Building a pure B&W printer... advice needed

[BWlover]

will try that: thanks!

 

[TXAvi8tor]

Did my first darkroom work in 1962, had a conventional darkroom off and on up through the early 2000's, but by then I was shooting digital for family pictures and the like, and 'serious' photography had pretty much gone by the wayside. Bought my first DSLR, a Nikon D100, a couple years ago, then a D90, and have since gotten back into photographing for self expression in a big way. After a bad experience with an Epson 2400, I re-discovered Canon printers, this forum, and this thread!

Decided to try true b&w with a 'color' inkjet running black & gray inks (that's 'grey' for the UK types). Have been watching online auctions and Craigslist, and this weekend I picked up an ip3000 with half-full (or more) OEM carts for $30. Fired it up this AM and got the 'two orange blink' paper feed error. A firmware reset cured that, and test prints showed that it hadn't been used in awhile. A couple of head cleanings fixed the color channels, but pigment black stopped printing! I know that's not truly necessary for my intended use, but I wanted everything working. Pulled the carts and a 'blow through the air vents' test over a sink showed that the pigment black cart flows freely, so I removed the print head. Black pigment & paper dust - gunk city! I wiped it down with Windex (the ammonia kind); and blotted the print face against a paper towel well-dampened with Windex. A couple of paper towels ended up mostly black.

While I was at it, I wiped down the in- and outside of the printer with more towels dampened in Windex, as the insides were thoroughly splattered with ink and the outside was somewhat smudged. Re-installed the print head and carts and Wa-Laa (as we say in Texas): Perfect printouts of firmware 1 and 2, and the longitudinal streaks from ink-stained rollers are gone also, so I'm rewarded with a 100% functional ip3000.

I plan to order these inks unless someone has a better suggestion, and will flush and refill the C, M, and Y carts with dark, medium and light, respectively, and let 'er rip! I'll post up the results. Thanks to all who have contributed to this thread in particular, and who have shown me how to bring both my i9100 and this printer back from the dead.

Now to my question: Am I correct that the BCI-3 and -6 are functional equivalents? I'd like to run the same BCI-6 carts in both the i9100 and this printer.


Best to all,

Larry

 

[ghwellsjr]

Yes, but the iP3000 is supposed to use the BCI-6 cartridges anyway. Why do you ask about the BCI-3e carts? Is that what was in the iP3000 when you got it?

BTW, contragulations on getting your used iP3000 to work.

 

[TXAvi8tor]

Yeah, it had -3's in it. I thought they were original to the printer, but if not, they're likely no more than the second set.

The first owner seemed to be a 'good ole boy.' I suspect tech stuff isn't his bailiwick. For him $30 was the better end of the deal, and for me, so was a good printer that cleaned up nicely. My HP inks should be here in a few days; now all I have to do is add this one to the growing collection of printers in the computer room without my spouse noticing.

 

[ghwellsjr]

One thing I don't understand is how you expect the three shades of grey ink for the HP printer to produce the correct printouts in the iP3000. The link I provided in post #2 of this thread was about using shades of grey ink in a printer like the iP4000 which has four dye ink cartridges, not three like the iP3000.

 

[TXAvi8tor]

One thing I don't understand is how you expect the three shades of grey ink for the HP printer to produce the correct printouts in the iP3000. The link I provided in post #2 of this thread was about using shades of grey ink in a printer like the iP4000 which has four dye ink cartridges, not three like the iP3000.

@$%^%&*!! My errror. Having gotten it working, cleaned it up & refilled the carts, I'll put it back on craigslist. If I can get about what it cost, I'll be happy, and back to watching for a 4200.