Finally back... with lots to discuss (iP6000D)

[ssteve731]

Well I haven't been able to post here for quite some time (long story.... loggin issues.... but finally found a work-around).

Anyway, here's my first subject of interest.....

For several months, anytime I do a test print (in the tools section) the bottom bar of Cyan does not print at all. {with the iP6000D, it prints a darker, top bar, and a lighter bottom bar, for both regular Cyan, as well as for Photo Cyan... in other words, 4 bars for these two colors}

The prints appear to be okay, but I don't know why this bottom bar doesn't print on the test page. BTW, this is a fairly new print head (8 months ?) with maybe only 300, 8 1/2" x 11"s on it. The head before this one finally got permanently clogged, and had to be replaced. And, this new print head has gotten clogged a couple times also, with both of the Cyans, and both Magentas. I was able to use a method in which I can force water, with pressure, through the ports, and out of the head, and this worked.......

However, that bottom Cyan bar still is completely blank ???

Could this just be an glitch in the "Printer maintence" section ?

If only one of the two Cyan bars was not showing in the test print, wouldn't this still be visible by poor colors, or banding in my prints ???

Anyone ?

Thank you,
Fish

 

[on30trainman]

I believe that with the ip6000D most BLUE printing is done with the Photo Cyan cartridge, with only dark blues using the regular CYAN. That may be why you are not seeing a color shift. I know with my ip6000D (the printer I use for photos) that I go through 2 or 3 PC cartridge (refills) for every regular C. Many of my pictures have a fair amount of sky (lighter blue). I do know that with my ip4000 that there are two sets of nozzles for the C and M colors - had to replace that printhead. Don't remember how many sets of nozzles are on the ip6000D printhead - don't want to remove it to check. Sounds like maybe there is a clog. Since you are having regular clogging problems, it could be the ink you use. I see by another post (I responded to that one also) that you use Ink Grabber cartridges. I have had my ip6000D for over two years now (original printhead) and have only been using Hobbicolor inks in it and have had no clogs. Although it gets intermittent heavy use, it also goes through many periods on non-use for up to 4 weeks. I never have had a problem turning it on and printing after those long layoffs. Usually run a nozzle check and then print. As a matter of fact, I just now turned on the ip6000D for the first time in three weeks (we were away) and did a nozzle check - it was perfect.

Steve W.

 

[ghwellsjr]

First off, the color blue is printed using equal parts of cyan and magenta.

Secondly, the iP6000D has six sets of nozzles, one for each cartridge.

Thirdly, I don't like Inkgrabber (G&G) cartridges, although I can't connect my clogged nozzles with their inks because it has been a long time since I used them. I do have a bunch of new G&G cartridges that I have received with printers I have purchased on eBay. Maybe I should start using them to see if they clog the nozzles.

I like Canon original cartridges and Inktec ink.

I also have used a technique described numerous times on this forum to unclog nozzles which does not require removing the print head from the printer. I believe the printer is the best machine to unclog your nozzles, mainly by helping it along with Windex (or similar glass cleaner with ammonia). I just don't worry anymore about clogged nozzles. I have many printers that are in storage and I have removed the print heads from them. Some have been sitting idle for over a year and I have never had a problem bringing any of them back to life. I would love the challenge of getting someone's printhead that has random nozzles clogged to see if I can unclog them. Any takers? (It would have to be a head that fits one of the printers listed in my profile below.)

 

[ssteve731]

Well hey ghwellsjr ! You certainly sound confident !

I'm very tempted to buy "yet another" printhead for my iP6000D, just so I can send you my current one, and see if you can get that bottom bar on the Cyan to work in the test print.

And believe me, even if I don't buy another print head right now, then as soon as this one clogs and I'm forced to buy another, I'll certainly send you my bad one so you can see what you can do with it !

BTW, I have a method in which I can force water.... windex... alcohol... cyanide (okay... well I haven't tried cyanide yet whatever I want to, through the head, under pressure, and this sometimes works, but in the past, I have forced windex all the way through it, didn't drain it afterwards, but let it then sit in a bowl of windex for a couple days, and it STILL didn't fix the clog !

Will keep this post in mind, for future clogs...

Sure wish I could find some good prefilled carts though....
Maybe the new InkGrabber carts will be okay. The packaging is new... maybe the carts are. Color looks good though...

Peace,
Fish

 

[ghwellsjr]

When you talk about a "test print", are you referring to a nozzle check? If an entire swath is missing, it is probably an electrical problem rather than every single nozzle for a particular color being clogged. Remember, I said I would love the challenge of getting someone's printhead that has RANDOM nozzles clogged. Can you upload an image of the nozzle check?

Sure wish I could find some good prefilled carts though....

Look down to the bottom line of this post--they're not hard to find.

 

[ssteve731]

Okay, here's a shot of my nozzle check.... Note, the top two bars are not so noticeably streaky as they appear in this shot, and again, the prints are looking very nice right now. And the paper is not dirty charcoal. I could have adjusted this in photoshop.... But you get the idea.

I will go check out those carts on Ebay right now....

Thanks,
Fish

 

[Trigger 37]

sSteve731,... I'm confused,... On the night of the 19th you indicated you still had the problem and the "Bottom Bars" were still missing. Then on the 20th you posted the nozzle check pattern and said everything looked good. What did you do to fix the problem, and how did it look before.

Also, use "office Picture Manager" to enhance the contrast of the image. While this will make it look better, we know what the real colors look like and the increased contrast will make the image much easier for us to diagnose. The background paper color will be white.

To: ghwellsjr,... you implied you have a process that is really working for you. Please share it with the rest of us. You wouldn't want 20,000 people to send you a printhead to clean and test,....do you?. From what you have posted it appears you leave the printhead in the printer and use "Cleaning ink carts" that you have made yourself, with some percentage of ink and Windex. I've used this approach myself and sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn't. One time I tried to print a full page of black using a Canon ink cart filled with 5% black ink and 95% windex. This was on a very bad clog on a i560 printer. It burned out the printhead. Since no ink ever got through or past the clog, where ever it was, the nozzles were not being cooled by any ink, yet they were commanded to continue to fire. They overheated and burned.

If we look at the history from all the Canon comments, one conclusion always comes to the top of the list. Canon never -ever- wants the printhead to run out of ink, under any conditions. They go to all kinds of process steps to prevent anyone printing if they think there is a possibility the printer is out of ink. The printer software goes to all kinds of tests to make sure the head is always primed, especially if they can tell is has been a long time since anything was printed. There is a clock on the logic card that keeps track of time up to one full year since the last print job. If a print command is issued after such a long time, the logic card changes the amount of ink it will use in cleaning the head before it prints. These can be really heavy duty "Deep Cleaning" cycles.

I have long wanted to try a test with "Cleaning Cartridges" with a known good cleaning solution and heat it up. Hot water cleans heads much faster than cold water, and therefore I would like to find a way of heating the cleaning solution in such a cleaning cart. But this seems to go against my own issue of trying to keep the print head cooled down. Maybe the secret is just printing a small bar of black and then letting the head cool while the paper moves,...then print another bar.

On several HP printer ink carts, I have found integrated printhead that have stuborn clogs. To clean them I have injected hot water in the same manner as refilling the ink cart and letting the head sit on a wet-hot paper towel until I see some ink wicking. Then several purge prints on the printer usually cleans out the head. It never works with cold ink but almost always works with hot water. ONce the ink cart begins to print again, I use a syringe to pull out all the remaining liquid and refill with good ink and the printhead is good to go.

Anyway, would really love to hear more details about your cleaning process.

 

[ghwellsjr]

I like to do a process that does not require connection to a computer. It only requires some "full" cartridges of each color with some ink in the tank (not a cleaning cartridge) and some "empty" cartridges with the tank empty. It also requires some Windex with ammonia or similar product (or just distilled water if ammonia is prohibited in your country) and a syringe (or an eye dropper or a straw) and some plain paper. You also need to know how to produce a nozzle check from the controls on the printer. For most Canon printers that do not have a screen on them, you can get a nozzle check by holding down the paper feed button until the power light flashes twice, then release it. Of course, if your printer is already connected to your computer, you can use the maintenance tab to produce a nozzle check and also to force a cleaning cycle. You should be aware that on some printers, there are separate cleaning/purging processes for each of the pads that the head parks on. You can force a cleaning cycle for one of these pads by inserting an "empty" cartridge for a particular color associated with that pad and closing the cover and then putting back the "full" cartridge. (You can also do this from the computer's printer maintenance tab.)

In summary, my process is to repeat the following steps until success has been achieved:
1) insert Windex on the screens where the cartridges feed ink into the printhead
2) insert Windex on the cleaning/purge pad
3) force a cleaning/purge cycle
4) perform a nozzle check

Here is the process in detail (it assumes you have already done a nozzle check and know which color is clogged. You can, of course, do this simultaneously for several colors):

Open the cover to your printer.

Remove the full cartridge for the clogged nozzles.

Put in an empty cartridge of the same color.

Close the cover.

Wait for activity to stop.

Open the cover.

Remove the empty cartridge.

Put some Windex on the screen in the printhead that receives the ink.

Put in the full cartridge.

Put some Windex on the pad(s) off to the far right where the head parks.

Close the cover.

Do a nozzle check.

Repeat all these steps until the nozzle check prints correctly several times in a row.

If you find that you have some stubborn nozzles and you want to give up for the day, put Windex on the pads, close the cover so that the head parks, pull the plug on the printer and let it sit that way until the next time you are ready to try again. Oftentimes, that will be enough to unclog the remaining nozzles.

There are several advantages to this process over removing the print head and trying to unclog outside the printer. First off, sometimes the purge/cleaning tubing is clogged and putting Windex on the pads solves this problem. Secondly, there is always some fresh liquid feeding into the printhead even if the cartridge has a problem. Thirdly, it eliminates the possibility of getting liquid on the electronics of the print head by other cleaning methods that remove the print head from the printer. Fourthly, it is very simple.

A couple last suggestions, if your nozzle check shows a regular repeating pattern to the clogged nozzles, this probably indicates an electrical problem that cannot be fixed by this method and if the pattern of clogs changes with repeated nozzle checks, this probably indicates a feed problem with the cartridge so use a different one.

 

[Trigger 37]

ghwellsjr,... I really like this approach. Of course if the printer is attached to a PC, it is even easier plus you can control cleaning either the Black or the Color or both via the Maintenance tab.

So let me summarize what I think you said. If you have one color that is not performing, remove that ink cart and add windex to the filter screen in the printhead for that ink cart. Then add some Windex to the purge pads so they are flooded. Then replace the ink cart, close the cover, and do a Deep cleaning for the black or the color. Now print a nozzle check. Repeat all of this until the clog is gone.

OK, I would also add one other feature. I would heat up the Windex in a cup in the microwave to a temperature no hotter than anyone would heat a cup of coffee. Then add the windex with a syringe to the filter screens and purge pads. I believe the hot Windex will speed up the process.

I really like this because of the things you have pointed out, plus it does not risk burning out the printhead by trying to use cleaning carts and printing a full page of some color. I have had both success and failure using that method. This process takes full advantage of the excellent purge unit that Canon puts in each printer. They can really suck the ink down through the printhead and I believe this is the most effective way to get the clogged ink out of the nozzles.

Some people worry about filling up the waste ink pads, but this is never a problem. I have cleaned so many printers and I have never found one that was even close to filling up the waste ink pads. The only down side to this process is that it will use up some ink from the other color cartridges. For people that don't refill, they could empty a couple of other colors pretty fast. For me, I think I will further modify your process and replace all of the color ink carts with cleaning carts that have a 10% ink and 90% Windex. This keeps from wasting ink and would also help clean out the other ink nozzles. Although, a nozzle check uses very little ink but a Deep cleaning cycle uses up to 1 gram of ink.

One of the steps I use when I rebuild a printer is to remove the entire printer asm and set it on blocks. When I'm ready to test the printer, I put folded paper towels underneath the exit tubes of the purge unit. Then with all the inks and the head installed I run a full cleaning cycle. This way I can watch all the process steps the purge unit goes through, as well as see all the ink come out of the purge unit. People would be amazed at how much ink is sucked out of each color. If an ink tank holds 13 ml of ink, then something very close to 1ml is sucked out on a standard color cleaning cycle, so that is about 0.33 ml of each color. If it takes 10 cleaning cycles to get rid of a clog, that has used 3.3 ml of ink from the other colors.

The more I think about this, the more I get other ideas. Why not just install home made cleaning ink carts for all colors and heat them in the microwave for a few seconds. Then you can just continue to do cleaning cycles and nozzle checks until the clog is gone. I wonder if these plastic ink carts can stand 10 to 15 seconds in a microwave.????? I'll test it out and let you know. I must have 40 Canon ink carts that I'm not using.

I can't wait to try this approach. I think you have a "Winner" here.

 

[Manuchau]

Trigger 37 and ghwellsjr..

This is superb information. Everyone here should print your comments and keep them for reference. I recently have started to print important references and solutions like this, and am keeping copies in a File folder. Sincere appreciation for your input!!