Canon i550 installed

[JXStern]

Out of the box, followed instructions, a couple of quick observations:

* Installation instructions good.
* No problems installing software on XP.
* During installation, printer hums to itself quite a bit, doing who
knows what.
* I could get rich selling Canon the shipping tape you have to pull
off the thing during setup.
* Alignment sheet does not print yellow boxes??? I thought there was
a problem, but the nozzle check prints yellow, and a document with
yellow text prints yellow, so I guess this is on purpose? It would be
nice if the installation manual showed what the sheets look like.
* Text colors on screen in word matched up pretty well with my old
HP722, they print VERY DIFFERENTLY on this i550 - greens and blacks
print very darkly, on Avery Vivid White inkjet paper, normal mode.
* Text quality looks fine.

J.

 

[Dave]

Out of the box, followed instructions, a couple of quick observations:

* Installation instructions good.
* No problems installing software on XP.
* During installation, printer hums to itself quite a bit, doing who
knows what.
* I could get rich selling Canon the shipping tape you have to pull
off the thing during setup.
* Alignment sheet does not print yellow boxes??? I thought there was
a problem, but the nozzle check prints yellow, and a document with
yellow text prints yellow, so I guess this is on purpose? It would be
nice if the installation manual showed what the sheets look like.
* Text colors on screen in word matched up pretty well with my old
HP722, they print VERY DIFFERENTLY on this i550 - greens and blacks
print very darkly, on Avery Vivid White inkjet paper, normal mode.
* Text quality looks fine.

J.

Try and print a colour pie chart from Excel or similar, mine printed in
black and white! Had to download the latest drivers for XP in order to solve
it.

 

[Deathwalker]

* Turning on the ICM in the preferences/colorAdjust/manual fixes the
color.
* This thing feeds paper VIOLENTLY!

enable quiet running full time. the paper runs through slower to be
quieter.

 

[JXStern]

enable quiet running full time. the paper runs through slower to be
quieter.

I'll try it, I'm not in a huge hurry, but on the other hand, the
violent paper feed is fun, too. The "quiet mode" is a cute feature.

So is the auto-power, but they neglect to give any recommendations on
its use! I see Just Another Joe recommends the auto-on, 10-minute off
as a setting.

Great features and no documentation, the curse of modernity!

J.

 

[Just Another Joe]

It's there so you can configure it as you see fit. Why would you want a
recommendation on how long YOU think the printer should be on before
powering itself off?

Quite right, Bill. But perhaps Josh was asking whether it is better (ie.
which causes more wear and tear on the printer, more cleaning cycles, etc.)
to have the printer turn off between every print job, or to have the printer
turn off only after an extended period of inactivity. If so, I think it is
a very good question.

In my case, I have never seen the i850 do a cleaning cycle on auto-power-up
after being powered down for only a short time, such as between print jobs,
but only after being powered up for the first print job of the day. Given
that the power-off state is really just a soft power-off, perhaps the power
off/on cycles don't cause as much wear and tear as they otherwise could, I
don't know. On the other hand, the cost savings on electricity probably
don't amount to very much, either. Does the printer need to be either
manually or automatically powered off in order for the head to park and be
capped, or does the printer automatically do so when inactive? Again, I
don't know for sure, but it sure seems to me that the i850 parks when done
printing, as I never hear it moving the heads when it auto-powers-off. I'd
be interested in others' thoughts on the subject.

 

[Bill]

don't know for sure, but it sure seems to me that the i850 parks when done
printing, as I never hear it moving the heads when it auto-powers-off. I'd
be interested in others' thoughts on the subject.

The i850 does park its printhead after being idle for a couple of
minutes even if the power is still on, so the auto power-off setting can
be set to any of the intervals you wish.

 

[Deathwalker]

I set mine for half an hour. 10 minutes is too frequent. Being a photoshop
fanatic there can be easily 20 mins between prints. I don't think stop
starts do any device any good. If i know i'm going to use my pc again in
the day i won't switch it off just set all the power save stuff on monitor
and hard disk. those are set half hour and hour as well.

 

[Just Another Joe]

The i850 does park its printhead after being idle for a couple of
minutes even if the power is still on, so the auto power-off setting can
be set to any of the intervals you wish.

Good to have that confirmed--and that's exactly the way it should be .

 

[Just Another Joe]

In fact, I want the entire algorithm spelled out, either formally or
informally! My major concern is minimizing cleaning cycles. My HP
didn't do that, or else they went really fast. It sort of creeps me
out when this i550 starts humming to itself and doing who-knows-what!
Also, of course, it wastes ink. Also, I just want to know what puts
stress on the mechanisms and what doesn't.

That would be good information to have. It would be nice if manufacturers
would make such information available, but I'm not holding my breath .

On the other hand, I'm not too concerned with the cleaning cycles on the
i850. Having obtained a very good number of prints (I posted my results in
another thread) from the original cartridges, it seems like this printer
just sips ink. Quite a difference story from my Epson, which almost seems
designed to consume as much ink as possible during its frequent cleaning
cycles!

And the Canon is very quiet when cleaning, as well as when printing. It is
one of the best designed printers I've seen. I'm content to let it do its
thing, and not worry about it .

pps - say, is it smart enough that the printer powers off even if the
main computer shuts down -- is it run from the printer side or the
driver side? well, perhaps I'll find the answer to that soon enough!

That's a good question. I'm guessing that the printer will properly auto-
power-off even if the computer is off, but if you do try it, let us know .

 

[Just Another Joe]

I set mine for half an hour. 10 minutes is too frequent. Being a photoshop
fanatic there can be easily 20 mins between prints. I don't think stop
starts do any device any good. If i know i'm going to use my pc again in
the day i won't switch it off just set all the power save stuff on monitor
and hard disk. those are set half hour and hour as well.

Hi Ian. You're right about power-cycles not being good for any device. But
as the i850 has a soft-power-off state, like many other devices these days,
perhaps the wear and tear isn't that great. On the other hand, why take a
chance? I think I'll increase mine to 30 minutes .