Canon Pro-1 - no use for 2 years, cleaning progress but no red & minimal PBK

[dave_n_s]

First owner of this Pro-1, intermittent use for 3 years then no use for 2 years.

Expected to need a serious cleaning.

Had a full set of OEM sealed carts (in boxes & sealed bags inside)

Installed those indicated by the printer first, then:

2x standard cleaning made progress, but no red and nil from cartridges not replaced first, so replaced remaining carts.

Deep cleaned sections 1 & 3. Still no Red, minimal PBK (was one of those remaining carts replaced just before deep clean) and CO looks odd (grey / cyan) (was also one of those remaining carts replaced just before deep clean)

There are other issues (magenta and yellow not printing a full compliment of lines), but the complete absence of red after two standard and one deep clean indicates it's time to seek expert advice.

Last nozzle check attached


In addition I've just checked ink levels and all are representative of new cartridges that have seen some cleaning cycles from full - all around 70% with those that haven't had a deep clean looking pretty full.
An odd feature is that red is showing around 70%, so ink is leaving the cartridge but going somewhere other than the paper.

I'm a competent tech with electronic / mechanical stuff - I'm a pro in another field, which tells me to keep my hands out until I've got expert guidance.

Thanks in anticipation

 

[The Hat]

which tells me to keep my hands out until I've got expert guidance.

Your experience to date has not been wasted because you’ve done the right thing by not going under the hood with this printer.

Never the less your making some progress, try removing all cartridges and then agitating all of them vigorously then re-insert them again and run a nozzle check, now you have two choices, to run a deep clean on all the carts or run a system clean. ?

If your intention is to get this printer up and running then you must waste ink, one way or the other, it’s a very wasteful beast when it cleans but beautiful when it prints.

Don’t be tempted to print anything until you get a full set of colours back, the nozzle checks are the exception, and leaving the printer to sit for 24 hours can also help after a severe cleaning.

Patience and nozzle checks are your friends...

 

[dave_n_s]

Thank you. My intention is to get this behaving properly as I've now got some time to make more prints.

I had set up a photoshop file that was pure red to coax the red channel into action, but I thought better of it.

I've already had the red cartridge out and shaken it and reinstalled, just to confirm it hadn't dried in the packet (although sealed). Despite that and a Deep Clean, it is producing absolutely zero, although it has used 20% say of its ink.

My puzzle is where is that ink going as it's not making it through the print head.

Also what is the Chroma patch supposed to look like? Per the Canon utility it is supposed to be 2 grey shades, so why the blue? (missing red etc?)

My inclination now is to give it a full 24 hours, nozzle check print, standard clean and a second nozzle check then decide the next step.

If I don't get even a sign of red, at that stage, I'll suspect the red side is thoroughly blocked.

Of Deep Clean and System Clean, does either have a reasonable chance of clearing it and, if so, which?

Am I best advised to reserve the ink for re-priming after whatever internal investigation you prescribe?

Lots of questions, but caution seems to be the best way of this not ending up on ebay as a parts machine!

 

[dave_n_s]

Update: I did the nozzle check / standard clean / nozzle check only and everything is improving nicely, probably needing a couple more standard clean cycles at intervals as some lines absent, except for still absolutely nil red activity and the strange blue and grey blocks on CO

What's the prescription please doctor?

 

[The Hat]

Answered in order:-
Ops, that would have signalled the end of your print head, because you need to have ink flowing through the head while printing, and clearly you don’t, secondly the printer would have primarily used Magenta and yellow and some of the other colours but only a little red.

All cartridges need to be shaken before inserting them in the printer, new or stored ones, the ink that the printer uses for cleaning goes into a waste ink cartridge under the printer frame.

The Gloss optimiser (Chroma) patch is indeed supposed to be two shades of grey, but because your missing colours, it can’t print properly, again the printer uses other colours to make grey and very little of the actual grey ink.

Any cleaning you undertake is going to be helpful but that still may not be enough, of the two cleaning methods, the system clean is far the more substantial, this clog is going to take most if not all of your inks.

P.S. You might be better getting a new print head and be done with it, because by the time this is finished, it will probably have cost you more for new inks, and there are no worthwhile saleable parts on your printer that anyone could use..

Tip: It’s by far cheaper to waste ink printing something on the printer once a month then to leave it stopped, because when you wake it up it becomes a very thirsty girl, as you have just found out.

 

[dave_n_s]

The Hat,

Thank you again.

Sounds like I made a good call on not printing that red patch!

Just checked and seen new printheads on ebay for $150 or less. Are there refurbs or (unlikely?) counterfeits being sold there?

That begs the question: if I'm going to have to pull the printhead out to replace it, is there a last ditch external clean I can do on the existing one if there is such a gross clog and one colour only being affected?

I've been through a lot of your posts to see if there is something I could do to bring the red channel to life.

I saw a discussion where someone ran the head over damp paper towels during a nozzle check. Is that relevant to my issue of a dead red channel and if so is there a safe but effective solvent?

However I'm suspecting that, if I remove the printhead, I need to have a replacement in my hand so I don't leave the plumbing in an abnormal state.

Regards

Dave

 

[The Hat]

Hi Dave, you can indeed use the paper towel under the head trick if you so wish, as to whether it will work is anyone’s guess, and it can’t do any harm, but this will also cost more ink to be wasted on power up. (Un plug from the wall)

But be careful putting anything into the platen area, because the printer can and will give a fatal *error if it detects any foreign objects left behind when powered on again. (*Return to Canon Service)

The Pro 1 is a strange printer and needs to be treated with kid gloves, it’s not like any other desktop printer, because it has a pressurised ink system that doesn’t like air intake of any kind, it has air bubble sensors when triggered can cause more ink to be wasted to rectify the situation..

A Replacement head will solve your problem much quicker, but only buy from Canon or Agents, (Maybe Cheaper) the Pro 1 uses both suction and pressure to unclog the head and it can do that much better than any external cleaning can, but at the huge cost of expensive OEM ink..

Beware because the printer has a live EPROM chip that can detect any unauthorised goings on, even when un-plugged from the wall socket..

 

[dave_n_s]

The Hat, I reflected on your advice to be patient, at least in part because I couldn't source a new print head immediately and I was not going to buy a remanufactured one.

So I decided to try weekly cleaning sessions and see if the red channel started to show some signs of life.

Today was the first session.

I ran a standard cleaning with no improvement and then checked the ink levels, with one deep clean already done on group 3. All were above 3/4 full.

I then ran the system clean on group 3 and to my delight the red channel came to life, not complete but a whole lot better than before.

Photo attached

What would you recommend from here?

I'm inclinded to leave it another week and do the same again and, if red recovers further, to run a system clean on the other two groups, because of the missing lines on PBK and magenta.

I've also attached a photo of the ink status, which shows I've got some room to manoeuvre, yes?

Thank you once again,

Dave

 

[dave_n_s]

One week later, I pulled and gave the PBK and CO a good shake as they appeared to have random lines missing then ran a standard clean on the groups containing them and Red and it's produced a good test pattern and subsequently a good 10x8 print.

If replacement printheads from a reliable source had been readily available, I'd have gone down that route a couple of weeks ago.

The lessons I have learned are:

- having bought a printer this good, I need to use it at frequent intervals at least as a maintenance exercise.
- the printer has very good self-cleaning mechanisms - apart from some incomplete colour patches, I had 2 that started off blank and one that was persistently blank until I gave it a system clean on its group
- if I have managed not to use my printer for two years, I can wait a week to see the effect of deep / system cleaning cycles (the ink appears to be being used as a solvent, so give it time) and, if one of the two causes a breakthrough, try a standard clean next on the group in question.

Thanks for the help

Now about using bulk ink supplies from larger format Canon printers or is there any comparable third party ink?

 

[The Hat]

Pigment inks can be got anywhere and will work just as good as the PGl-29 inks, I use I.S. inks from my Pro 9500 and I’m happy with them but remember where ever you get the replacement inks from, you’re probably going to need to profile to get decent Photos.. (A small price to pay)

Try precisioncolors.com