Canon Mp500 - What Are These Tubes? - Cleaning Problem Printing Black Pigment

[Robert the Bruce]

Thanks @PeterBJ , that might be useful for the future. For now I think I will clean up and put the whole thing back together....and hope it works!

 

[PeterBJ]

I probably misunderstood something, I thought you had a problem finding out where to reattach two tubes, so I will not disassemble the iP4200. But I have an iP5200 in need of lubrication and absorber cleaning, so I will try to get some good shots when overhauling that printer. The iP5200 is similar to the iP4200 but with a larger print head, so the purge units might be similar.

 

[turbguy]

It does not appear that there are. You may be right in thinking they are air inlets, in which case I think I will leave them alone.

They have to be attached at both ends of the tube! They should connect to the extra nipples on the bottom of the purge station.

 

[Robert the Bruce]

Well I finally reassembled the printer, and after a nozzle check pattern.....no change
All four colours (including photo black) appear to be printing normally as before, but there's no pigment black at all.
I have attached a scan of the nozzle check pattern.
The pad above the capping station for the pigment black is also dry, which is something I observed before. Previously it was partially inky, now it's completely dry.
Should I run some cleaning cycles now, and/or print a photo on plain paper? What about printing a black-and-white text document?
BTW I am using Ubuntu Linux with the CUPS drivers. Is there any advantage in printing a test page from the printer control panel? It does provide bigger colour bars and therefore uses more ink, as well as some other colour patterns.

 

[The Hat]

It looks like you have done more than most in trying to get the pigment black to work again but it’s now certain that the nozzles are burned out and a new print head is the only option left sorry.

Canon QY6-0059 Print head for IP4200 MP500 MP530 (Genuine Canon print head)

http://www.securesysteminsight.co.uk/acatalog/Canon_QY6_0059.html

http://www.crc-tasktron.co.uk/index.php?app=ecom&ns=prodshow&ref=59

http://www.amazon.com/Canon-QY6-0059-Printhead-IP4200-Genuine/dp/B000G77E4M

 

[stratman]

Well I finally reassembled the printer, and after a nozzle check pattern.....no change
All four colours (including photo black) appear to be printing normally as before, but there's no pigment black at all.
I have attached a scan of the nozzle check pattern.

Congratulations on getting your printer back together! That is a task.

Your nozzle check image is too small for any reasonable observation except that Pigment Black section is not printed. Please upload a larger version such as a cropped image so those of us with slightly older eyeballs can take a look see.

Why there is no black pigment on the nozzle check can be from a number of reasons including a malfunctioned print head, a malfunctioned logic assay board, a clogged print head, and/or a malfunctioned purge system for the black pigment.

The pad above the capping station for the pigment black is also dry, which is something I observed before. Previously it was partially inky, now it's completely dry.
Should I run some cleaning cycles now, and/or print a photo on plain paper? What about printing a black-and-white text document?

No, only nozzle checks for now. Refer back to my post #10, sections 4b and 4e. Do the purge system test as I explained and post your results before purchasing a print head.

BTW I am using Ubuntu Linux with the CUPS drivers. Is there any advantage in printing a test page from the printer control panel? It does provide bigger colour bars and therefore uses more ink, as well as some other colour patterns.

I don't know Linux. However, the gold standard is using Canon's own nozzle check pattern as baseline study of function.

 

[Robert the Bruce]

It looks like you have done more than most in trying to get the pigment black to work again but it’s now certain that the nozzles are burned out and a new print head is the only option left sorry.

Canon QY6-0059 Print head for IP4200 MP500 MP530 (Genuine Canon print head)

http://www.securesysteminsight.co.uk/acatalog/Canon_QY6_0059.html

http://www.crc-tasktron.co.uk/index.php?app=ecom&ns=prodshow&ref=59

http://www.amazon.com/Canon-QY6-0059-Printhead-IP4200-Genuine/dp/B000G77E4M

Thanks for the links, although I already have two of those bookmarked. This was a new print head, bought from the USA using an ebay seller. It was advertised as, and appeared to be new rather than refurbished. I could not afford to buy one here. As I described earlier, the black didn't work out of the box. However, once I'd given it a clean in a dish of solution the black worked for a while, then gradually got worse as I ran more cleaning cycles. From reading this forum that indicated a waste ink system problem to me, quite likely due to the multiple cleaning cycles I had run trying to get the old print head to work!
I suppose it's possible there is still a problem with the black nozzles, but I find it hard to believe they are burned out. With the old head I think that was a distinct possibility for the colour nozzles; ironically the black was working just fine. Perhaps I will try the old print head and see what it produces.
What could be wrong with the logic board in the printer to stop the pigmented black alone from printing? BTW I have cleaned the print head contacts with isopropyl alcohol wipes, both on the head and the machine, then allowed them to dry before putting the print head back. The machine ones all seem to be correctly sprung and the gold plating looks intact on both sets. Is there anything else I could do to ensure there is proper electrical contact?

 

[Robert the Bruce]

Congratulations on getting your printer back together! That is a task.

Your nozzle check image is too small for any reasonable observation except that Pigment Black section is not printed. Please upload a larger version such as a cropped image so those of us with slightly older eyeballs can take a look see.

OK I've attached three nozzle check patterns, all cropped from the full page scans, but including the section where the black pigment should have printed.
#1 was printed immediately after re-inserting the head and cartridges. The machine did do a fairly long automatic cleaning when I switched it on; this was printed immediately after that.
#2 was then printed after one cleaning cycle (I was testing the purge system by flooding with water, as you described (see below), since I reasoned the nozzles were unlikely to have burned out.
#3 was then printed, again no further cleaning

You can see that the black pigment is completely absent in #1, whereas the colours are all OK. There is no improvement in #2
In #3 you can just see the ghost of two black pigment bars on the left, but no cross-hatched pattern.
I printed a further check pattern immediately after, and it was exactly the same as #2. I've therefore not attached it.

No, only nozzle checks for now. Refer back to my post #10, sections 4b and 4e. Do the purge system test as I explained and post your results before purchasing a print head.

I completed part 4e by flooding the waste ink pads on the capping station with water. The water pooled on both, and did not drain away. I then ran a single, ordinary cleaning cycle (which I thought was safe, for the reason mentioned above) and the water drained away as you would expect. I noticed that afterwards there was some ink on the pigment pad, but it wasn't completely black as I would expect.
Does this mean there is a problem with the pigment part of the print head, perhaps the nozzles or ink port? Should I have another go at cleaning it out with a dish of solution?

 

[ghwellsjr]

The purpose of the two extra tubes is to permit selective head cleaning: for just the pigment black or for just the dye inks and they also allow the printer mechanism to run the purge system without actually doing a purge. Since the other two tubes go through the purge unit which have a pair of peristaltic pumps that always work in tandem, as turbguy mentioned in post #27, this works by opening one of the lines to air so that that particular channel will just suck air instead of ink from the print head. Thanks to Trigger 37 for providing this knowledge many years ago.

Unfortunately, prior to my complete understanding of how this works, I gave out a lot of incorrect advice for the MP780 and iP4000 printers, that you could easily tell if your purge unit was clogged by putting Windex or water on the purge pads, closing the lid and re-opening it to see if the liquid had been sucked away. That's how it worked on most of my printers, which, in fact, had that second tubes clogged and not the tubes going to the purge unit. If you do that little exercise, it should not clear the pads. If it does, it means those extra tubes are clogged. So if the pads are not cleared, it could be because your printer is working correctly or the purge unit is clogged. The correct test is to do a cleaning.

It turns out that if those extra tubes are clogged, your printer can still purge the print head and it can work properly but it will dump a lot more ink into the waste tank and not keep track of it so you can have an overflow of your waste tank before the printer warns you of the possibility, especially if you are putting a lot of Windex or water on your pads regularly just for preventative maintenance. That happened to me on one of my printers. When I lifted it up for an unrelated reason, I discovered that it was hiding a pool of black ink under it.

 

[stratman]

Thank you for the new images. Obviously there is no nozzle check for Pigment Black.

Do no more printer initiated cleanings or other types of printings other than nozzle checks!

If the purge system is functioning, as per your description, then the malfunction is with the Pigment Black ink cartridge (try a new OEM cartridge), global clogging in the pigment black nozzles or ink channel within the print head, an electrical failure in the print head, and/or an electrical failure of the logic board assay.

Suggest you first start with a new OEM pigment black cartridge and if this does not work after a couple attempts, the last separated by an overnight wait, then proceed to trying to clear the print head of a presumed clog. At this time I would add another ink to the list I gave you and give forum member Emulator's method greater weight in how you should proceed with cleaning the print head: http://www.printerknowledge.com/threads/another-canon-printhead-bites-the-dust.8457/.

Clearing a print head is all about one part technique and three parts patience.

IIRC, I remarked your print head may be bad to begin with and suggested you lay the ground work with the seller for refund/exchange. Do you have the link of the seller?