topic Re: Scheduled print head cleaning? in Professional Photo Printers

Scheduled print head cleaning?

EricRFMA — Mon, 04 Mar 2019 00:21:06 GMT

I have a Pro-10 and have learned the hard way that the print heads need to be cleaned regularly. Of course, I'm contantly forgetting to do that.

What I'm looking for is a way to have the head cleaning happen automatically. I'm on a Mac, so I looked for a AppleScript dictionary in the printer utility, but there isn't one. There doesn't seem to be a separate utility in the Canon IJ Printer Utility bundle either.

Anyone know anything?

Thanks!

-Eric

Re: Scheduled print head cleaning?

TCampbell — Mon, 04 Mar 2019 15:28:46 GMT

I'm thinking that perhaps you are powering the printer off.

The Pro-10 does this automatically already. Power it on and leave it on (never power it off unless you need to move it). It will run a mild cleaning cycle every 60 hours.

BTW, if you power if off completely or unplug it, it has no real-time clock so it has no idea how long it has been without power. This forces it to do a more aggressive cleaning cycle in case the printer was off for a long time.

Jose Rodriguez has a YouTube channel on these printers. He used to run a scheduled task every couple of days to produce a test print in order to keep the ink flowing and fresh (the amount of ink used to produce the small prints is far less than what would be wasted by a full cleaning cycle). He later learned that if he just leaves the printer on, it will automatically run cleaning cycles (and it still runs those cleaning cycles even if you produced prints during the time period.)

The PIXMA PRO-10 is a "pigment" based inkjet. The PIXMA PRO-100 is a "dye" based inkjet. Pigments tend to be better for archival quality (ink fading is very slow on pigments compared to dyes). But pigments clog easier. For this reason the PRO-10 (pigment) runs a small cleaning cycle every 60 hours. The PRO-100 (dye) doubles the wait ... and does the cleaning cycle at 120 hours.

Re: Scheduled print head cleaning?

EricRFMA — Mon, 04 Mar 2019 17:21:09 GMT

Hi Tim... thanks for your reply!

I am not turning the printer off. However, the 60 hour mild cleaning cycle has not been enough to keep my nozzles fresh and clean. In some previous discussion, someone suggested doing a (manual) head cleaning daily, which is what I keep forgetting to do.

I can try to print a random test page daily, since I think I can automate that, and see if that does the trick. I just can't automate anything that requires the Print Utility 😞

Thanks again!

-Eric

P.S. Does anyone know where there is a file I can print (at low res) that would clear out the heads?

Re: Scheduled print head cleaning?

TCampbell — Mon, 04 Mar 2019 17:51:24 GMT

What OS are you running? (Windows, Mac, etc.)

It would be fairly easy to generate your own test image using something like Photoshop to force it to print through a rainbow of "colors" as well as a variety of black & white tonality.

One caveat... I am not an expert on this (maybe John knows) ... but it has two "black" tanks... BK and PBK (black and photo black). I *think* "photo black" is only used when the printer thinks it is printing to "photo" paper and regular black is only used on regular (non-photo) paper.

Re: Scheduled print head cleaning?

EricRFMA — Mon, 04 Mar 2019 17:57:06 GMT

Thanks again Tim...

I'm on a Mac, so I've already whipped up an Automator action that will send a file to the printer.

Good point about the two black inks... Different ink on diffferent paper. Not sure how to address that.

Re: Scheduled print head cleaning?

jrhoffman75 — Wed, 06 Mar 2019 12:31:44 GMT

What about a daily nozzle check via Automator. It will use every ink tank.

Re: Scheduled print head cleaning?

TCampbell — Wed, 06 Mar 2019 15:37:28 GMT

@jrhoffman75 wrote:
What about a daily nozzle check via Automator. It will use every ink tank.

That would be great.

On the mac, Canon embeds that capability in the "System Preferences" -> "Printers & Scanners" -> (pick the printer) -> "Options & Supplies..." -> "Utility" -> "Print Test Page"

I haven't been able to find a utility I can directly invoke (e.g. a command that I can add to an automator script) to kick off a test page.

Do you know of a way to do this without navigating there via the user interface?

Re: Scheduled print head cleaning?

pipur — Wed, 06 Mar 2019 16:04:27 GMT

Providing code from the SPL-file that in Windows is sent to a PRO-1 printer for a nozzle check.

There's xml in it - but also a portion with none-ASCII characters as well so I'm not quite sure about the file format. I could send it to you if copy-paste doesn't work.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?><cmd xmlns:ivec="http://www.canon.com/ns/cmd/2008/07/common/"><ivec:contents><ivec:operation>StartJob</ivec:operation><ivec:param_set servicetype="print"><ivec:jobID>00000001</ivec:jobID><ivec:bidi>0</ivec:bidi></ivec:param_set></ivec:contents></cmd><?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?><cmd xmlns:ivec="http://www.canon.com/ns/cmd/2008/07/common/" xmlns:vcn="http://www.canon.com/ns/cmd/2008/07/canon/"><ivec:contents><ivec:operation>VendorCmd</ivec:operation><ivec:param_set servicetype="print"><vcn:ijoperation>ModeShift</vcn:ijoperation><vcn:ijmode>1</vcn:ijmode><ivec:jobID>00000001</ivec:jobID></ivec:param_set></ivec:contents></cmd>[K  BJLSTART
ControlMode=Driver
$JobType=Mnt
BJLEND
[K  BJLSTART
ControlMode=Common
SetTime=20181113092649
SetSilent=OFF
BJLEND
[K  BJLSTART
@TestPrint=NozzleCheck
BJLEND
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?><cmd xmlns:ivec="http://www.canon.com/ns/cmd/2008/07/common/"><ivec:contents><ivec:operation>EndJob</ivec:operation><ivec:param_set servicetype="print"><ivec:jobID>00000001</ivec:jobID></ivec:param_set></ivec:contents></cmd>

I got it working in Windows, good luck.

/Peter

Re: Scheduled print head cleaning?

EricRFMA — Sat, 09 Mar 2019 02:03:29 GMT

I'm working on getting an Applescript together to make that happen, but the preference pane isn't very scriptable, so it's taking a while.

In the meantime, I've reseated the print heads and done several deep cleanings and haven't gotten anywhere. Very discouraging.

Oh crap... Now it's telling me to replace the Grey cartridge because it's empty... But I just replaced that cartridge while I was going through the cleaning cycles!!! Is it possible they sent me a near-empty cartridge? I was a tad suspicious, because some of the cellophane bags containing the cartridges were ripped.

But now I just noticed the other cartridges I replaced during all this show low as well. I don't remember them getting drained so quickly last time. Looks like I'm going to have to order another set of Group 2 cartridges.

Grumble

Re: Scheduled print head cleaning?

ArthurJ — Fri, 15 Mar 2019 18:34:30 GMT

Hi EricRFMA,

You mentioned that "the 60 hour mild cleaning cycle has not been enough to keep my nozzles fresh and clean". What kind of print quality issues are you seeing?

Re: Scheduled print head cleaning?

EricRFMA — Fri, 15 Mar 2019 18:48:10 GMT

Hi @ArthurJ...

The print quality is what you get when all the nozzles in group2 are clogged (or otherwise not working). That was verified by printing a test sheet in the Canon printer utility.

This is the second time this has happened... I plead guilty to not using the printer/running cleaning cycles often enough. The first time is documented here: https://community.usa.canon.com/t5/Professional-Photo-Printers/Pro-10-Group-2-Printheads-non-functional/m-p/260274#M6461

But why is it always all the nozzles in group 2 clog? Group 1 remains clean and fresh!

Regards,

Eric

P.S. I'm having a harder time getting the group 2 heads printing again... I ran out of one cartridge which has only arrived yesterday, so I'm going to see how far I can get without having to replace all the group 2 inks again 😞

Re: Scheduled print head cleaning?

ArthurJ — Fri, 15 Mar 2019 19:03:02 GMT

Hi EricRFMA,

If all the sections in group 2 of the nozzle check are blank after cleanings then I recommend contacting Canon at 1-800-OK-CANON (1-800-652-2666), Monday - Friday, 8:00 AM - 8:00 PM EST.

Re: Scheduled print head cleaning?

EricRFMA — Sat, 16 Mar 2019 01:26:43 GMT

Thanks for the reply, but I do have a couple of questions:

How much cleaning should I do? In the past I just kept deep cleaning until everything was unclogged. The Cleaning dialog says run cleaning twice, and if that doesn't clear things out run deep cleaning. But it doesn't how many times.
What should I expect when I call Canon?

Thanks for your help!

-Eric

Re: Scheduled print head cleaning?

EricRFMA — Sat, 16 Mar 2019 16:35:02 GMT

OK, now this is not to be believed...

The printer has been sitting for five days, waiting for the new ink to arrive, and five days ago there was only the GY and CO nozzles showing up on a test print. I had run of of GY first, so I replaced that cartridge, and ran a test print.

Now... all nozzles are firing! I wish I knew why, so I can make sure I could make it happen again. But I don't plan to let it happen again.

Thanks to all who replied

-Eric

Re: Scheduled print head cleaning?

ArthurJ — Mon, 18 Mar 2019 17:44:08 GMT

Hi EricRFMA,

Glad to hear everything is up and running.

You also wanted to know what to expect if you contacted Canon. Not sure what you are looking for but best I can tell you is you will speak with someone who has been trained on your model printer and will just ask you some questions to narrow down any issues you may be having. They will walk you through any steps needs to troubleshoot and will provide you with good information.

Hope that helps and that you have a good day.

Re: Scheduled print head cleaning?

EricRFMA — Sat, 23 Mar 2019 16:06:05 GMT

@TCampbell, I've got an AppleScript working that will print a test page. It required much Dark Magic. It needs a little polish and then I can post it here (or wherever it would do most good).

Re: Scheduled print head cleaning?

SLbrainTrust — Tue, 07 Apr 2020 14:22:37 GMT

Did you ever get this automator script running? And if so can you share it? I just lost a print head due to not printing for a bit (about 3 weeks) and I need something to do the exact same thing you were.

Thanks!

Re: Scheduled print head cleaning?

EricRFMA — Tue, 07 Apr 2020 16:29:39 GMT

It was getting pretty hairy (needed to Applescript via System Events which is NOT fun), so I abandoned it. I think I'll pick it up again, though, since I'm sheltered-in-place.

Also, I didn't update what eventually happened... I spoke with Canon support, and after first talking to a bozo that really didn't know what he was talking about, but on the second call they ultimately offered me a replacement printer! For no charge, even though it was out of warranty! Hooray for Canon! 🙂

Now I can go for weeks with no clogging!