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Author Topic: automated printing on vacation to keep printer active and avoid clogs  (Read 2487 times)

mstevensphoto

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hey folks, I've got to be gone for a stretch. what's the least brain damaging way for me to use my mac/ipf8400 combo to spit out a print at a regular interval while i'm gone? simple is best for my addled brain.
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howardm

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Re: automated printing on vacation to keep printer active and avoid clogs
« Reply #1 on: December 23, 2015, 02:43:30 pm »

no assurance you will not suffer brain damage from this.

1. create the document/image you want to print.  resize it to keep it reasonably small.
2. open 'automator'
3. create a Calendar Alarm new document
4. you'll create a workflow that consists of 2 steps (from the Finder subsection):  Get Specified Finder Items (where you'll point it to the jpg or whatever your created in step 1.  Next is Print (where you specify the printer).  Save it in a reasonable place
5. open the Calendar.  You should see a new Calendar called Automator pink entry and a new item w/ the name you saved the workflow as.  Now just set the time & repeat frequency.

(while you're debugging, you can do a Open Image in Preview as the final step so that you dont burn paper)

You will probably have to play w/ the Mac's Energy settings to prevent it from sleeping etc.

mstevensphoto

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Re: automated printing on vacation to keep printer active and avoid clogs
« Reply #2 on: January 15, 2016, 03:19:40 pm »

thanks!
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howardm

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Re: automated printing on vacation to keep printer active and avoid clogs
« Reply #3 on: January 15, 2016, 03:35:58 pm »

I just saved you from buying the whole Harvey Headbanger Headcleaner thingy. :)

I've started printing 4x6 Granger rainbows because when the ink gets low, sometimes the Epsons will force you to swap it out before it'll do a nozzle check if that's what you want to do. I just buy the cheapest Costco 4x6 glossy they have

Wayne Fox

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Re: automated printing on vacation to keep printer active and avoid clogs
« Reply #4 on: January 16, 2016, 10:10:53 pm »

hey folks, I've got to be gone for a stretch. what's the least brain damaging way for me to use my mac/ipf8400 combo to spit out a print at a regular interval while i'm gone? simple is best for my addled brain.
don't you just have to leave a Canon printer on and it will keep the nozzles "primed"?  I've heard of doing this for those that use Epson printers, but I thought Canon's maintained the nozzles with small droplets of ink as long as the printer was on.
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tonywong

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Re: automated printing on vacation to keep printer active and avoid clogs
« Reply #5 on: January 18, 2016, 11:53:09 am »

don't you just have to leave a Canon printer on and it will keep the nozzles "primed"?  I've heard of doing this for those that use Epson printers, but I thought Canon's maintained the nozzles with small droplets of ink as long as the printer was on.

I believe that Canon ipf6300 and 8300 have a reputation for chewing up the print heads and worse when not printed on a weekly (daily?), so there is something going on that the daily cleaning does not address for infrequent printers.
http://forum.luminous-landscape.com/index.php?topic=58297.40

Thanks to Howard for the tip. I have a new in box ipf8300 that I have set up but left unprimed for the last 6 months because I am concerned about the self-destructing print heads, so I've continued using my Z3100s, which soldier on with very little maintenance. I print very infrequently (in bursts every 6-9 months).
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bassman51

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Re: automated printing on vacation to keep printer active and avoid clogs
« Reply #6 on: January 18, 2016, 06:10:52 pm »

If you have Internet access where you are, you can find a way to remotely access your desktop and manually initiate a print whenever you like.  I use Chrome Remote Desktop on my iPad.   
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Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans.

pcgpcg

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Re: automated printing on vacation to keep printer active and avoid clogs
« Reply #7 on: January 21, 2016, 09:04:06 pm »

Canon tech told me to leave the printer(6400) on and do a nozzle check once a week if I wasn't printing. Can you just hire some neighbor kid to come over once a week and do that when they feed the cat?
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