Ressurection of Pixma PRO-1

[Octopus]

Hello dear printerknowledge members!

I have red alot of posts and topic about this printer, especially posts from "The Hat" and thank you all for that, here is really a huge ammount of knowledge collected.
But another point of so many information is, that for example yesterday I went to sleep at sunrise at 6AM and I am more lost now, than I was before, since there is alot of options and opinions and advice. + alot of knowledge is from when these were new printers- 2013-2015 and maybe something has changed since then? So maybe it is the best way for me to open a new thread and explain my ideas, so if someone is willing to add advice to that or just "yes/no", etc. It would help me alot, since this is my first "serious" printer from this millenium- other serious printing devices I have are proofing press for letterpress technique with movable type

The patient: Pixma PRO
What is wrong with it? Well for now nothing that I would know. Picked it up in Germany, brought to Slovenia. Germany has alot of these printers that people do not know how to setup, or just dont need them since they are expensive to run, or in most cases, people have alot of money and buy something that is not really intended to use only a few times a year.
This printer had 20 sealed original Canon cartridges, so I decided that the price I payd is for cartridges okay and printer is infact "a bonus". The guy said it works normally, but infact he knew nothing about it- not even that it has 12 cartridges and not 5, and that they are separated and not on the head. Judging by the bill and some badly removed sticker on it, it was bought by some company close to the guy. Well doesnt matter- the condition of the printer should be ok, except few empty carts. But for me it is unknown. One cart that is empty was not between spares, so maybe that is why it was "abandoned".
So status by my opinion is: few carts empty, was sitting for few years probably. Maybe not used much (there is alot of them not really used than really used), this one I assumed was used mainly for B&W as a "normal" printer.

What I found out:

I turned on the printer, connected to computer. Everything seems ok, some sounds and clicks, but it stabilizes.
As I have red from the hat manny times and in FAQ and general rules- only print nozzle checks.
So when I wanted to do that the printer wants to do some self cleaning which gets interrupted by it wanting a new 2 carts.

So I had idea to go to store, buy the missing Canon OEM ink, change it and see what will happen.



But As I started reading this forum... I decided by Hats advice to go buy the missing cart not in OEM since 1. maybe it doesn´t work. 2. if it will do some self cleaning, it better waste the cheaper cart and later I can buy the original?
Second thing I red by the Hat was that only a dummy would change the OEM cart when printer wants, as it is not really empty. There was a picture of someones status with almost all carts with red "X" icons.
So now I am not sure.... does this apply to the icon with exclamation mark "!" or for the red "X"? The printer does not want to do anything before replacing.
Third.... I have seen the method of opening and changing the carts with a screwdriver, not pressing the button for it. I can do that, no problem. But I am not sure exactly why is this a better idea? Should I do it like this? Probably something to avoid some cleaning process that triggers with the button?

Anyone has another opinion on how to start a ressurection of it?
The two carts that it wants, I have one spare of new original and I will buy one "fake" today and see what happens.

This is what it shows: (sorry for bad pictures...erm...photos on the screen, I just took them from previous owner)

Thank you all and sorry for my long explanations.

 

[The Hat]

Hi @Octopus and welcome.
I will try to answer your question as best as I can..

Firstly you must change the cartridges that are showing low and empty before your printer will proceed to do anything for you, the Dark Grey, Grey and Matte Black carts.

Too do this you can press the blue Led button on the top cover above the main On/Off buttons and both cartridge doors will drop down, there’s no need to use a screwdriver to open these doors.

A (Red) X above any cart indicates that this cart is empty and an explanation mark (Yellow) indicates a cart is low on ink, while using 3rd party replacement carts does make sense now, but it will stop you doing any serious colour work later, but you'll need to re-profile.

Once you have replaced these 3 carts the printer will then do an extensive cleaning cycle, but it may also stop in the middle of this task and ask you to replace the Photo Black, Magenta, Light Cyan, Yellow and light Magenta, before it can continue.

When the Pro 1 has been unused and powered off for any length of time it will automatically preform a compulsory cleaning cycle, sometimes big sometimes small before you will be allowed to print anything and that includes any Nozzle checks.

As you are only starting out with this printer, I would suggest you leave it powered on till you can get it to print any sheets and don’t print anything until you get a perfect nozzle check, one or two further small cleaning cycles maybe required before she is ready to print..

P.S. don’t dump any of the old or empty carts, they may can come in handy later..

 

[Octopus]

Hey Hat!
Thank you for the answer and for all the knowledge that has accumulated here!

Ok, I intend to change the empty ones. I have all the cartridges for spare originals, at least one or two of each, except matte black. Since we are a small country, almost nobody has this cart in stock. So I ordered one and I will have to wait until January.
Would it make sense to leave grey inside? The popup window wants only two of 3 replaced, but grey also has that icon. So probably it is almost totally empty, but not sure if it would make sense to empty it completely or not? Does it make a difference if you change two with button for doors and then in 5 minutes the third? For example if printer would clean more a whole bank if you change them in two rounds instead of changing all of them in one?

I understand the point of the button. But I was not sure when is the screwdriver metod the right one. If you put in non original carts and you miss the right positions and they lock? I have red this, what an evil printer...

Ok, so as I understand, the “silly” people change cartridge when the yellow "!" appears. While the right thing to do is have a spare close and just continue until the printer stops and then change it. Ok, got it!

Ok, so I cannot force it not to do any cleaning. So I will wait for it to stop its wizardry and then print only nozzle checks.

So as I understand, the best thing to do is to keep it constantly pluged in and powered on? I think this is not a problem, since as I have seen, it consumpts low power on idle. Is this not bad for the pressure accumulated in ink lines that it is always on? Maybe I could hook it on a UPS, so even if the power in grid is down, it is still powered.

Aye, aye captain, nozzle checks!

No, I don´t intend to throw any empty original carts, also the carts of my workhorse laser for papers I keep, it can be reffiled. But the question with these pro carts is, how to store them not to dry out, or is the spring valve tight enough for longer term? Wrap in sretch foil, put in cold dark humid place?

A week +- of waiting for the cart, then I continue! Thank you!

 

[The Hat]

@Octopus, You’re nearly there, but once your printer starts to clean, it will quickly empty the carts that are showing low at present, so until you replace them, (When requested by the printer) you won’t be able to print till it’s finished.

A cart showing low ink (Yellow explanation) still has 10% ink left inside and yes when you replace just one cart the printer will do a small cleaning cycle for each replaced cart, this beast has a bad habit of wasting ink !..

With the proper tool you can suck out any remaining ink left in old cartridges and put it into the cart you are using, the printer will stop when it thinks it has no ink left, and old carts remain sealed and safe and wont dry out..

 

[stratman]

(Yellow explanation)

Yellow exclamation mark

 

[The Hat]

Yellow exclamation mark

Thank you sir... ...

 

[MichaelDargan]

Hello Octopus

I will follow your thread with interest. I was in a similar situation but I have to say that I gave up in the end and bought an SC600 and I am enjoying the adventure of learning the craft of fine photography printing. I still have the Pro-1 but would have to spend a lot of money to get it going again (new print head, new logic board). It is probably the best A3 printer, it certainly is the heaviest so I hope you get yours going. Happy New Year too from Oz.

 

[Octopus]

Hello printerheads!
Happy new year to all, and many fine prints.

I was silent, I got a really bad flu last week, just the second day after I got my fake cartridge that I was missing. I got the cartridge from "ORINK" chinese company. I changed one original- worked like a charm, smooth, light shined up, like a charm.
Well the chinese went a bit harder in and I was already furious on myself why on earth I did not got the original- the light did not shine. But after half a minute, the printer recongnized it. And started some funky sounds and its woodoo.
Do not know if it was cleaning or not, but I was already full of doubt that this will ever work, it was just making random sounds that sometimes did not sound really healthy.
But after some minutes it became silent.

I sent him to make a nozzle check and guess what....
... well from what I have seen, I think I got a pretty normal nozzle check right away on first test?!
I do not want to jinx it, but I tried hard to find something wrong with it. Keep in mind that this is a scan, in reality on paper, all colors are very nicely spread, no lines whatsoever. On scan it shows vertical lines. Excuse my ugly handwriting.

So I decided to try something. But I did not want to waste some precious paper so I tried to load some sketching paper that had a bit more gramature. The printer somehow did not want to take it in tray but on upper feed.

With this paper there are some points that look like the color got burned or it is flaking... look at the reds in sky and wolves.
Well the main thing is that everything is really dull.
I did not bother alot, I just tried testing. I set "high" for quality.

Then I loaded some normal "inkjet" paper. Checked the high setting and "vivid colors". The flaking is not there. The colors were still very dull. But it is clearly visible, that this cheap paper has problems already drinking up all the ink, the surface has small "smudge clouds", it is clearly visible that it is not up to the task.
The second picture below is printed on another art grade roll printer on proper fine art paper and that is what I want.

So here I am for now. Maybe someone expected more cleaning and more taking apart... I do not want to jinx anything, but for now I am happy. Anyway, I tend to print with it and have it, so sooner or later....

I am surprised how silent this printer is while it is printing! Amazing.

I tried leaving it powered on and not turning it off... but it turned of itself after 12 hours?

As far as I understand I need to feed it proper paper now. Surprised how much difference a paper really makes in these things.
Worry not, I have a stack of very nice Hahne Muehle paper. German Etching, William Turner, Torchon, Albrecht Duhrer... I spend for this paper as much as a new printer would be.
But I really did not want to waste a single sheet until I am sure that this works as it should and that I know what I am doing.

This paper has profiles on the web, I will download them. What else do I have to adjust?
Today will be one week that I did not touch it, and if I will feel better after I get some sleep (1am here) I will try something.

 

[Octopus]

Ok, yesterday I loaded the ICC profiles from Hahnemuehle and tested printing on William Turner 310gsm paper.
I have to say, that I am impressed.
The colors are really nice and details are even a bit better than I got on prints from a studio here, known go make quality giclee printing.
I tried scaning it with canon lide 110, but it just doesn´t get even close to what you see with your eyes.
Definitely the result is a quality product that I would be not afraid to sell.
The only damn thing is 35mm of margins... on A4, that is alot and this paper is expensive.

The only thing is, that the colors area bit off than the ones on my monitor and another Wacom 27 monitor, that I have calibrated. But okay, also the colors of the same file from another studio and one from the third are all a bit different.
Where does that come from exactly I am not sure. First I chose the profile by going to manual color correction and in "matching" tab i choose ICM for color correction and the loaded paper profile.
I still have to print one without it to see if it makes any difference.

The printer was working normal- only at turning on, it was again making some of its wizardry, mumbling, spining noises, etc. For quite some time. I have a feeling that even after less then a week, it was making some kind of a cleaning cycle, since now already 6 other cartridges have that exclamation mark... Will see how much will cartridges last.

 

[Octopus]

Who was thinking that this will be easy and just printing? Not me. I knew something will happen, it was to simple.

Well it was a week more again, time to print a nozzle check or something- if this is even frequent enough? Red last time on some topic that 60 hours is max, then a cleaning cycle... When i turn the thing on it makes some rolling sounds and magic for few minutes...

Well anyway, we decided to load some expensive William Turner and try difference with profile or not.

First print was automatic and it was a bit dull on colors. Ok.
So second was with paper profile and "saturation" for that "color rendering or what it is, cant remember.
Well the print was coming out really nice, I wanted to scan it to post it here. BUT!
BUT!
BUT!
....
The damn thing had cyan leaked all over. I think that around the time it was printing there the printer switched on that sound like a blood presure measuring device does, like pumping pressure in lines?
Sadness, destroyed the expensive paper + valuable print I could sell. The girlfriend that ilsutrated it was also disappointed, I have seen how happy she is watching the print come out and then... everything blue. (left top corner is a part of original with color pencils)

The blue leak is hard, on few parts it soaked through the 310gsm cotton paper!!

I decided to print a nozzle check to see what on earth is going on.
Nozzle check was even more covered in cyan, I did not even took a photo of it.

So we opened up the cover to see whats happening... and apart from blue there was one foam cube all soggy... tried wiping it off and it was...BLACK?!

Tok it out, squished between fresh paper towels... it was really moist with black. The underneath is not full of black. only this foam sqare spongy is.

Cleaned this up and some cyan on other parts.

I do not know where to start. For such a massive leak, there has to be something seriously wrong. Maybe an ink hose detached?
I do not know where to start.
I was reading on here, the dreaded cannons seem to have something with cyan cartridges.
Cartridge is original.
Was thinking to open the doors and pull it out? But then again did not wanted to open the doors via button and start some cleaning cycles. Maybe I should use a screwdriver and force it open like on the link from before?

How to force to get the printhead in the middle of the opening to see if something is detached?