Canon Pixma Pro 1 Ink and refill options.

[mikling]

Hat you might have missed the overextending the 30ml syringe part. The 30 ml syringe has markings to 30ml. However the volume can be increased beyond the marking. It turns out to be around 36ml if you pull the plunger right to the end. That is what I meant. This way about 36ml is always dispensed into the cart. I just pulled a cart out declared empty and it is 55 grams and all my carts are filled this way. In one stroke, no weighing at all. Of course since there is ink left inside, you would NOT be able to just refill or else my technique would overfill. But if you force it from empty it is foolproof. Officially the capacity is 30ml according to Canon.
A completely empty cart is 44-45 grams. Sounds to me like there is lots of cushion for empty. That's how Joe gets his stash of inks when he harvests the leftovers.
I don't like to trim up a second time...to me it takes too much time and the 36ml has not failed me once yet. The other reason is that when I put too much ink in, it can leak back out when it is too full. However I am putting in around 36ml and I have found the printer consumes about 26-27 ml when it declares empty leaving around 3-4 ml or so for a safety margin to the official 30 ml. So this in addition to the 6 ml added in from the start leaves about 9-10 ml in the cart when it is declared empty most times. Lotsa cushion.

 

[Anton D]

Hi Everyone! I recently got my canon pro-1 and now I am facing the refilling problem.

I print once in 2 months all the images I got during that time to print. Do you think it will be ok if I just check the weight of the cartridges before printing to ensure there is enough ink inside and just step over low ink warnings? This way I should be able to print without changing the chips.
In other words, can I force the printer to print even if it thinks there is no ink inside the cartridges? What problems can I encounter refiling this way?

Also, do I understand correctly that each time (after 2 months) I turn on the printer I will lose about 4ml of inks from all cartridges? (or 4ml from each cartridge?)

 

[The Hat]

Hi Anton and welcome, because you’re using your printer occasionally, then each time your turn on the printer it will do a large cleaning cycle, and yes it will use anything from 2 to 3 ml per cartridge each time you power it on.

There is no need to weight your carts just leave them as is, you can probably print more than a dozen large prints after the low ink warning first appears, the printer will stop before you are completely out of ink and tell you to change some/all the cartridges.

You can force the printer to continue after the out of ink warning appears on screen, and when one or more of the carts finally runs dry (Empty) the printer will stop and refuse to continue, but then you’ll have other problems to contend with.

When you get to replace all the cartridges, the printer will then run a system flush to rid the CISS tubing of any air and this will cost you big time, your will lose 12 ml out of every cart, do your maths. that’s 144 ml of ink down the drain.
So, do you really want to go beyond the edge of the earth...

The Pro 1 is a very intelligent printer and if you try to fool it, then you can expect it to bite back and it will...

 

[stratman]

The Pro 1 is a very intelligent printer and if you try to fool it, then you can expect it to bite back and it will...

Spoken like a man with the teeth marks to prove it.

 

[Not Enough Time]

Hi All new to the forum I have a question for The Hat. You mentioned that you disconnected the battery in your canon. So what happened when you did that.
Thanks
Lawrence: KF4HNF

 

[The Hat]

You mentioned that you disconnected the battery in your canon. So what happened when you did that.

Hi Lawrence and welcome, never disconnect the battery in the Pro 1, the battery is used to keep the EPROM chip alive at all times, just like AI, this printer is very intelligent and is self-aware, Frigg with it and it will burn you.

The battery can be changed but only when the printer is plugged in and powered on, and failure to comply with this will cause the EPROM memory to be lost, if this happens then your printer is effectively dead, and Canon service are the only ones that can revive it... Like burning $$$

 

[Beefcake]

@The Hat , I've been reading through your posts for the Pro-1 and I'm keen to save a few £'s by refilling the ink. However, I cannot seem to find the source of the ink that you choose for this printer? I noted your signature/footer, but Octoinkjet do not yet provide refills, and Precisioncolors are American based (I'm UK, of course). Don't suppose you know of a decent producer of ink that could be purchased in the UK? (even if it is Alibaba)

 

[The Hat]

@Beefcake, there are no real suppliers of all inks for the Pro 1, so I use the 9500 inks from OctoInkjet, for the additional grey inks I just use same grey in both the Dark and light carts, they sort of balance each other out and it works fine for me.

You can mix some Glop Optimiser into the grey to lighten it and photo black to darken the other grey but then I found that tends to alter the shade of grey to a different hue and that’s not good.

No matter which 3rd party ink you use you’ll have to alter the colours in Colour/Intensity (Print Driver) or develop your own profiles, either way the 9500 inks work quite nicely, you can order ink from Precisioncolors from the UK, but you’ll still have to alter your colours no matter which way you choose to bounce..

I have used Alibaba ink also and they worked out very well but its hard to get proper bottled ink there, I only bought carts....

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/12P...lgo_pvid=68c8b407-59cd-47fe-8902-8bb4946f877b

 

[Beefcake]

@The Hat , turns out my printer head is fudged. Cyan print head alignment shows the top half faded, and the bottom half OK. Sitting on the fence whether or not printing is actually worth the large amounts of cash, or not. How hard is it to replace this print head, do you know?

 

[The Hat]

It’s not hard, it’s just very expensive..
Post a nozzle check...