Canon Pro-10 Group 1 not functioning

PrintRed

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Hello, I purchased a used Pro10 and a new in package printhead off local Craigslist. Spent a week with it making test prints (about 20 prints 4x6 to 13x19 with no problems), calibrated my monitor and working on fine tuning my pictures for good color... I am a brand new member to this forum by the way!

I let the printer set for 1-week, plugged in and powered up. I then ran a nozzle check before printing and Zero ink is being laid down for all Group 1 colors. Not even a pixel, all nozzles not outputting ink. I figure the probability of all Group 1 nozzles clogging in a one week period to be near zero. I went into trouble shooting mode by:
  1. running the nozzle check print again;
  2. ran a light purge (nozzle clean cycle);
  3. ran a heavy purge;
  4. removed all cartridges and reseating (the printhead mating pads looked wet, no ink starvation);
  5. I removed the printhead, cleaned contacts,
  6. I removed the printhead again, cleaned contacts (isopropyl and q-tips) and printer pogo pins. There were no stuck pogo pins.
I ran nozzle check between each step above.

So, I figure there is electrical discontinuity somewhere between the motherboard to the print head, like an open Vcc line running to Group 1 nozzles. I did not want to dirty my virgin printhead but its was easy enough to try, as a way to eliminate an electrical open on the original printed. New printhead gave me the same results, no activity on Group 1.

Has anyone run across a dead Group 1 or Group 2 situation like this? If so, any luck in fixing it? All I can imagine is that I have a bad Vcc drive from the motherboard or somewhere an Open (bad connection) from the motherboard to the Printed pogo pin block.

By the way, I rinsed out the original printhead using tap water and placed in a ziplock bag wet to keep from drying out. I will get some distilled or RO water tomorrow and re-rinse and store in ziplock (pads wet). Is this a reasonable way to store a printhead?

Thanks for your consideration.

Scott
 

Artur5

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Maybe it's the purge unit of group 1. See the thread below ( post#7 by @stratman ).

https://www.printerknowledge.com/threads/canon-100s-printerhead-1-not-printing.14903/#post-129846

The other possibility might be the failure of some chip controlling all the nozzles in group1. I never heard about such thing before. Usually it fails one color at a time so I'm betting on purge unit problems.
What puzzles me is that your printer worked fine for a while and then, after a week sitting idle, the problem appeared as soon as you tried to print. This is weird.
 
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PrintRed

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Artur5, thanks for your response. I assume the purge unit is working fine because the weight of my cartridges have definitely dropped as I ran nozzle cleaning cycles.

Finding the problem is simple in theory, but will be a mess in practice. I don't think I am up to it. Especially with no schematic and assembly instructions.

There are 5680 nozzles and 80 electrical connections to the printhead. My guess is that the nozzles are addressed in a switch matrix in groups of 568 for each color ink. That would account for 24+36 of the 80 available connections (24x36= 568). Leaving 10 lines for the source (or sink, depending on low side or high side driver typology).

This makes me believe we're not dealing with a simple connection problem where one missing line would take out one color if a sink-line or multiple nozzles (but not all) from all colors if a matrix-line.

I can pretty much bet a blown driver chip is the issue.

I can easily vision what the problem is. I have a hard time imagining how difficult it would be to dig into the guts of these printers to find that pesky IC, not to mention how to find a replacement IC other than pulling one off a junked printer, meaning I would be digging into two printers. Uhg!

It's looking like I am dealing with a rare failure rate situation and I will not bad mouth the Canon Pro-10 because of it. Those ~20 prints I made with it were fun! I was looking forward to mastering this hobby of printing photos.

Scott (USA)
 

The Hat

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There are only three things that would cause the problem your experiencing, one has already being mentioned by @Artur5 and you dismissed that without even considering it, but I would have taught it’s your best option to work with first.

The second is your logic board and that’s not easy to replace without causing a fatal error, the only way a logic board can get effect is by leaving your printer on 24/7 without using it, Epson printer may like that, but Canon printer don’t.

The third if not the purge unit or logic board, then look at the replacement print head, there has to be a question about its parenthood, where did it originate from, was it purchased from Canon Inc. or China, and why did the previous owner feel the need to have a new print head in the first place, things don’t add up..

We are here to give you the best advice and answers, but we need as much history as possible to diagnose these issues properly, hunches are no good, and there is nothing to be done electrically, just repair or replacement whichever the cause..
 

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Are all the cartridges recognized ? (meaning they all have the red led on and can be seen full or partially filled in the printer status window on the PC)
 

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@PrintRed :
The problem with second printers is that you know nothing about the previous history of the machine, except the number of sheets printed. Who knows if that issue had appeared intermittently before and the former owner decided to sell the printer ?
Therefore, any speculation about electronic failure is a blind shot.

According to the experience of most Canon users here, the likely culprit would be the purge unit of group 1. That doesn’t exclude the possibility of logic board failure but, as I said in my other post, the sudden demise of all colors in one group must be a very rare occurrence. In the vast majority of cases it’s either one color at a time or all of them, not by groups.

P.S.
I expect that you weighted the carts after removing them and found that some ink had been ejected.
If you relied only on the levels given on-screen by the driver, this is of no use in this case, because the printer assumes that when a cleaning cycle is performed, ink is actually sucked by the purge units, regardless of those units working correctly or not.
 

PrintRed

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Maybe it's the purge unit of group 1. See the thread below ( post#7 by @stratman ).

https://www.printerknowledge.com/threads/canon-100s-printerhead-1-not-printing.14903/#post-129846

The other possibility might be the failure of some chip controlling all the nozzles in group1. I never heard about such thing before. Usually it fails one color at a time so I'm betting on purge unit problems.
What puzzles me is that your printer worked fine for a while and then, after a week sitting idle, the problem appeared as soon as you tried to print. This is weird.
Artur5, Thanks for "purge unit" tip. I got out a flashlight and took a look at the purge unit. I could see "ink crust" on the group 1 rubber dam. Thinking it would not take too much of a leak to significantly reduce the vacuum of the purge unit and there by not priming the printhead... So, with the help of q-tips and a forceps for reach, the crust was cleaned off and a perfect nozzle check print is now in hand!

Earlier in trouble shooting I did weigh cartridges after the second light cleaning(purge) cycle. My mistake in remembering the weight of a full PGI-71 as 35.2 grams instead of 32.2 grams. Seeing ~30 grams after I figured the purge was working. Also, the printhead had group 1 ink visible at the nozzles. Clearly visible ink is not an indication of free flowing condition during printing!

Who knows how long this 2nd (3rd, 4th...???) hand printer has been laying around, the "crust" doesn't surprise me. Good news for me is that this Pro-10 only has 651-700 print cycles on it!

Thanks Artur5 and everyone that chimed in. This thread can be closed I believe (hope).
 

palombian

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@PrintRed :
...

According to the experience of most Canon users here, the likely culprit would be the purge unit of group 1. That doesn’t exclude the possibility of logic board failure but, as I said in my other post, the sudden demise of all colors in one group must be a very rare occurrence. In the vast majority of cases it’s either one color at a time or all of them, not by groups.

...
Great diagnosis, @Artur5 !
 

The Hat

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Who knows how long this 2nd (3rd, 4th...???) hand printer has been laying around, the "crust" doesn't surprise me. Good news for me is that this Pro-10 only has 651-700 print cycles on it!
One other thing to do before you sign off, flood the purge pads with Windex once or twice to help clean and clear out any remaining old ink that would have acclimated during its time out.. Then do that twice yearly as prevention..
 

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