CLI-8 and CLI-521/526 swap

[jimbo123]

super job on the creativity and pics !

keep 'em both coming

J

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Printers: Canon MP830, IP4500, MX700, MX860, MX870, MP980
Method: German Durchstich Method
Ink: Hobbicolors and OCP
Misc: Squeeze bottles - so much easier than syringes

 

[PeterBJ]

Brilliant idea, Tudor. This is taking chip swapping to the next level!

 

[The Hat]

Tudor
The new ink volume wont be a problem at all I reckon,
because once the prism activates on the reservoir been empty then the printer will do its usual count down
for the smaller cartridge and just stop that little bit earlier, no big deal.

The differences in the amount of ink that will be left in the sponge side are so small
I dont think youll notice and the printer will always under compensate anyway.

Because we are using the larger carts there will be more ink left in the sponge side
than there would be normally in the smaller carts, which should be far more than one ml.

I have found when filling the larger clear cartridges that the sponge gets more ink into it than an unfilled cart has when new,
so even under-filling the reservoir wont cause the printer to over compensate and run the cart till its dry. (Causing Damage)
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In the first photo you can see where I melted away all of the little nipples that were sticking up
as shown in Tudors photo 4#, I only left in the print head in my photos for illustration purposes.

The second photo shows where I cut the plastic away from behind the print head
using a small wire snips to allow for the extra height needed (See Tudors photo 2# )

My third photo shows a mix match of CLI-8 /PG-5 carts in the print head and all the LED lights on,
I will re-label the tops of the carts to read 521s later as I did with the print carrage.

The last photo is of the two plastic tabs that were on the insides of the top cover (Left/Right sides),
which caught me out at first, (Didnt see them) they were there to prevent the movement of the print head
with its new cartridges from travelling freely across the carriageway. (Canon being cute again)

I was lucky in that I could reach in with my hand and bend then break them off cleanly,
I power on printer and it took two head cleans to get a good nozzle check and then a test print to show all was well,
its now resting up till I can find something to print on it..

 

[PeterBJ]

I have a Pixma 3600 that I use as a guinea pig, so now I am also tempted to do this modification. I think it will be much easier to do the "surgery" on the printer if you remove the top part of the casing. The Pixma's 3600 and 4600 are similar so the disassembly instructions found in this service manual should more or less apply to both printers: http://elektrotanya.com/canon_ip4600_ip4680_sm.pdf/download.html , for download instructions see this: http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=61324#p61324

There are some differences, here is a disassembly instruction for the Pixma 3600: http://translate.google.com/transla...://www.startcopy.ru/repair/rol_c_ip3600.shtml and for the Pixma 4600: http://translate.googleusercontent.....shtml&usg=ALkJrhgElmCrMTkb3TRjCnqMSPFfX5xxew

 

[ghwellsjr]

A long time ago, when the CLI-8 and PGI-5 cartridges first came out, we all determined that the optical sensor was not doing anything. Has that been found to be incorrect?

 

[jimbo123]

these IP4500 videos may help those not familiar with the canon printer disassemble process.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpezf9jSgyU
http://www.youtube.com/user/ztarrfect/videos?flow=grid&sort=dd&view=0

not the best video quality, but may help

J

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Printers: Canon MP830, IP4500, MX700, MX860, MX870, MP980
Method: German Durchstich Method
Ink: Hobbicolors and OCP
Misc: Squeeze bottles - so much easier than syringes

 

[Tudor]

I the MG5350, after the top is opened and closed, the printer will check all cartridges, but it doesn't check the prisms.
I took an empty cli-526Y, reset it, put ink in the sponge and installed it. There was no ink in the ink chamber. The printer said it was full and printed a few nozzle checks, did a couple head cleanings, printed a few doc pages with yellow and... nothing. It started printing with stripes and the printer still said the yellow was full. Maybe it checks the prism when it thinks the ink chamber is empty, just to double check... I can see the optical sensor, what other reason would they have to put it there?

 

[ghwellsjr]

I can see the optical sensor, what other reason would they have to put it there?

To find out if you are refilling??
So you can use the more expensive and lower capacity CLI-8 cartridges in a BCI-6 printer??
Who knows but I think you are coming up to the same conclusion that was previously arrived at. I guess this means that you will have to reset your cartridges before they are empty but then you'll have to keep looking to see when they really are empty. Maybe a compromise solution would be to find out what level to fill the reservoir so that they hold the same amount of ink as the cartridges that came with the printer.

 

[The Hat]

Tudor wrote:

I can see the optical sensor, what other reason would they have to put it there?

From what knowledge I have gained here and from observing my printers during cartridge installation, working with the top lid open, while trying a couple of tricks on the cartridge chip and prism.

When you install a refilled cartridge with the chip reset again you'll then get the normal ink monitoring from the chip and from the on screen ink monitor, some would say there're the same but actually there not.

You can in fact remove the cartridge later and reset it to full again
but you'll still get the low ink warning at precisely the same time, (Reservoir empty) regardless of the chips condition, this then causes the previously full chip to now instantly register low. (Yellow triangle)

Once the reservoir become empty the printers LED light senses this condition by way of the cartridge prism and takes full control of the remaining ink, then at a prescribe ink count declares the cartridge empty and unsafe to continue and stops, at this point the chip will now show the red X.

 

[PeterBJ]

The Hat wrote:

You can in fact remove the cartridge later and reset it to full again
but youll still get the low ink warning at precisely the same time, (Reservoir empty) regardless of the chips condition,
this then causes the previously full chip to now instantly register low. (Yellow Triangle)

This suggests that the prism/sensor system is actually working, in my opinion. I think it can be easily verified by resetting a CLI-8 cartridge and refilling it only partially, with the reservoir only partially filled. If the low ink warning comes on as soon as the reservoir is empty, this should prove that the prism/sensor system is active.

Maybe the prism is only checked at power up, and probably occasionally during a large print job? This could explain Tudor's test results in post #17.