Pixma Pro-1

[PJH]

Dear all,

Last week, I've bought a Pro-1 printer second hand. It came with the OEM inks installed and some additional carts. The seller told me that the printer hadn't been used for two months.

After powering it up and installing it (MacOS), it took a long time cleaning (10 minutes or so). When doing so, it consumed a lot of ink (some of the carts went down by 50%). After using the printer for one week and making two A4 photo prints and a few test prints, 7 out of 12 carts are close to empty (it entered some cleaning cycle for a few more times; and I've replaced already the other 5 carts since they went empty during cleaning). However, after the initial cleaning, I printed a nozzle check which looked fine.

I have tried the service mode and looked at the data, which tells me that only 268 prints in total have been made with the printer, but (if I interpret this correctly), all of the carts were changed already 4 or 5 times.

Does anybody has an idea what this can be?

Also, since I am interested to install an ink waste tank, does anybody has a service manual for this (beautiful!) printer?

Thanks.

 

[The Hat]

Hi @PJH and welcome, That’s a lot of question to stat out with, it’s good you got the printer working without any problems, now when this type of printer has not used regularly it tend to clean itself to be ready for the next print job, so don’t power it off from the wall, just use the on/off switch.

The fact that you can enter Service Mode is a very special treat because most Pro 1’s can’t, which means your printer is a 7 or 8-year older model and the previous owner has obviously altered the EPROM information to confuse you.

Post your EPROM sheet information here so we can see what else we can interpret about your printer, and if you PM me I have the instructions on waste ink installation for the Pro 1.

 

[PJH]

See the EEPROM sheet information below. Strangely enough, the firmware version reads V2.110 which doesn't seem to be an official one as the latest on the web is V2.100.

@The Hat, many thanks for your reply! I will PM you.

 

[The Hat]

Glancing over your Printout, I can’t see anything out of place, everything looks normal, what it does tell me dough, that the previous owner didn’t use it much, it was probably left ideal for months on end, hence the low print count, it also looks like he only done prints and graphics.

The firmware Version is very baffling, so whatever you do, don’t be tempted to upgrade it, you can reset the waste ink counter after you install the Printer Potty...

 

[PJH]

Thanks for this and for the instructions for installing the Printer Potty. I'll report back on the installation.

 

[PJH]

Managed to install the Potty in the Pro-1. With the instructions from The Hat, it was fairly easy to do (took me 2 to 3 hours, including reassembly). Also, I have made quite a few pictures of the installation process, which I have shared with OctoInk.

I am very happy to have the Potty, as I am able to see how much ink the printer uses while cleaning. Until now, it is quite okay I think, since the printer used 32 ml of ink in about two weeks (that included two power cuts).

 

[The Hat]

@PJH, Thanks for the feedback on your Potty, but I can see where you might have gone wrong with it's positioning, you placed it at the back of the printer instead of the Front or Side, because you need it in a better position for easy monitoring...

 

[Artur5]

As we see in the service print sheet above, the waste ink counter level of the machine is D=028.5. This is a very high count for only 228 printed pages. For instance, my current Pro9000 shows D=009.8 for a total of 762 pages. That will translate to aprox. 2100 pages when the counter arrives to 028.5. Quite different from the 228 pages of this Pro1.
Provided that the EEPROM of the printer hasn’t been “tweaked” by the previous owner, it would seem that the Pro1 is a terribly wasteful machine concerning ink usage.

 

[berttheghost]

As we see in the service print sheet above, the waste ink counter level of the machine is D=028.5. This is a very high count for only 228 printed pages. For instance, my current Pro9000 shows D=009.8 for a total of 762 pages. That will translate to aprox. 2100 pages when the counter arrives to 028.5. Quite different from the 228 pages of this Pro1.
Provided that the EEPROM of the printer hasn’t been “tweaked” by the previous owner, it would seem that the Pro1 is a terribly wasteful machine concerning ink usage.

Terribly wasteful? Probably not under the circumstances. Inkjet ink ink tends to set up in the nozzles if left for too long and attempting to print using partially set ink will simply cook the nozzles. Flushing the nozzles after a prolonged idle period is just good sense. Now if the printer is barely used, most of the ink will be flushed rather than printed.
Turn the printer off and cover it with a good moisture-proof cover when not in use. Also do prints in batches rather than one per power-cycle. Get a reasonable 4 color printer to handle generic print tasks. The Pro-1 should NOT be your only printer.

 

[PJH]

@The Hat: You are absolutely right about the positioning of the Potty. When printing, I am actually watching the back of the printer now instead of the front Would it be harmful if I put the Potty at a lower level than the printer?

@Artur: Indeed, as stated in my first post, a lot of ink was consumed after turning the printer on for the first time. Maybe it is related that the printer was not used for some time; maybe I did something wrong myself (pushing buttons, entering cleaning cycles), I don't know. As it is right now, the situation is a lot better and the printer uses a lot less ink.