Introduction

[The Hat]

Enough about costs. About resetters on The Hat’s list: I looked these printers up on Canon’s website and found one that shows Resetter Yes that might work, the Pixma MG 5520, which is the current version of the Pixma MG 5220 on the list. Precisioncolors.com says there is no resetter for this generation of cartridges. So, I’m right back where I started. I don’t like the idea of going to an old version, though the older Pixma MG 5220 did have Auto Duplex.

Hi JJ,
You may look again at the MG5220 as a possible option because this printer is a equipped with 552/226 carts which the last time I look can in fact be reset and a resetter is available, so Precisioncolor will just have to amend the information on their website.

Most laser printers can use a number of toner save settings which can dramatically reduce the amount of toner used on a sheet but if you set the printer to only use 300 DPI that in itself is a huge saving without reducing quality output at all.

Another saving can be had by using the high yield cartridges instead of the usual standard ones and then the next step would be to refill the toner carts yourself, but compatible one are just as cheap to use as refilling yourself, and if you decide to go the laser route then checkout inkowl.com

 

[jjstewart]

The Pixma MG 5220 is generally not being sold anymore. Where it is, they want $250 for it. Precisioncolor does show the resetter for this model but not the current model. It is the latest version of that printer, the Pixma Mg 5520, that Precisioncolor says will not work with the resetter. The latest version is available for as little as $89. While that sounds too low to me, the listed price is $149, which is more in my ball park.

So, I'm still preferring that Samsung refill option. Inkowl.com is a nice refiller site, though limited. It doesn't list my current printer or cartridge. Thanks for the tip, though. It is great seeing who all of you use.

 

[stratman]

Another way to approach this if you want to stay with an inkjet printer is to look not only for a printer that has cartridges whose chips can be reset OR cartridges chose chips are aftermarket automatic reset chips (ARC's, COC's, whatever they want to call them). These auto reset chips will reset to FULL whenever power is lost, such as turning off the printer or if you remove the cartridge from the print head. These chips will monitor ink levels as OEM chips otherwise. The pitfall is if the chip resets itself to FULL ink level but the cartridge is not full of ink. This mismatch MAY result in the chip instructing the printer there is ink when there is not and allowing "printing" and therefore risk a burned up print head. The way to use these chips is to never turn off the printer or, if power is lost to the chip, to check and refill to full all involved cartridges that had power lost to the chip.

Canon's website has a store and you can purchase refurbished printers. These may or may not be great deals depending on sales that can occur from retail outlets. Quickly looking at the refurbs available I see three printers that do auto duplex and auto reset chips can be purchased:

http://shop.usa.canon.com/shop/en/c...ished-printers/pixma-mg7120-white-refurbished

http://shop.usa.canon.com/shop/en/c...20-black-refurbished-photo-all-in-one-printer

http://shop.usa.canon.com/shop/en/c...ireless-refurbished-office-all-in-one-printer

Even if none of these printers strike your fancy, the knowledge that you can refill various inkjet printers using auto reset chips may open up a number of new possibilities for you. Just google the name and model of the printer along with "chip resetter" to see if a chip resetter or auto reset chips are available for that printer.

Example:

https://www.google.com/search?q=PIXMA MG7120&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-USfficial&client=firefox-a&channel=rcs#channel=rcs&q=PIXMA MG7120 chip resetter&rls=org.mozilla:en-USfficial

 

[jjstewart]

Difficult decision. One thing that our discussions have brought out to me is the need to refill before cartridges run out. The chips have always been proposed, but that means moving elsewhere, usually to refurbs, which is a negative to me. It looks like there is no future for chip resetting. Only refurbs?

What I'd like to try, is to see if I can watch the page count in the printer's nozzle check utility. I know the basic cartridge has been touted to go for 170 pages, so If I use the XL cartridge, I should reasonably expect that 200 would be a good place to refill the cartridge. So far I've done it a couple of times and it seems to work great. Before, I had to do all kinds of things to get the flow going again; now I don't have to. And the black nozzle check is always at 100%. I don't have to be concerned about overfilling, being the single-ink black cartridge. So, I'm going to try this plan. It might work.

If anyone knows a better way to mimic the count of the chip, let me know.

Also: It was suggested that since I am only using black, that I fill the color cartridge with black ink. This I did, and I changed the ink setting from Black Only to Blank and Color. But when I print that way, black type comes out green. Ugh! Back to Black Only. I guess I don't know that much about the way the color cartridge works when you are printing black. I would think it would only use black ink, but obviously not.

Again, thanks for all the help.

 

[stratman]

Fortuitous that you have responded. There is a new class of ARC chips that behave exactly as new OEM Canon chips in that they will monitor ink level EVEN if electricity has been cut at the printer. These new chips will reset appropriately as well. It is the best of all worlds if a chip resetter for OEM Canon chips is not available.

Forum member Mikling is now selling these ARC chips on aftermarket cartridges. He has tested these chips and cartridges and they have met his seal of approval which is good enough for me. An example of these new chips and cartridges is at http://www.precisioncolors.com/C5Ecart.html. I suggest you PM Mikling on this site or email him via his Precision Colors web site to inquire about the printers that use this new tech so you can get a new printer if you do not want a refurbished printer.

However, like choosing what wine to drink, drink what you want and use whatever printer you like. In these instances, take the "expert" advice with a grain of salt.

The page counts reported by Canon may not be, and most likely is not, representative of what you print. Relying on this may lead to problems. Why do you want to rely on an inherently problematic system for refilling when there is a simpler and more elegant solution?

The green shading you mentioned may be due to residual color ink in the cartridge, poor quality ink, and/or incompatible paper. If the black only ink cartridge works fine then residual color ink is most likely the reason for the green.

 

[jjstewart]

I have an email on the way to him right now.

Yes, the page reports might be off, but I have to work from a target. If that fails, I'll just adjust the target. So far I put in about 12 cc one time and about 4 cc another time. So, the 12 cc says I had better not go longer than that.

 

[jjstewart]

For those who have been following this, I have been working on a permanent printer solution with precisioncolors.com on the side and have come up with this solution:

Precisioncolors.com has a high quality aftermarket set of cartridges that are economical, refillable, and have a resetter chip. I chose the Canon MX722 printer that will use this set.

After a half-day of printing, I had run out of ink with the cartridges that came with the printer, so I was quickly into the aftermarket cartridges, and have replaced all but two of them so far. They worked just like the OEM carts, signalling the out-of-ink condition and I saw how they physically go in and out of the printer. My only problem has been a beginner's mess. The aftermarket carts are see-through, so they are easy to refill.

To avoid the mess, I'm going to have to go back to my needle method, but I'm going to have to find shorter bottles that will fit my needle. Maybe I'll find another way. In the meantime, I'll go back to using gloves; no big deal.

Since I wanted to get on my long-range plan quickly, even if I would still use my old printers, I chose to spread out my use among the three operating printers I now have until I get to some sort of end with the existing refill-ink and cartridges that I still have. In the course of these discussions, I did learn how to do refills of my old printers (MG3122/3222) right; that is, to develop a way to not let the cartridge run dry in these integrated-printhead carts. What I am doing is running the Nozzle Check routine (A on the Maintenance button), which gives a page count. I'm allowing 200 copies per refill. This is about 10cc. of ink. I rarely use color, so we're talking black. I refill until it overflows; I then empty what's left in the syringe back into the bottle, so I'm not really wasting anything by refilling before it runs dry. With about a half-dozen refills using this method, the Nozzle Check shows 100% black coverage, so I'm curious to see how well that does in the long haul. Why not just keep on using this method? ...because sooner or later I want to be on this aftermarket cartridge system, which is exactly the kind of solution I want in the long haul. I think it's going to be very cost-effective.

Why not laser? First, I rarely use color, but sometimes I do. Also, the inkjet black is better-looking, IMHO. And I don't think laser is cheap enough for me to depart from Canon's paper-handling.

We discussed my requirement for auto duplex printing. While it is true that a long print run is going to be much, much faster using manual duplex, I don't qualify for that because the 14,000 pages I print are for runs of 2-22 copies. You betcha I want auto duplex! On a side-note: I went for a model with the fancy lid and discovered that I could enter two commands in Microsoft Word and it would copy multi-page, multi-sided letters into my reply letter automatically. While the method turned out to be stupid-simple, discovering how to do it took a full evening. If you want to know how to do it, let me know.

Thanks again for all the suggestions and ideas. They were great!

 

[stratman]

Glad to hear you have a workflow you like. That is the key to happy printing.

On a side-note: I went for a model with the fancy lid and discovered that I could enter two commands in Microsoft Word and it would copy multi-page, multi-sided letters into my reply letter automatically. While the method turned out to be stupid-simple, discovering how to do it took a full evening. If you want to know how to do it, let me know.

OK. Letting you know.

 

[jjstewart]

How to Run Canon ADF from Word

Once you have it set up:
1. Load paper in auto duplex feeder.
2. In Word, type Alt I, Alt P, then (just) S.
3. Scan box opens, select "Custom Insert."
4. ScanGear opens. Press "Scan."
5. Done. Very simple. Paper scans on printer, images load in Word.

The Setup. I'm using an MX722 with an auto duplex top.

At Printer:
1. Select Scan.
2. Document type - Auto Scan
3. Scan Settings - ADF Orientation - Portrait
4. ditto, ADF duplex scan - Duplex
5. Advanced - Long side stapling
6. OK.

On Computer:
1. Under All Programs, Canon Utilities, IJ Scan Utility, Scan
2. In ScanGear, leave Favorite Settings at User Defined
3. Input Settings, Select Source:, leave at ADF Duplex
4. Paper source: Letter
5. Original Orientation, Settings, Portrait, Long Edge
6. Color Mode - your choice
7. Output Settings - your choice
8. "Custom" appears in "Threshhold Settings" box.
9. Leave "Defaults."
10. Preferences - I have "Do Not Close SG Auto." For ADF Duplex Paper, I have Orig. by back/front.
11. Those settings should be retained and do not require re-entry.

 

[stratman]

Thank you for the instructional.