SOLVED: Canon MP830, new PGI-5BK and new (reman) print head - no black

[Nifty]

Guys, I just LOVE this thread (which is why I'm digging it up). I especially love this post: http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=26629#p26629

This thread is full of troubleshooting procedures related to the purge unit / tubes. I started to agree with a few of the comments that is probably isn't a bad idea to do some preventive maintenance and flush the pads with Windex from time to time.

My questions:

1) Do you guys think you can flush these too much / too often? Obviously the amount of liquid is going to keep collecting and gathering inside the printer, so that has to be a concern. How much Windex would you periodically use and how often?

2) I see a handful of comments regarding removing the purge pads that the heads rest on. I've verified that these "pads" on my i560 feel more like porous ceramic and not sponge material (which really surprised me). I can't find any info regarding removing these pads and doing so kinda freaks me out, especially if I don't already have problems.

Gosh I love this forum and group of super smart guys!!!

 

[Trigger 37]

Rob,... I've posted a few bits about this and I regularly provide detailed PDF instructions to others. First off, depending on the usage of your printer, I don't think the pads would need detailed flushing more than once a year. It kind of depends on how many cleaning cycles are done. If your really maintain you printer well, and you never turn it off,,..then you won't have many cleaning cycles. Mostly when you change ink or clean the head. Printing one page a day uses 10 times LESS ink than one built in cleaning cycle. It is even less if you just print the nozzle test print. That test will not only tell you the condition of the printhead, but also the condition of the ink carts and best of all it stops the AUYOMATIC purge cycles. If you want to use Windex, fine,..but I just use hot water. The real advantage of cleaning the pads by "Saturating the pads" with hot water,..is that depending on how you then power on and off the printer, you can flush that water down through the purge unit. Doing so will clean out the valves, which is the first item connected via tubes to the bottom of the ink pads. These valves control the suction of either black or colored ink. Then you will also be cleaning out the tubes in the vacuum pump,.. and the Waste ink tubes that dump the water into the waste ink pads. This is no problem for the waste ink pads as the water will evaporate.

In my opinion an even better way is to use "Cleaning Water Carts" with no ink what so ever. You must have a full set of carts and you must never try and print anything. Fill them with hot water and then run several Deep cleaning cycles of all colors including black. In this way you are making sure you are pushing the maximum about of clean water down through "Everything in the path,.. including the printhead. I would also suggest one more thing in that process and it would be to park the head over to the far left and then "Saturate both ink parking pads with water and blot them with a paper towel,.. several times. This will get all of the ink out of both pads. I TOTALLY DO NOT RECOMMEND REMOVING THE PADS FOR CLEANING EXTERNALLY. There is VERY little room in any printer to get good access to the pads and there is the chance that you will drop a pad into the bottom of the printer or you will break off one of the wiper blades,..and then you have just put yourself in a deep hole and the only way to fix it is to take the printer apart. Why mess with it when I've just described a better cleaning process that is built into the printer and does a TOTAL cleaning job.

Rob,... I see from your profile that you still have one of the old i560 printers. That was a workhorse and I still have one that I'm about to sell. It looks lilke a TOY compaired to my Wireless MX860. Sorry if you got more information than you asked for,..but I always try to be complete,..and there are many others that really need to know this information.

 

[Nifty]

Well my friend, your reasoning and logic are once again amazing and spot on, and your wonderfully detailed information is a great asset to our community and to the thousands of people who read these posts. Your response was incredibly fast... lightning speed in fact.

Unfortunately while your response time was admirable, it unfortunately pales in comparison and is nowhere near as fast as my tenacious impatience!

The downhill spiral started with a simple thought:

Well, I have some distilled water, some ammonia, some alcohol, and some distilled water... I might as well make some solution!

That of course led to: Well, as long as I have the solution and a spare syringe / needle, I might as well deposit a few drops of my solution onto the purge pades.

Next: Wow, those pads seem dirty... I think they need more solution... Oh, that's a lot of extra solution, maybe I can use a second syringe to suck up some of the excess!

Everything was going peachy, until I realized something: While prodding at the pad to suck up the excess solution I saw the pad shimmy. I poked a bit more and it popped out of place (bottom rigth corner):

Hmm... I didn't expect it to move so easily. If I poke a bit more I wonder if it will pop loose?

Well, as long as that one is out, maybe I shall have a go at its neighbor:

Well, as long as they are both out, I should flush some solution in the holes and then suck it out:

Hmmm.... as long as the pads are out, I might as well clean them:

"Oh, what's this, a post by Trigger 37? Wow, that was a fast reply... I wonder what he has to say?"
...

"I TOTALLY DO NOT RECOMMEND REMOVING THE PADS FOR CLEANING EXTERNALLY"



The good news: Your warning about how easy it would be to loose the pads down into the printer was spot on and TOTALLY something I would do in my haste. Well, I read your post before attempting to put the pads back in, so I was extra careful when doing so and got them back in without too much trouble at all!



PHEW!

I think I'll stick to just using some purge cars and / or dribbling a bit of solution onto the pads every once in a while (perhaps annually).


Oh, and a side note: I'm very glad to satisfy my curriosity regarding the material makeup of those pads. I was shocked to find that they are hard and porous, and not the least bit "spongy" as I've thought over the past 7 years!

 

[ghwellsjr]

Guys, I just LOVE this thread (which is why I'm digging it up). I especially love this post: http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=26629#p26629

This thread is full of troubleshooting procedures related to the purge unit / tubes. I started to agree with a few of the comments that is probably isn't a bad idea to do some preventive maintenance and flush the pads with Windex from time to time.

My questions:

1) Do you guys think you can flush these too much / too often? Obviously the amount of liquid is going to keep collecting and gathering inside the printer, so that has to be a concern. How much Windex would you periodically use and how often?

2) I see a handful of comments regarding removing the purge pads that the heads rest on. I've verified that these "pads" on my i560 feel more like porous ceramic and not sponge material (which really surprised me). I can't find any info regarding removing these pads and doing so kinda freaks me out, especially if I don't already have problems.

Gosh I love this forum and group of super smart guys!!!

Yes you can flush too much. In fact, my MP760, which I put a lot of Windex into, eventually started leaking out the bottom of the printer. You can read about my experience here. I eventually blamed the whole problem of the clogged purged unit and pads on the Inktec pigment black ink that I was using. I eventually discovered that Hobbicolors pigment black ink is also prone to clogging. In my opinion, if you are using one of the other popular brands of pigment ink, you shouldn't have a problem that requires lots of Windex as a preventative maintenance.

 

[panos]

I can't find any info regarding removing these pads and doing so kinda freaks me out, especially if I don't already have problems.

I think Craig had his waste tank counter reset 4 times before he had to clean the waste pads. If you are close to that stage, I don't think pouring windex or water is a good idea as it might flood ink out of the waste pads.

Here is a nice post to read when you decide to clean the waste pads: http://tekkistuff.wordpress.com/2011/04/05/canon-i560-waste-ink/

 

[ghwellsjr]

One of the dangers of removing and replacing the pads is that it is very easy to get ink on the timing strip that goes from one side of the printer, through the back of the print head and to the other side of the printer. It's very hard to see because it is almost clear plastic. Just be careful.

 

[panos]

One of the dangers of removing and replacing the pads is that it is very easy to get ink on the timing strip that goes from one side of the printer, through the back of the print head and to the other side of the printer. It's very hard to see because it is almost clear plastic. Just be careful.

Does that happen due to spilling or accidentally touching the strip ?

 

[Nifty]

Things actually went way more smoothly than I had expected, even thought I was sweating a bit because of the potential stress of damaging my baby!

I did have one big scare: Right after I had dripped quite a bit of solution onto the pads I decided I'd let the printer go through a cycle and closed the cover. I then started a Nozzle Check pattern and right in the middle of the process it stopped and I got an error on my computer that the printer was off.

Sure enough, the printer was off and nothing I could do would turn it back on. I tried to pull the plug, reinsert, etc. I started to freak out a tiny bit that I had flooded it and fried something.

... then I noticed that one of my two computer monitors was off. This monitor plugs into a surge protector... which I then noticed was switched off.

While monkeying around during the nozzle check process I must have either flipped the switch with my foot or dropped something onto the switch. A quick switch back and things were peachy keen!

PHEW!

 

[Nifty]

One of the dangers of removing and replacing the pads is that it is very easy to get ink on the timing strip that goes from one side of the printer, through the back of the print head and to the other side of the printer. It's very hard to see because it is almost clear plastic. Just be careful.

Wow, I just decided to look and feel like quite the dummy... I don't think I've ever noticed that clear (invisible) timing strip before. Wow, I'm sure I've bumped up against that thing a ton of times not even knowing it was there.

PHEW!

 

[kayannebotts]

Hello,

I too, have a Canon MP 830, and have been working on, and researching the problem of the black PGBK 5 not printing. It was a progressive problem. I kept on doing driver nozzle cleanings. I have read everything in this thread, and tried several of these suggestions and others. And now I am really very confused, and have not heard of anyone mention this exact issue. I have done many driver nozzle cleanings, manual print head cleaning, and then removed the black PGBK 5 purge pad and cleaned it to rather light in color and see through. After replacing it, it was clearly saturated with ink. I cannot do an automatic print head alignment, as it replies with the error that it cannot be completed. Neither can I do a manual print head alignment, as it does not print the black pigment. If I do a nozzle check, it shows all the colors fine, but no black pigment. If I do just a black pigment nozzle check, it says wrong print head, and then I can do nothing until I do a sequential reset of several buttons (I found that by doing a search on the internet). Next thing is, I ran out of black BK 8. So I put a new one in. I have all Canon cartridges in. I have only used a couple of Staples brand, when they were out of the Canon ones. Well, I really had to print some business cards (about 70 color cards), and I used the work around, using the "Glossy Photo Paper" option. Now, here is the confusing part. It appears that none of the black PG 8 has been used, and the brand new black PGBK 5 that I had just installed is half empty. This was not happening before. I have only done a few deep cleanings since this new cartridge. Would it have used that much ink, or is something else wrong? And, it did still sort of work a little bit with the Staples black PGBK 8, and then completely quit after the new Canon one. And as I mentioned before, I have had to do many resets. Does anyone have any thoughts?

Thank you, Kayanne