Luminous Landscape Forum
Raw & Post Processing, Printing => Printing: Printers, Papers and Inks => Topic started by: dwight_talley on May 31, 2022, 11:36:33 am
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I picked up a Canon IPF 8400 yesterday that has sat unused for two years for a very good price. People were moving and needed to get rid of it. My question is what should I look at or expect when trying to get this printer back to life? I have not had a chance to power it up. I did look under the cover and saw some air in a couple of lines. I do know that a head needs to be replaced.
I have experience working on large format printers, having repaired two Epson 9600 printers that had sat for three years. Magenta is not your friend. This will be my first Canon printer.
I have the service manual to work with.
Any tips would be helpful.
Thanks
Dwight
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Get a few maintenance cartridges. Assuming the inks are still fluid in the lines, expect an almost complete purge of ink. Get a set of inks and refresh the lines if you want consistent color output. Install new heads after you purge the air/old ink from the lines. Get some decent 24” wide Canon paper—that’s approved for calibrations—for calibration.
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Provided there is no damage to the main board and strange error messages when you turn it on , if you put in new inks and both heads you are probably going to be fine. I really miss my 8300. It was the most trouble free printer I ever worked with. You might check to see how long these original Lucia inks are going to be available. I believe for a few more years
quote author=Chris_Brown link=topic=140893.msg1240581#msg1240581 date=1654028880]
Get a few maintenance cartridges. Assuming the inks are still fluid in the lines, expect an almost complete purge of ink. Get a set of inks and refresh the lines if you want consistent color output. Install new heads after you purge the air/old ink from the lines. Get some decent 24” wide Canon paper—that’s approved for calibrations—for calibration.
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Good thing is it came with 5 rolls of good paper which I will be able to use. I bought a maintenance chart since I figured I would need it. If the main board is damaged I will just part out the printer since I don't want to spend too much into getting it working. I have looked and not seen any used boards for sale.
Would I need a cleaning solution to run through the ink lines?
Dwight
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Would I need a cleaning solution to run through the ink lines?
If anything, water. But drying them and purging them to 100% dryness seems difficult. In the manual (it's online I believe) you will find that only water is recommended when cleaning the ink suction ports.
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Ok thanks for the info on only using water. I need to read the manual.
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Ok thanks for the info on only using water. I need to read the manual.
Don’t even think about putting anything other than inks. Just switch the printer on, and it should take best care of itself - stir the inks in retention tanks and purge ink lines, clean print heads (thermal print heads virtually doesn’t clog) etc, it’s a Canon not an Epson. Repleace print heads if the printer asks for it, and it should print just fine.
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Thanks for the info. I have been impressed by the Canon line of printers. I have a Canon Pro-1000 that sat in an unheated storage unit for a year and it started up with a perfect test print. Before owning a Canon, I went through the line of large Epson printers and I think I still have patches of hair missing after working on them. Magenta ink and print heads did not like each other.
I am waiting for a replacement head to arrive before I dig into this printer.
Dwight
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Today I cleaned off the New Mexico dust that covers everything that has been sitting for any length of time. Curiosity got the best of me and I fired up the printer. First the printer asked for a maintenance cart which I replaced with a new one. It then indicated that it needed a new Right print head, which I have on order. That is where we are stuck with the control panel on the printer. I then connected over the network to the printer's web page and it did not list any other errors. Yeah! Ink is at 20 % across the board but I have ink on order. So it is hurry up and wait for the head and ink to see if the printer is working correctly.
The print count in the web page said only 600 pages printed. Not sure if that is bad or good. Firmware version is 01.18.
So I am optimistic that I have a good printer on my hands for very little money.
Dwight
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I have an 8400 which has had relatively little use as I print only for my on use. I have found that replacing both heads at the same time is beneficial. That is really the only maintenance I have had to perform on my printer since I have owned it. Be prepared to load the printer with a roll of paper before replacing heads as it will want to go through a print head alignment routine.
Great printer with better ink than their newest offerings which are mostly unavailable.
Victor B.
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Yes, I ordered two print heads just to make sure I covered all the problems they could have. If one is bad the other is due to be bad as well. I also needed to order ink since it was out. The printer will try to replenish the lines after the head replacement.
It is a nice looking printer.
There is a print shop up the road from me that is going out of the print business and they have a lot of roll paper for sale at great prices. I may contact them after I determine that the printer is working well.
Dwight
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An update. I installed new ink carts and replaced both print heads but I am still getting a Right print head error. Not sure what to do with this now. Is there a way to bypass the error?
Dwight
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Sounds like the head board.
An update. I installed new ink carts and replaced both print heads but I am still getting a Right print head error. Not sure what to do with this now. Is there a way to bypass the error?
Dwight
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i logged into the printer web page and the error shows: Wrong head at 1 steps from home position.
My impression is the system thinks I have the wrong print head in the printer. I can get a head reset device and see if that fixes the issue.
If it is the head board, how hard is it to fix or replace?
Dwight
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I don’t know. I replaced my main board and it wasn’t that hard following a video, and I’m not very much of a mechanic at all. But in my case I was getting one of those generalized error codes and it didn’t fix my final situation.
My experience with the techs is they just start replacing components until it works. But they fixed things very fast. But they would no longer work on 8300s with my last issue. Thankfully I almost never had any problems for 8 years. A lightening storm blew my first main board.
It’s possible you could locate a board online somewhere.
i logged into the printer web page and the error shows: Wrong head at 1 steps from home position.
My impression is the system thinks I have the wrong print head in the printer. I can get a head reset device and see if that fixes the issue.
If it is the head board, how hard is it to fix or replace?
Dwight
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If it is the head board. I see one on ebay for sale but don't know the condition of it. Not many places that sell printer parts for us to replace.
I will try the reset device on one of the heads I have and see if it gives me a different error or not.
I also see that I need to run an ink refill since the lines are empty of ink. I got the new ink carts to see if that would start the process to fill the lines but I cant get past the print head error. I did not see a way to run the refill in service mode.
Dwight
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You really need to talk to a Canon tech somehow before buying any parts. There may be a way to start into service mode to do an ink fill. There used to be a Canon user group but it’s apparently gone now.
If it is the head board. I see one on ebay for sale but don't know the condition of it. Not many places that sell printer parts for us to replace.
I will try the reset device on one of the heads I have and see if it gives me a different error or not.
I also see that I need to run an ink refill since the lines are empty of ink. I got the new ink carts to see if that would start the process to fill the lines but I cant get past the print head error. I did not see a way to run the refill in service mode.
Dwight
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I turned on the printer this morning and it started the "Replenishing with Ink" mode. On the second maintenance tank already. Hope it does not need a third.
Dwight
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Well it looks like the ink lines were filled by the replenishing ink mode. Not sure why it started this morning, since I did not do anything but turn on the printer. Could be on a timer. The printer then did a nozzle check. After the check it stated "the printer is filling with ink from the ink tanks". After that I get an hardware error (03800500-2F41) which means complete non-ejection of a single color (2F41) so one of the print heads is not printing a single color. The error said to shut down the printer and turn it back on. I did and we are back to the bad right print head error. One step forward and two back. At least I got the ink lines filled again.
Dwight
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Can you find out if that ink line has dried ink in it? That happens with Epsons and my tech had to pull ink through manually.
I never bought maintenance tanks. There is a method of going into the service mode and resetting it then filling the tank with cotton. I did that for 7 years.
https://forum.luminous-landscape.com/index.php?topic=127712.0
quote author=dwight_talley link=topic=140893.msg1241143#msg1241143 date=1655393872]
Well it looks like the ink lines were filled by the replenishing ink mode. Not sure why it started this morning, since I did not do anything but turn on the printer. Could be on a timer. The printer then did a nozzle check. After the check it stated "the printer is filling with ink from the ink tanks". After that I get an hardware error (03800500-2F41) which means complete non-ejection of a single color (2F41) so one of the print heads is not printing a single color. The error said to shut down the printer and turn it back on. I did and we are back to the bad right print head error. One step forward and two back. At least I got the ink lines filled again.
Dwight
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From what I can see all of the ink lines filled up with ink. Before they were clearly empty with sections of ink and sections empty. I was worried the the ink had dried but I don't see any evidence of it.
I use to own a couple of epson 9600 printer that has set for three years. The ink in the lines, especially magenta was solid all the way from the heads to the ink tank. I had to run a stiff wire down the lines to break up the solid ink and then use a strong pump to pull fresh ink through.
I think that the print head may have a small bit of ink clog which would prevent the nozzle test completing. But first I will have to deal with the right print head error.
Thanks for the reset info. I will do that to the current maintenance tank since it is at 40%.
Dwight
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When you cranked it up there could have been solid dried in in the line that was pushed into the tiny nozzles in the head.
From what I can see all of the ink lines filled up with ink. Before they were clearly empty with sections of ink and sections empty. I was worried the the ink had dried but I don't see any evidence of it.
I use to own a couple of epson 9600 printer that has set for three years. The ink in the lines, especially magenta was solid all the way from the heads to the ink tank. I had to run a stiff wire down the lines to break up the solid ink and then use a strong pump to pull fresh ink through.
I think that the print head may have a small bit of ink clog which would prevent the nozzle test completing. But first I will have to deal with the right print head error.
Thanks for the reset info. I will do that to the current maintenance tank since it is at 40%.
Dwight
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I agree that solid ink could have clogged the head. I wish the error code could tell me what head had the problem or the color.
Dwight
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That is the really frustrating thing about Canon error codes. When I got that vague error on mine the only thing I could see to do after following the repair manual sequence was replace the main board which I sourced from a guy in California for $800.00. And it wasn’t the problem. Ugh.
Canon was no longer supporting the model with info or parts. I was so sad because it was built like a tank and the most reliable printer I ever had by far. It could have been something simple electronically. I really really miss it as a production machine at bidirectional, especially when I hear about all these insane things going on with the new Epsons giving people nightmares and wasting so much ink. You might ask around to see if there is some independent tech in your area to ask about it. I found out there was one in Atlanta but it was too late, I’d already given it away.
John
I agree that solid ink could have clogged the head. I wish the error code could tell me what head had the problem or the color.
Dwight
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Ouch! there is nothing worse than spending a lot of money but the error is still there. My plan is to not go too deep in the rabbit hole on this printer. I have a new head arriving today and some head cleaner to clean out the old heads. It looks like everything was working yesterday except one head was not spraying all of the inks. If that is the only issue then the new head should fix the problem. I have my fingers crossed. I think there is a random connection error associated with the right head also but will not know until I replace the head and see if I get a good nozzle check.
Dwight
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Houston we have a problem. The new and official Canon head did not fix the error about the right head. Darn. Also while looking at the head compartment I noticed that the ink lines on the right side were empty of ink. I swore that there was ink in them a few days ago when the printer went through the replenishing with ink process. I failed to take a photo of them then. So, is there a relationship between the empty ink lines and the bad print head error message? Also the problem seems to be random since I was able to get to the nozzle check process a few days ago.
Questions:
1. What should I look for in the ink supply section?
2. Is there a known problem with the pump getting ink to the heads.
3. I watched a video about looking for air leaks in the print head. It shows that a tool was used but the video was from 2014 and I guess the tool is not available. Where can I get it?
I am starting to get tired of this printer already and I have not turned a screw yet. Any info you can provide will be appreciated.
Dwight
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I opened the right side of the printer and was able to trace the ink lines. They look full until you get to the top of the print head carriage. In the attached photo at the top center you see the lines go left and right. That is where there is no ink in the lines for the right side. I will have to slide the carriage to the center of the printer and draw ink through all of the lines, looking for an air leak. Fun fun fun.
Is there a manual way to start the replenishing ink process?
Dwight
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Another update. I did a leak test on the right side ink tubes. No problem with a leak. I then opened up the valve and was able to pull ink from each color up to where the head connects. Still no problem. Now when I disconnected, the ink went back up the tube. I noticed that the ink stays in the tubes connected to the left head. Is there a leak where the ink lines connect to the right head? Need to run the replenishing again somehow.
Dwight
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I ran across a video where a person had Right print head error and air in the lines in his IPF 8410 printer. They removed the purge unit and cleaned it up and the printer worked fine after that. Sound like the same problem I have, right head error and air in the lines.
I was concentrating my investigation on the purge unit because there was no flow of ink when the head was on the cap station. I have nothing to loose taking the purge unit out, so tomorrow comes the adventure. Here is the video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIUDTAoTDes
Dwight