Cool trick! How to do nozzle checks as a scheduled task

There is you know, all you have to do is to hit print and the printer will turn itself on unaided..

Roger in Phuket said:

Me neither I was very pleased to see the command in the "My Printer" utility. Pity there's not a "Power On" command!

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Well what do you know -- there is a Power Off button in my Maintenance tab as well! Must be from the Windows 8 software I loaded for my new computer because it wasn't there all these years with my old computer.

Pushing the Power Off button when the printer is turned off already does not toggle the power back on. Neither does The Hat's suggestion of trying to print something.

It's all well and good for me anyways as I've a custom made cover for my printer and have to get up and go over to the printer to put it on when powering off, so I won't be using the software Power Off. But still a great find that was right under my nose the two times I went into this Properties/Maintenance tab and it didn't register as I was trying to just get something done and move on to the next task.

stratman said:

Well what do you know -- there is a Power Off button in my Maintenance tab as well! Must be from the Windows 8 software I loaded for my new computer because it wasn't there all these years with my old computer.

Pushing the Power Off button when the printer is turned off already does not toggle the power back on. Neither does The Hat's suggestion of trying to print something.

It's all well and good for me anyways as I've a custom made cover for my printer and have to get up and go over to the printer to put it on when powering off, so I won't be using the software Power Off. But still a great find that was right under my nose the two times I went into this Properties/Maintenance tab and it didn't register as I was trying to just get something done and move on to the next task.

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The Hat is right. It is actually possible to set the printer to automatically turn on when a print job is sent to the printer, whether you are using Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8, or 8.1

I just tested this by installing a Pixma 4200 on an old XP computer using the original install CD (year 2006 I think). After the install I have this maintenance tab in the printer properties window:



The button marked in red turns off the printer, the text translates to "Power supply off. Turns off the printer". Clicking this button opens a small window asking you to confirm that you want to switch off the printer.

The button marked in green allows you to enable/disable automatic Power on/Power off. The text translates to "Automatic power supply. Makes it possible to adjust the function for automatic turn off/turn on". Clicking this button opens this small window:



The upper drop down menu allows you to enable/disable automatic power supply. If you enable this function, the printer will turn on when a print job is sent to the printer. The lower drop down menu allows you to enable/disable automatic power off. If enabled you can choose between 5 - 10 - 15 - 30 - 60 minutes inactivity before turning off the printer.

I have never used this feature before so I haven't noticed these settings before, even if I have used the maintenance tab for Canon printers very often, but now I have tested the functions and they work.

PeterBJ said:

the hat is right. It is actually possible to set the printer to automatically turn on when a print job is sent to the printer, whether you are using Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8, or 8.1

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Stratman said:

Pushing the Power Off button when the printer is turned off already does not toggle the power back on. Neither does The Hat's suggestion of trying to print something.
I was trying to just get something done and move on to the next task.

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It’s alright PeterBJ, stratman is still trying to join me in Orbit, He’ll get there eventfully…

There is no such button on my 6700D, ip1600, ip6210 etc.?
But it is available on ip100, ip3000 hmm very strange.
http://www.canon-asia.com/ecofriendly-pixma/

Hmm, this is interesting, I wonder if EPSON can be turned on when you send print job to it?

Also my brother mFC-5895CW has automatic very short head clean routine every ~48hours. It just works. The printer sleep standby needs about 0.3W of power. It wakes up cleans the head and then back to sleep again.

Wonder why Canon, EPSON doesn't do this?

stratman said:

<snip>
Pushing the Power Off button when the printer is turned off already does not toggle the power back on.
<snip>

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I like the way you think!

stratman said:

<snip>
Neither does The Hat's suggestion of trying to print something.
<snip>

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Yes, same with my MX328. Ah well, I have to walk past it after I turn on the UPS, so it's no big deal really!

The reason I want to power it off when I shutdown the PC is that after I shut down the PC, I turn off the UPS. So the power to the printer gets cut while it is on.

But I've noticed that if I hit the "Power" button on the printer while it is on, it does some housekeeping (maybe parking the print heads?) before it actually switches off.

So I thought it better to play nice and make sure it powers of properly - using the command from the PC - before I turn off the UPS. This saves walking to the printer and back to the UPS.

The things we do to save a bit of energy!

Smile said:

There is no such button on my 6700D, ip1600, ip6210 etc.?
But it is available on ip100, ip3000 hmm very strange.

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I just checked the maintenance tabs in the printer properties windows for all my Canon printers installed on a Windows 8.1 64 bit computer.

The i965, iP2700, iP3600, iP4000, iP4200, and iP5200 all have both the turn off button and the Auto on/off button, but the iP6600D, which I think is similar to the iP6700D only has the power off button, no Auto on/off button. So it seems this feature is not available for all Canon printer models.

Roger in Phuket said:

The reason I want to power it off when I shutdown the PC is that after I shut down the PC, I turn off the UPS. So the power to the printer gets cut while it is on.

But I've noticed that if I hit the "Power" button on the printer while it is on, it does some housekeeping (maybe parking the print heads?) before it actually switches off.

So I thought it better to play nice and make sure it powers of properly - using the command from the PC - before I turn off the UPS. This saves walking to the printer and back to the UPS.

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The Canon printers should always be powered off by using the on/off button or if available a software command. They should never be powered off just by cutting the power. If you cut the power, the print head isn't parked properly. This could cause clogged nozzles due to drying out of the print head.

Roger in Phuket said:

The reason I want to power it off when I shutdown the PC is that after I shut down the PC, I turn off the UPS. So the power to the printer gets cut while it is on.

But I've noticed that if I hit the "Power" button on the printer while it is on, it does some housekeeping (maybe parking the print heads?) before it actually switches off.

So I thought it better to play nice and make sure it powers of properly - using the command from the PC - before I turn off the UPS. This saves walking to the printer and back to the UPS.

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Do NOT just use your UPS to cut power to a printer that is turned on. Use the printer's off button (or this software one if available) so that the print head moves over and parks directly above/on the purge pads.

PeterBJ said:

I just checked the maintenance tabs in the printer properties windows for all my Canon printers installed on a Windows 8.1 64 bit computer.

the iP6600D, which I think is similar to the iP6700D only has the power off button, no Auto on/off button. So it seems this feature is not available for all Canon printer models.

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That is the fact. The MP830 does not have this "Auto on/off" button. If you click on Help while on the Maintenance tab you may see as I do

Auto Power <Applicable Models Only>

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