i860 Premature "Low Ink" warnings...

[Doc]

Hi,
Have and like the Canon i860 very much.
Ink (at Costco) is relatively inexpensive, the canon brand
is about $9/cart...
BUT I have a question regarding the WARNINGs about low ink.
I have four right now and I've pulled one cart and there appears
to be about 1/3 cart. left.
Can anyone advise if somehow 'what I am seeing' is NOT an accurate
portrayal of the amount of ink in the cartridge? As if the ink
just coats the inside of the cartridge and it LOOKS like there
is 1/3 or 1/4 left and really there is not (like a ball point
refill can do sometimes)...
My prints look okay, not doing much photo now just invoices with
some color. Thanks for any insights.

 

[Charlie]

Same here on our HP 1210. What we do now is just ignore the warning till the
cart is truly empty which will be indicated by the first degraded print job.
For our usual home needs is an acceptable way to get every last drop out.

--

- Charlie in Mississippi
- "Keep the Blues Alive"
(e-mail address removed)
- now booking in the southeast

 

[BF]

Hi,
Have and like the Canon i860 very much.
Ink (at Costco) is relatively inexpensive, the canon brand
is about $9/cart...
BUT I have a question regarding the WARNINGs about low ink.
I have four right now and I've pulled one cart and there appears
to be about 1/3 cart. left.
Can anyone advise if somehow 'what I am seeing' is NOT an accurate
portrayal of the amount of ink in the cartridge? As if the ink
just coats the inside of the cartridge and it LOOKS like there
is 1/3 or 1/4 left and really there is not (like a ball point
refill can do sometimes)...
My prints look okay, not doing much photo now just invoices with
some color. Thanks for any insights.

I am pretty sure it works like the i960. It really only guesses how
much ink is left until the ink reservoir side is empty. It will then
give a low ink warning, meaning there is still ink in the sponge side,
If you refill that is the time to do so. If you don't refill and throw
them away you can still print until you get an out of ink warning. Be
careful not to run out of ink completely as it might cause print head
damage.

 

[beezer]

Hi,
Have and like the Canon i860 very much.
Ink (at Costco) is relatively inexpensive, the canon brand
is about $9/cart...
BUT I have a question regarding the WARNINGs about low ink.
I have four right now and I've pulled one cart and there appears
to be about 1/3 cart. left.
Can anyone advise if somehow 'what I am seeing' is NOT an accurate
portrayal of the amount of ink in the cartridge? As if the ink
just coats the inside of the cartridge and it LOOKS like there
is 1/3 or 1/4 left and really there is not (like a ball point
refill can do sometimes)...
My prints look okay, not doing much photo now just invoices with
some color. Thanks for any insights.

I know my 850 shows empty only when it is needing replacement which is
approximatly 1/5 ink remaining in the tank. The rest of the time it
shows full

Now my 960 shows degrading levels which I found was fairly accurate
but I tend to believe it is a guestimate. I am thinking the 860 is
pretty much the same setup.

a warning at 1/3 is a good idea but very premature for low usage
printers. If you are wanting to refill your cartridges, then its a
good warning level.. Refilling is quite simple and extremely
economical....

The only think I could advise is to manually check them once in a
while if you do not plan on refilling with bulk inks. If you do want
to refill with bulk inks, use good quality proven inks. You will find
several recent ink posts here.

 

[beezer]

Same here on our HP 1210. What we do now is just ignore the warning till the
cart is truly empty which will be indicated by the first degraded print job.
For our usual home needs is an acceptable way to get every last drop out.

--

- Charlie in Mississippi
- "Keep the Blues Alive"
(e-mail address removed)
- now booking in the southeast

ouch... that would not be a good idea for his printer as the printhead
is not part of the ink tanks. The printhead is a permanent fixture.

 

[Doc]

beezer typed this:

I know my 850 shows empty only when it is needing replacement which is
approximatly 1/5 ink remaining in the tank. The rest of the time it
shows full

Now my 960 shows degrading levels which I found was fairly accurate
but I tend to believe it is a guestimate. I am thinking the 860 is
pretty much the same setup.

a warning at 1/3 is a good idea but very premature for low usage
printers. If you are wanting to refill your cartridges, then its a
good warning level.. Refilling is quite simple and extremely
economical....

The only think I could advise is to manually check them once in a
while if you do not plan on refilling with bulk inks. If you do want
to refill with bulk inks, use good quality proven inks. You will find
several recent ink posts here.

Thanks all... okay, Beezer, are you indicating that it *is* best to
replace the carts when the 'warning' is displayed? Or are you kinda
agreeing that I should look AT the sides of the carts to see how much
"really" is left?

And do you refill thru the sponge? Or a needle thru the top? I usually
buy the 'OEM' Canon stuff from Costco... I have the 'replaement carts'
out and I "AM" waiting to you yell "change" - ;^)

Thanks.

 

[beezer]

beezer typed this:


Thanks all... okay, Beezer, are you indicating that it *is* best to
replace the carts when the 'warning' is displayed? Or are you kinda
agreeing that I should look AT the sides of the carts to see how much
"really" is left?

And do you refill thru the sponge? Or a needle thru the top? I usually
buy the 'OEM' Canon stuff from Costco... I have the 'replaement carts'
out and I "AM" waiting to you yell "change" - ;^)

Thanks.

If you are going to refill them with bulk ink, then yes, I would
remove them now. If not, then leave them in and check them once in a
while but before the liguid side runs dry.

Filling is very very simple.. The easiest method is removing the lable
by the "PUSH" word. you can use a small razor or sharp knife to rim
out that circle.

Inside the circle is a ball plug.. take a small screwdriver and push
it straight down so the ball injects into the tank itsself.. it wont
hurt a thing...

then fill with ink and replace the ball with one of the replacements
you get in a refill kit or elsewhere and tape over top of it..

I would not pop the ball inside until you have your supplies as the
sponge tank pressure will equalize and suck up the remaining ink left
in the reservoir...

there are many many posts with more methods and much more detail to
explain other options....

one of the methods as i just described may be found at

www.alotofthings.com or www.inkjetgoodies.com

keep us posted on what you do..

 

[Ron Cohen]

Formulabs ink from www.alothofthings.com as Beezer pointed out is excellent,
both in output quality and low price. Is refilling cost effective? On my
i950 & s820, using Formulabs ink, total ink cost is about 1.4¢ per 8.5 x 11
sheet printed border to border. I've got a small pdf file I'd be happy to
share with you that describes a very simple and effective refilling method.
No plugs or anything special need to be purchased other than a little bit of
duct tape - which you probably already have. Send me an email request and
I'll send you (or anyone else) a copy of the file.

 

[beezer]

I've got a small pdf file I'd be happy to
share with you that describes a very simple and effective refilling method.
No plugs or anything special need to be purchased other than a little bit of
duct tape - which you probably already have. Send me an email request and
I'll send you (or anyone else) a copy of the file.

There ya go.. that sounds even more simple.. So theres no reason not
to jump on the bulk ink refill wagon with alot of others here.

Just a guess Ron.... pop the ball in and ductape over the hole? I
liked the idea of wax that someone suggested long ago but I would be
afraid of it seperating over time.. Unless maybe a parafin wax which
would be soft.

Hot glue is also a good option but it seems ductape would be the
neatest plugger.

 

[FredBillie]

<< warnings...
From: beezer (e-mail address removed)
Date: Wed, Jun 2, 2004 10:35 AM
Message-id: <[email protected]>

Same here on our HP 1210. What we do now is just ignore the warning till the
cart is truly empty which will be indicated by the first degraded print job.
For our usual home needs is an acceptable way to get every last drop out.

--

- Charlie in Mississippi
- "Keep the Blues Alive"
(e-mail address removed)
- now booking in the southeast

ouch... that would not be a good idea for his printer as the printhead
is not part of the ink tanks. The printhead is a permanent fixture.
Correct me if I am wrong. My experience on my Canon S900 is that you get a LOW
ink warning so that you can run out and buy a new cartridge in preparation of
running out of ink. But on my Canon the printer just stops when you actually
run out of ink and a message indicates that you should replace the empty
cartridge. Is this final action occurring BEFORE you can actually damage the
separate print heads? (I hope.)

 

[Ron Cohen]

I've used hot glue in the past and it did a good job of sealing, but I
thought it was too time consuming compared the way I refill. Actually, I
don't mess with the plug on top of the cartridge. All I do is drill a small
(1/32" or so) hole near the top of the reservoir side. I use a small spot of
duct tape to reseal. Subsequent refills only require removing the duct tape
and putting a new piece on when finished. Send me a private email and I'll
reply to you with the pdf file. You might find it interesting.

 

[beezer]

Correct me if I am wrong. My experience on my Canon S900 is that you get a LOW
ink warning so that you can run out and buy a new cartridge in preparation of
running out of ink. But on my Canon the printer just stops when you actually
run out of ink and a message indicates that you should replace the empty
cartridge. Is this final action occurring BEFORE you can actually damage the
separate print heads? (I hope.)

Yes that is the theory behind the warning is you do have some time to
get your ink when the indicator kicks in... For refillers, its best
to use the indicator as a "refill now" option.


I know someone that has a I850 which seems diffrent than the 860 and
960 drivers and level detection. They did not heed the warning and
let it run dry. They now have a clogged head thats been idle for
weeks.

I can not answer if it is the final action or not as I never let it
get close to the initial warning anyway. Perhaps someone could
enlighten us.

 

[xNokia3390x]

I know someone that has a I850 which seems diffrent than the 860 and
960 drivers and level detection. They did not heed the warning and
let it run dry. They now have a clogged head thats been idle for
weeks.

I have an i560, and I wait until the pop-up messages comes up and tells me
the ink has run out and I need to replace it immediately. The low ink
warning messages usually comes up while I still have about 50 pages left.

 

[Gary]

I did a refill with their ink on the yellow in for an i960 and held it up to
a yellow canon cart I had here. The formulalabs was quite yellow while the
original cart had much more of an orange hue to it. Why such a difference?

 

[Gary]

Would it be possible to use a small hypodermic needle and refill though the
factory vent hole on top?

 

[Gary]

I just tried this but the vent hole is on the sponge side, so I pierced the
other side with a hypo twice one for vent and filled it that way. A small
blob of hot glue and the cart still looks factory.

 

[beezer]

I did a refill with their ink on the yellow in for an i960 and held it up to
a yellow canon cart I had here. The formulalabs was quite yellow while the
original cart had much more of an orange hue to it. Why such a difference?

you cant really tell by eyeballing a cartridge as to what exactly the
ink will do on paper.. The best test would be to actually print a
color pallet with original ink and your refill ink.

Also, wait for ink to dry before comparing. Formulabs photo magenta
and cyan are several shades off by the eyeball, but in print, its on
the money.

congratulations on your first refill. Not so bad, is it? lol

 

[Gary]

The first was not so bad. The second seemed to drip forever as I kept
topping it up. You have to absolutely make sure the hole is sealed and I
found electrical tape over the bottom opening while refilling works well..
I tried a magenta yesterday with a hypodermic needle and pierced the new
cart so I wouldn't have to remove the ball. Found out you need a way for
the air to escape after I made a big mess of my fingers. Then I punched
another hole for air release and added the ink. A tad of hot glue and you
cant tell the cart was even altered. Now that I know how to do it properly
I will do my next one the same way. The hypodermic pushes right through the
plastic and I don't even need to remove the ball. Very slick.

On cost, it must work out to less than 50 cents Canadian to refill the cart.
You cant even tell I took some ink from this $18 bottle. There must be at
least 30 refills in there at this rate.

 

[beezer]

The first was not so bad. The second seemed to drip forever as I kept
topping it up. You have to absolutely make sure the hole is sealed and I
found electrical tape over the bottom opening while refilling works well..
I tried a magenta yesterday with a hypodermic needle and pierced the new
cart so I wouldn't have to remove the ball. Found out you need a way for
the air to escape after I made a big mess of my fingers. Then I punched
another hole for air release and added the ink. A tad of hot glue and you
cant tell the cart was even altered. Now that I know how to do it properly
I will do my next one the same way. The hypodermic pushes right through the
plastic and I don't even need to remove the ball. Very slick.

On cost, it must work out to less than 50 cents Canadian to refill the cart.
You cant even tell I took some ink from this $18 bottle. There must be at
least 30 refills in there at this rate.

If it kept leaking then i would just guess that the vent hole may not
have been big enough while you were injecting the ink or you injected
at a high rate which forced in out by the pressure.

The best thing to do is let the pressure equalize by laying it on its
side with the exit hole covered. After a while, you can then stand it
up right and blot the exit hole with a paper towel once or twice and
let it soak up the excess ink..Actually push the paper towel into the
exit port and hold for 5 seconds or so.. it will then stop dripping
immediately.

since you are using hot glue, i would possibly make the vent a little
bigger next time to avoid that and if you saved the original exit hole
caps, that would help alot as well. Hold them in place with a rubber
band.

I would also recommend having a full set of all colors on stand by.
This way you can take your time refilling and incase the refill did
not work out, you have a replacement to use.

I like using blank cartridges from inkjetgoodies.com. They are made
to refill and have exit port caps that clip on and rubber plugs that
pop out for refilling where the ball would be.

 

[Gary]

Thanks guys.

The gargbageman (oops, sanitary engineer) just took my factory exit caps
with him to the dump (oops, waste management area).

Darn! :-(