Luminous Landscape Forum
Raw & Post Processing, Printing => Printing: Printers, Papers and Inks => Topic started by: cqmaps on May 04, 2015, 02:30:14 pm
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Hello everyone!
I am James, owner of CQmaps - Professional Maps for Amateur Radio ( www.cqmaps.com (http://www.cqmaps.com) )
I am not a photographer, but my wife is...so, cool by association, haha.
Anyway, I have a question about my ipf8000. I know that its an older printer, but it works very well for what I need it to do. I am a professional cartographer (map maker) and make maps for Amateur Radio folks, also known as hams.
So I picked this printer up a few months ago and have been very pleased with it. I have had to do a little maintenance, but nothing major, which is good, since these will nickle and dime you to death. Well, last week I received a print head error (right side) and bought a new PF-03 from Adorama for $440. Ouch.
I also noticed that there were some head resetters devices for about $150. So I am wondering if any of you have ever used one. I am fairly good at mechanical and electronic work and can troubleshoot really well. But, can the PF-03 be reliably cleaned and reset?
$440 is pretty steep but I can write it off in my business cost. I would really just like to clean a head once and then buy a new one. This would give me a 2:1 advantage on costs. But, I don't want my printer to become a 300 pound brick just to save a few hundred bucks.
So what is the verdict?
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The Canons have a very sensitive electronics setup, and often when ignoring the new head message and pressing on with trying to get extra life out of a head, the mother board will die. Too few good nozzles overloads the board and then you're up for major expense.
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I've followed the Canon iPFXXXX Large Format Printer forum - http://canonipf.wikispaces.com/page/messages/FAQ - for 7-8 years and never heard of a "head re-setter". Maybe an ink or waste cartridge re-setter you're referring to?
The bubble-jet heads are electro-thermally activated, and have a huge excess of nozzles, which are remapped to replace nozzles which have failed - almost always by basically burning out (shorting). When the redundant nozzles can't compensate, a head error comes up. Cleanings rarely have any effect when these appear, and I've been advised by a Canon tech on one occasion to try one simple cleaning cycle, and if the nozzle-check print hasn't normalized, don't waste further ink - order a new head. Forcing printing one way or another with the head will generate increased head temps, and can lead to controller board failure by drawing too much current from the multiple shorted-out nozzles.
Pete