IP4500 CISS - using original canon cartridges

[lin]

For those who have read my replies in regards to the Rubber plug (http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=3348&p=1) would have read about me mentioning the obstruction created by Canon for CISS users.

As such, nowsaday the Canon CISS non original canon cartridges in the market are usually slightly shorter in height than the Original Canon Cartridges. Generally there are 2 type of shorter CISS non original canon cartridges, either they are spongeless or with sponge. Currently, most spongeless one are still unstable while those with sponge cartridges some works slightly better than other.

For those who DIY CISS using original Canon cartridge (since the original canon cartridge tend to offer the overall best performance for refilling), they will inevitably have to mod their printer casing to minimize the obstruction when the carriage unit moves. I asked martop's help to capture images of the underside of IP4500 case cover as he was going to open it up to remove paper clip which had fallen into the printer so that I could highlight those area of obstruction on IP4500.

Below is a picture of where these obstructions on IP4500 are which will need to be remove should original canon cartridges are going to be used with the CISS.


As my IP4500 is still under warranty, I cannot touch that machine. So here is a case cover on my another machine with much less obstruction to show the before and after effect of the mod to give some idea how they will looks like.


Personally, if you are a causal user, and do not print huge volume per week, there is no reason to go CISS. All you have to do is to buy several sets of empty original canon cartridge and refill. Once any carts gets empty/low, all you have to do is to replace with a ready-refilled cartridge. Then place the used cartridge aside and leave it during the weekend or when you are free to refill.

Even if you only had one set of original canon BCI-3/5/6/CLI-8/PGI-5 cartridges, it only takes ~1 min to refill one cartridge with no hassle.

Before going CISS on Canon, think seriously if you really need to. Majority is still better off with refilling.

 

[pharmacist]

Lin,

What you can do is placing the tubing in front of the cartridge, where the breathing hole of the cartridge is. In fact the ink will be sucked onto the sponge. In stead of air being drawn into the cartridge for breathing, now ink is dripping and doing so it will constantly saturate your sponge. This is the easiest way to do.

 

[brendo]

hey pharmacist, maybe you should have watermarked your pics like Lin did so they didn't get stolen

and to be on topic, the majority of Ciss users ive seen, simply cut away the plastic casing where the contact is made

 

[lin]

Lin,

What you can do is placing the tubing in front of the cartridge, where the breathing hole of the cartridge is. In fact the ink will be sucked onto the sponge. In stead of air being drawn into the cartridge for breathing, now ink is dripping and doing so it will constantly saturate your sponge. This is the easiest way to do.

yes, there are 2 school of thoughts as to where to insert and fix the tubing for those who use Original Canon Cartridge in their CISS. One is on top of the sponge chamber where the air inlet hole is and the other is at the ink reservoir chamber where the refill hole is. Most normal user would not have mod the Original Canon Cartridges for CISS, they will tend to use the non original canon cartridges that came with their CISS. This post is not intented for them.

Usually those who attempted DIY CISS using original canon cartridges are those with some sort of experience who had decided to ditch the non original cartridges that came with their CISS or because those non original cartridges hadn't work for them and they decided to mod using their OEM cartridges. My original intent of my post is to share as to where those obstructions are for those who wishes to fix the tubing at the rear ink reservoir chamber (I probably should have explicitly state this) and some mod to the plastic case is necessary. This post is not about how or where to mod their original canon cartridges for CISS, it's about the obstructions created esp for those who fix tubes at the rear. It's obvious there is no need to mod the case cover if the tubing is fix at the air inlet hole because just look at the amount of space.



Now why would those people wanna go through the tedious effort to mod their case since all they would have to do is fix the tube at the air inlet hole. Well, when the tubing is fix at the vent hole, initially the printing it's okay. However with sometime of use, it was felt that fixing the tubing at the rear was more stable than at the air inlet hole. Because of the original canon cartridge design, the ideal place to fix the tubing is at the ink reservoir chamber. Otherwise, there won't be any point for manufacturer to create the shorter non oem cartridges to combat with the obstructions. All they will have to do sell those full height non original canon cartridges and fix the tubing at the air inlet hole. Now look at those non original canon cartridges (with sponge) that came with the CISS in the market, you will observe most manufacturer fixes the tubing at the rear ink reservoir chamber. However having said all the above, whether fixing the tubing at the air inlet hole or ink reservoir chamber on original canon cartridges, it really depends on the user experience. Because it will requires users past experience to manage the CISS well as it's not as straight forwards as one thinks.

Canon PH has less fault tolerance for CISS and poor quality ink than a piezo type of PH. That doesn't mean that Epson CISS is all problem free too. Neither does it means that all CISS won't work on Canon. Anyone who wishes to use CISS will need to have some resources to troubleshoot any problems that surface should support from sellers are not available. With refilling, the keys are use of good quality ink, cartridges and proper refilling. With CISS, when you have problem, not only you have to consider the cartridge, ink, the CISS design and tubings etcs during troubleshooting. So majority of canon users are still better off with refilling. Inkjet printers are not design for very large volume of printing, laser would fit into those needs.