Canon i960 Issue-recommended purge unit testing may NOT be adequate.

[turbguy]

First, let's see if you do something without opening the case...



With the power on, open the cover and let the printhead assume the "Change Cartridge" position, then pull the electric plug out to keep the head there.

With tweasers, remove the ceramic purge pad from the rubber "surround" where the printhead parks. It's on the far right side and is probably black from ink. This pad is about 5/8" x 5/8" x 1/16" thick. Don't drop it or you may be committed to open the printer to retrieve it.

Using Water and Windex, clean the old ink out of the ceramic pad. It should be nearly white when clean. Clean out the rubber surround area with a q-tip's moistened in Windex. Allow the rubber to dry.

Dry and Replace the ceramic pad, using the tweasers to coax ALL EIGHT little rubber lips over the top of the ceramic pad.

Plug the printer back in and close the cover. Let it do it's "thing" on cleaning.

Reopen the cover and let the printhead center. Closely examine the ceramic pad with a bright flashlight. You should see 6 colored bands on the pad from ink pulled through the printhead.

If not, do a deep clean and re-examine the ceramic pad, you should see a LOT of ink on the ceramic pad.

If not you probably do have a purge unit issue.

Let me know what you find.

 

[gigs95]

Ok, so I followed the steps. After i cleaned the pad and let the printer do its thing, I saw 5 lines, the yellow wasn't there (unless it was very faint and I could not see it, even with a flashlight). I then did a deep cleaning, and ther was alot of ink on the pad, but still no yellow... What does this mean? When this problem first started, the main issue was the cyan and black, not yellow. Any ideas?

 

[gigs95]

I just did another nozzle check...Now, the Photo Cyan has a white line through the middle, the Cyan is faint on the bottom half of the the color clock, the yellow is non-existent and the letter "G" pattern is also non-existent...

 

[turbguy]

Looks like our purge unit is working...

Post a pic of your nozzle test print and Service test print for evaluation. Or post links where they can be found on the internet.

 

[Trigger 37]

gigs95,.... It has been rather a long time since I last posted to this web site,.. but that is my problem. I've been busy with may other things. Anyway, the testing you did on the purge unti was a waste of time. The simple answer for testing the purge unti is to look at any nozzle test print. If you see "ANY COLOR, c,m,y" then you know that the purge TUBE and the purge Vacuum motor for the "COLORS" is working. Same for the black tube,...if any part of the Black matrix prints then the purge unit is working. When either tube or value or vacuum pump has failed or is clogged, then typically ALL OF THE INK OF THAT SECTION WILL BE MISSING.

I would NEVER recommend that anyone remove either of the ink pads from the purge unit and test it in that manner. For anyone not trained on how to put them back could drop one down into the printer and then they have no choice except to totally take the printer apart. There is a much safer way to test both the printhead and the purge unit and isolate the problem. I have put this information into a PDF file and will provide it to anyone that would request it. I will not post it on this forum since it is a rather simple BUT long test process and must be done EXACTLY as outlined or the test is worthless. It also requires that anyone doing the test send the result back to me for analysis. There are 7 steps in the process and very few people understand the total workings of these printers sufficiently to diagnose the problems.

 

[gigs95]

Here are the scans of the checks...hope you can read them clearly enough, my scanner is acting up now also...




Trigger...from what I have described, what do you think the problem could be? Please send me the PDF file if you think it is something that I need to do.

Thank you both so much!

 

[turbguy]

If you can post a more detailed and enlarged image of the six matrixes for the colors on the Service Test Print, that would help....adjust the image to increase the saturation and contrast if required...

Trigger has a point...bear in mind that the i960 has only ONE purge pad for all six colors. Like I said, it appears your purge unit is working.

With the patterns you posted, it appears that there may be persistent clogs in the yellow, OR a failed printhead, OR a disconnected/failed ribbon cable between the circuit board to the printhead. Can't tell quite yet.


I anyone else sees something, PLEASE post it.

 

[turbguy]

Trigger37, can you send me the PDF file as well??

Thanx!

Wayne

 

[gigs95]

I adjusted it as best as I could...hopefully this helps.

 

[gigs95]

I just noticed something...it looks like there mught be error codes on the top of the print-out. Does that tell us anything?