Canon i560 Ink Level Indicator

[Jeff]

I have three Canon i560's. They don't get a whole lot of use, but I
finally had to change ink on one of them. The ink status monitor showed
the black, cyan, and magenta all low with an exclamation mark. The
yellow was completely full. When I pulled the black, cyan, and magenta
tanks to replace them, they were indeed empty.

I pulled the yellow tank to see how much ink it had, in case I needed to
also get a yellow tank. The yellow tank was about 80 empty; I thought
this was odd, because the ink monitor showed the yellow tank full up.

I looked my other Canon i560's (which get even less use), and all their
tanks showed full up on the ink monitor. I didn't pull any to have a
look see.

Does the Canon i560 ink monitor always show full up, even if the tank is
not full, and only show empty when the tank IS empty or near empty?

That is, does the ink monitor only show full or empty, and nothing in
between?

TIA
Jeff

 

[Bill]

I have three Canon i560's. They don't get a whole lot of use, but I
finally had to change ink on one of them. The ink status monitor showed
the black, cyan, and magenta all low with an exclamation mark. The
yellow was completely full. When I pulled the black, cyan, and magenta
tanks to replace them, they were indeed empty.

I pulled the yellow tank to see how much ink it had, in case I needed to
also get a yellow tank. The yellow tank was about 80 empty; I thought
this was odd, because the ink monitor showed the yellow tank full up.

The Canon i-series all use an optical sensor that checks for ink in the
reservoirs of the ink tanks. Since the sensor can only check for ink to
either be there or not be there, it doesn't know how full the tank is,
just if it's almost empty or not.

When the monitor pops up an exclamation mark to warn you of a low ink
tank, that means the reservoir is empty. But the sponge part of the tank
still has some ink left in it. That way you can either get new
cartridges before you run out completely, or refill the tanks with ink
an continue.

I refill my ink tanks with Formulabs ink from AtlanticInkjet. It matches
very well and is a LOT cheaper than buying new tanks from Canon. For
what it costs to buy one tank, I can refill the same tank about 8-10
times.

 

[PC Medic]

I have three Canon i560's. They don't get a whole lot of use, but I
finally had to change ink on one of them. The ink status monitor showed
the black, cyan, and magenta all low with an exclamation mark. The
yellow was completely full. When I pulled the black, cyan, and magenta
tanks to replace them, they were indeed empty.

I pulled the yellow tank to see how much ink it had, in case I needed to
also get a yellow tank. The yellow tank was about 80 empty; I thought
this was odd, because the ink monitor showed the yellow tank full up.

I looked my other Canon i560's (which get even less use), and all their
tanks showed full up on the ink monitor. I didn't pull any to have a
look see.

Does the Canon i560 ink monitor always show full up, even if the tank is
not full, and only show empty when the tank IS empty or near empty?

That is, does the ink monitor only show full or empty, and nothing in
between?

This printer shows Full, Low and Empty.
In the bottom of each tank you will notice a small prism. During power-up
and printing operation an IR light is passed into this prism area. If the
prism is covered by ink, the light does not reflect back and a full ink will
continue to be displayed. Once the prism is exposed the Low ink warning is
triggered and another sensor kicks in to help determine Ink Out (Empty)
status.
This is one reason it is recommended not to replace the tanks until the
status monitor indicates empty.

 

[Christopher Pollard]

The level indicator certainly does not give a "level." It only tries to tell you if the cartridge is empty or if the cartridge has "some" ink in it.

That's right, it tells you if it's almost empty, so you have time to buy another
before it runs out completely.

Best way though is simply to take a look.


Chris Pollard

 

[PC Medic]

That's right, it tells you if it's almost empty, so you have time to buy
another
before it runs out completely.

Best way though is simply to take a look.

Not really as every time you needlessly open the top cover it causes the
carriage to come to the center expecting a tank change. Then closing the
cover causes a purge on the printhead to prime the expected new ink tank.
Quite the waste of ink to keep opening the cover to check ink levels.