Canon CLI refilling experiences?

[Defcon2k]

Do you get ANY drips out the exit port when you are finished? I would expect 1 or 2, but I may be wrong.

Do you cover or seal the exit port while injecting the ink?

No and no.
Not one drop of ink left the carts unintentionally so far.

 

[hpnetserver]

Grandad, my printer does not seem to know that I have taken a cartridge out for refilling. When the lid is closed down it moves the print head to park. When I open the lid again to plug in the refilled cartridge it moves the print head back to the center. I can do that to all cartridges one at a time and the printer just does not know about it at all. If none of the cartridges registers empty before I start then the printer will not start a cleaning cycle when I complete refilling. Even if it does it will not do it until right before I start a print job. In this case there is still only one cleaning cycle done, which I would manually start one anyway.

 

[Grandad35]

hpnetserver,

My comment was directed at the situation where a cart had previously registered as "low" (an empty ink tank) before it was removed to refill. If the ink never uncovers the prism, you will never experience the situation that I described - unless your printer's "auto clean timer" just happened to go off when a cart was missing and the lid was closed (which would be rare).

 

[ghwellsjr]

...snip... When you take one cartridge out for refilling close (lower) the printer lid before you reinstall the refilled cartridge. By closing the lid the print head will move to its parking pad. The pad will protect the print head from drying from the bottom side.

Wouldn't a missing cart register as "full" (no light will be reflected back)? If the cart previously registered as "empty", this will trigger a cleaning cycle which will suck all of the ink for the missing cart out of the print head. When the refilled cart is reinstalled, the printer won't see an "empty-to-full" transition for the cart, so you will have to initiate a manual cleaning cycle to refill the ink channels.

Grandad35, to answer your question, yes, removing an empty cart and closing the lid will 'trigger' a cleaning cycle, but it would be more appropriate to say that it "arms" a cleaning cycle because it is delayed until you actually attempt to print something. When you later open the lid and put back a filled cartridge, the printer still won't do the cleaning, and you are right, it can't tell the difference between a filled cartridge and no cartridge at all. Later, when you go to print something, there is a long pause and a lot of mechanics going on while the cleaning cycle is performed before the print actually occurs.

This applies only to printers that use the BCI-6 and BCI-3 cartridges. The newer printers that use chipped cartridges do know if you close the lid with a missing cartridge. I have no idea if they delay a cleaning cycle in a similar situation.

 

[Defcon2k]

This applies only to printers that use the BCI-6 and BCI-3 cartridges. The newer printers that use chipped cartridges do know if you close the lid with a missing cartridge. I have no idea if they delay a cleaning cycle in a similar situation.

Yes, they do. The cleaning cycle is performed after you send a print job to the printer. I made a (very boring ) video about this.

Btw: the cleaning cycle on the vid was forced by doing this: a) remove the power plug of the printer so it is out of electricity, b) set the system clock of the PC one week into the future, c) wait 3 minutes and re-plug the printer. This is because the printer checks the PC clock after a period without electricity to prevent unnecessary cleaning.

 

[Grandad35]

...snip... it would be more appropriate to say that it "arms" a cleaning cycle because it is delayed until you actually attempt to print something. When you later open the lid and put back a filled cartridge, the printer still won't do the cleaning, and you are right, it can't tell the difference between a filled cartridge and no cartridge at all. Later, when you go to print something, there is a long pause and a lot of mechanics going on while the cleaning cycle is performed before the print actually occurs.

When I replace an empty cart on my i9900, it doesn't immediately initiate a cleaning cycle (as you described), almost as though it wants to make sure that I don't want to do something else. If I initiate a print shortly after a refilled cart in installed, the cleaning cycle will be triggered immediately - nothing will be printed until the new cart(s) are put under a vacuum cycle to make sure that the ink channels are filled. However, if I don't print within a minute or two after the cover is closed the printer will then initiate a cleaning cycle - probably to make sure that the channels are filled with ink before they have a chance to dry out.

 

[mikling]

Grandad, in comparing an i950 and i9900 I am currently using, the cleaning and purging algorithms are completely different. I find that very interesting because I would have thought they would be similar.

It looks like Canon paid particular attention to the issue of clogging in the i9900 and prefers to sacrifice ink to ensure that it does not happen. As you described, I have found that a cleaning or purging cycle is initiated far more frequently than on the i950. At one point I thought that the i9900 was faulty. So the algorithm used on a particular model is not necessarily the same as one used on another even within a similar or close generation.

 

[ghwellsjr]

When I replace an empty cart on my i9900, it doesn't immediately initiate a cleaning cycle (as you described), almost as though it wants to make sure that I don't want to do something else. If I initiate a print shortly after a refilled cart in installed, the cleaning cycle will be triggered immediately - nothing will be printed until the new cart(s) are put under a vacuum cycle to make sure that the ink channels are filled. However, if I don't print within a minute or two after the cover is closed the printer will then initiate a cleaning cycle - probably to make sure that the channels are filled with ink before they have a chance to dry out.

One minute after closing the lid on my i9900, the printer will make a noise that lasts for 12 or 13 seconds, but it's not doing a cleaning cycle. I waited 15 minutes more with no further activity. Finally, I installed the full cartridge and attempted a nozzle check. This triggered the cleaning cycle which lasts for 45 seconds.

 

[Grandad35]

One minute after closing the lid on my i9900, the printer will make a noise that lasts for 12 or 13 seconds, but it's not doing a cleaning cycle. I waited 15 minutes more with no further activity. Finally, I installed the full cartridge and attempted a nozzle check. This triggered the cleaning cycle which lasts for 45 seconds.

I never paid close attention to what was happening after the lid was closed - only that something was going on. The next time that I change carts I'll pay closer attention, taping down the "cover down" switch so that I can leave the cover up to watch what happens.

 

[Defcon2k]

Today I refilled all my carts again and made a video showing the whole procedure. Nothing spectacular to see here I just refined my technique a little bit and got faster (7 minutes for all carts).