ij/webmanual/Manual/All/TC-20M/EN/PIF/pif_top.html

at the bottom

Special Paper Settings List​

You can select the ink usage amount in incremental steps.

You can correct lackluster colors or ink bleeding by selecting special settings for ink usage amounts that are suitable for the paper being used.

Paper Category	Printer Driver	Operation Panel
Special	Special 1	Special 1
Special 2	Special 2
Special 3	Special 3
Special 4	Special 4
Special 5	Special 5

The ink usage amount increases in five incremental steps as the number increases, with [Special 1] being the least amount, and [Special 5] being the most.

As the ink usage amount increases, colors become more vivid but bleeding occurs more easily.

We recommended that you try printing in sequence from [Special 1] while checking the print results.

That's something which should be implemented as well for A3 photo printers , I'm sure that users will use other then OEM papers as well - with different properties than OEM papers .


And it's not just ink puddles you may get from too much ink, there is an effect that the color saturation may drop when you increase the ink density too much - there is an effect of color saturation reversal, and this can be tested with these special paper settings quite easily. It's as always a matter how an ink reacts on a partricular paper.