Canon waste ink pad: how long does it take to get the full message ?

[pharmacist]

Hi Defcon2k,

Well I'm surprised from the information from the printer: Here are the results I get from the EEPROM print:

D=000.15%
PC(M=012 R=007 5D=061 20D=004 CO=000 D=000 C=000)
CH=00002
CT(PM=016 R=003 BK=006 G=003 PC=013 C=007 M=008 Y=010)
PAGE(All=01141 PP=00085 HR=00001 PR=0181 SP=0069 MP=00006 PC=0000)
EDGE(A3=00027 PC=00538 OTHER=00377)
L=00000 2L=0000 A3=00046
CDR=00030 CDPAGE (A4=00006 L=00025 PC=00000 Other=00000)

Could someone help me to interprete this data. I guess that the waste ink tank has been reset as Defcon2k already mentioned and PC stands for the amount of the inktanks changed with full ones. I find the CH value strange: how is this counted ? If I take out the printhead and put it back, would this trigger an extra count for the CH-value or should this only happen when a totally new printhead has been installed ? What is EDGE (maybe Borderless printing) ?. Could someone confirm these data are in line with a moderately used printer (printed already 1141 pages according to PAGE) and has used 16+3+6+3+13+8+10=59 cartridges and what about the amount of ink in the waste ink pad, considering that the data D=000.15 % is suggesting that the ink waste count has been resetted ? How many ink waste tank full messages can be resetted away safely before my printer will be inundated with ink ?

 

[Defcon2k]

PC is the purge count (M means manual, I guess, 5D could mean automatic (timer) purges and so on).
CH is counted whenever you remove the head and put it back. (My 10 months old iP5200 has CH=14, by the way.)
How CT is counted exaclty, I'm not sure. Does it count whenever I remove a cart to check the ink levels? My iP5200 has printed 703 pages and it says CT(PBK=31 BK=31 Y=31 M=31 C=31) now. I refill my carts and check ink levels frequently.
EDGE means borderless printing. As you can see, the vast majority of the 1141 pages were printed borderless. I don't know if borderless printing fills the waste ink pads faster. I think it could be, but I'm not sure.

By the way, my iP5200 with its 703 pages and ~120 purges (see "PC") has a waste ink counter of 17.3% now. I have no idea what your waste ink counter would be, but I think it would not be terribly high.
I also don't know if only your waste ink counter was resetted or if the previous owner also dismantled the printer and changed the waste ink pads.
Craig Ross resetted his waste ink counter 4 times before ink started to leak out: link.

I think 1141 is okay for a printer... the iP5200 has a life expectancy of 18000 pages says Canon.
Since the printer is two years old, and seems to be not used that much, there is a chance of a clogged print head. But if the nozzle check is okay, you have nothing to worry about.

Here is something highly speculative:
The printer is 2 years old and it seems to have got 61 timer cleanings (not sure about this, since your PC items differ from mine).
61 timer cleanings in two years could mean that the printer was switched on 2.5x a month. (Maybe more often, but then it was on the same day and did not trigger a timer cleaning).
1141 pages in 2 years could mean about 47 printed pages per month.
Take these calculations with a grain of salt... or better with a ton of salt.

 

[pharmacist]

Hi Defcon2k,

thanks for sharing your expertise with me about the EEPROM data. I really appreciate this. So according what the man from whom I purchased the printer is actually telling the truth about his usage when determining the data extracted from the EEPROM. When I got the printer at home, the first thing I started was to absorb the excess in from the overspray sponge (from borderless printing) and a quite a lot of ink has been absorbed from the sponge (maybe 10 ml or so) and is now nearly completely dry, but one thing I thinks the printer is indeed not used much is the left sponge where printhead sometimes purges waste ink is only about 3 mm deep coated with ink. On your link of Craig Ross I can see this left sponge links to the waste ink pad where excess of ink will drip on: this sponge is almost completely clean and only a thin upper layer is coated with ink. I took it out to inspect it and found it to be quite clean. And yes: the nozzle check printout is 100% OK, so no clogged nozzels at all !

Besides Defcon2k: what are your experience with Inktec ink ? Since at tintenalarm.de I can't find the colours red and green available of inktec and I want to try those inks. I want to try a 8 x 100 ml amount of ink but they don't sell those types of ink apart (only aftermarket carts). At this moment I'm using Hobbicolors and I find the colours really superb and even more vivid than those from the original cartridges. Even with a three colour printer like the IX4000 (cyan/magenta/yellow) the printouts are really astonishing. I printed the testpage from druckerchannel.de both with the IX4000 (3 colours/Hobbicolors ink) and the i9950 (8 colours/original Canon cartridges/ink) and I find the colours are almost identical: maybe the skin colours of the the i9950 are more fleshy and natural, but further no noticable difference. I'm curious what the effect will be when refilling the Canon carts with the Hobbicolor inks, since they are running low quite soon.

Are those inks from Inktec light fast too like the Hobbicolors ink ? What is your experience with Inktec ink on the long term when exposed to direct sun light or UV light sources ?

 

[Trigger 37]

Pharmacist,... If your D=000.15%. you must has reset the waste ink count yourself. If you were trying to learn how to get into Service Mode and then somehow pressed the "Resume" button 4 times, that is the reset for the waste ink Counter.

As far as how many times you can reset it, you should not have to worry about that for at least a year. The pads below will collect a lot of ink. Who knows if the person before you reset the waste ink value. One time when I did a full reset, then put in some new ink and did a Deep cleaning cycle, I checked the "D" value once again and it went from 000.00% to 000.2% just with one deep cleaning cycle. You can test this again, buy just printing the Service Test print, then do the power off cycle. Then power on and do a deep cleaning cycle, then go into service mode and print the Service Test print.

By the way, the Service test print tells you so much information about your printer, it also shows you the accuracy and quality of every part of your printer. The manual that I am putting together teaches people how to repair Canon printers and explains in detail what each element of the Service Test Print and the EEprom data means. Hope to have it on ebay this month.

 

[Defcon2k]

Besides Defcon2k: what are your experience with Inktec ink ? Since at tintenalarm.de I can't find the colours red and green available of inktec and I want to try those inks.

Are those inks from Inktec light fast too like the Hobbicolors ink ? What is your experience with Inktec ink on the long term when exposed to direct sun light or UV light sources ?

I am quite happy with Inktec, but I have not experimented with other companies like Hobbicolors etc., so probably somebody else can answer your ink related questions better. I have some photos hanging on my walls for about 4 months now. I can't see any degradation due to uv light or ozone so far. I set my printer driver to "magenta -5" since the prints were a little bit too magenta for me. I also noted some metamerism (especially visible in greyscale pictures-> more blueish at daylight and more reddish under fluorescent light), but this is dependend on combination of ink and paper used. I don't care much about this.

Inktec red and green you can find here for example:
https://shop.ebootis.de/krauss.htm
100ml=6
There is also a "Sparpack": 500ml inktec (5x100ml PGBK, BK, C/M/Y) for 26.

 

[pharmacist]

Hi Defcon2k,

Those prices are rather expensive compared to Hobbicolors ink, almost 2 times more expensive ! Or I should buy 1 liter bottles, but that is just overkill. Just pity they don't sell "Sparpacks" for my type of printer: it is allways Black/Pigment Black/Cyan/Magenta/Yellow (for the majority of users !). For these prices I can get twice the amount of Hobbicolors ink with plugs, syringes and needles. I think 4,50 per 100 ml should be a more reasonable price (since the most expensive Inktec Ink, the pigment-based BCI-3eBk/PGI-5BK compatible ink is selling for 34,52 per liter at tintenalarm.de). 6,- per 100 ml is a little bit overpriced. I've heared good feedbacks for the quality of Inktec ink.

 

[Defcon2k]

May I ask where do you come from? If you are not from Germany, you might find Inktec cheaper in your country... especially if you factor in the shipping fees. If you are from here, I'd like to know where you bought your Hobbicolors ink.

 

[pharmacist]

Hi Defcon2k,

I'm from Belgium (Flanders). The Hobbicolors ink are purchased directly from www.hobbicolors.com with a shipping cost at around $22,- for an average amount (let's say 28 oz/800 ml). But even with the shipping cost added to the total amount I find the prices better than purchasing Inktec ink from Germany (for which you have to pay postage & handling as well !). They sell 8 oz (about 240 ml) per colour for $ 8.95 (about 6.70), which is quite cheap compared to Inktec and the quality is really superb and even better than the original Canon ink. I already mentionend the use of Hobbicolors in my IX4000, which uses only 3 colours in photo printing (cyan/magenta/yellow) and I find it very difficult to find any difference compared with the same picture printed with my i9950 (using original Canon cartridges and ink). Only with fleshy tones you can see a difference (better with the i9950). I can not believe that the gamut is so good with Hobbicolors you actually don't need the photo magenta or photo cyan to achieve an excellent result (But using it would make it even more better !).

One thing: the Hobbicolors UW8 ink they are now selling is backwards compatible with the BCI-6 cartridges (can be used both for the newer CLI-8 and the older non-chipped BCI-6 carts). I'm not sure this will give significant colour shifts, since I have not refilled my BCI-6 carts yet. Be prepared to have much deeper and more saturated colours and maybe you have to lighten your pictures with Hobbicolors.

 

[Defcon2k]

I can't tell you much about the gamut of Inktec ink, since I normally don't care much about that. But I've tried to find a test chart for that (this from here) and had a look how many discernible colors I see when I print it with my iP5200 on glossy Sihl paper, 280g.

The light parts are all okay, but the following colors look the same to me:
cyan: the upper 2 boxes (100%, 95%)
magenta: -
yellow: upper 3
black: -
red: -
green: upper 3
blue: upper 2

Perhaps I could change that by using different paper or a different color profile or reducing the colors in the driver (tried that, did not change much)... but I'm too lazy to do that. I'm a perfectionist, but I think color management is like pandora's box.