A few ideas:

[BOYNTONSTU]

1> Avoid automatic cleaning cycles with a substitute .bat file.

Print BLACK, MAGENTA, CYAN, YELLOW every 10 hours and use less ink.

2> Instead of CISS why not drill a hole in the side of the stationary cartridge (MFC Brother, Canon, etc) , drill holes in the side of your printer, attach a pill bottle with a tube to the cartridge.Done!

 

[fotofreek]

After you've tried this technique yourself for several weeks please report back with how successful your simplified CISS was. Most reports by people using either commercially available CISS units or their own home-made units indicate that it is not that simple, but in the interest of experimentation and helping to add knowledge to the forum I would certainly not discourage you from trying it on your printer. Please add pictures to your report when you've made a successful working model.

 

[websnail]

1> Avoid automatic cleaning cycles with a substitute .bat file.

Which contained what/which commands to allow it to sidestep the printer firmware?

Print BLACK, MAGENTA, CYAN, YELLOW every 10 hours and use less ink.

Based on which brand and printer model number?

2> Instead of CISS why not drill a hole in the side of the stationary cartridge (MFC Brother, Canon, etc) , drill holes in the side of your printer, attach a pill bottle with a tube to the cartridge.Done!

And how would you secure the tube in the cartridges, stop it from falling out, etc... ?


In all seriousness, they're ideas but they're next to useless without detailed information otherwise it's a "Pie in the sky" suggestion.

 

[qwertydude]

It would be easier to build your own CISS by taking original cartridges and putting flexible lines into the reservoir areas but balancing the pressure so it doesn't create a vacuum and suck air in or overpressure and seep ink out of the nozzles is tough. I suppose if you can build a system that "floats" the bulk ink tanks in a common large tank with water at a fixed level at the same height as the print heads it would compensate for the change in pressure due to lowering ink levels but that's getting a bit complicated. It's easier to just refill than go through all the hooplah.

 

[johnwarfin]

balancing the pressure so it doesn't create a vacuum and suck air in or overpressure and seep ink out of the nozzles is tough.

I've always wondered about that. How do commercial CIS solve this problem?

 

[BOYNTONSTU]

A short rigid or plastic tube inserted into a tight hole drilled near the bottom of a cartridge and glued in place will be the connect point for a flexible tube.

Same at the external ink container.

My idea is to enlarge the volume of the cartridge and keep the ink level the same as the original.

Why won't this work?

 

[qwertydude]

It won't work because of the extra pressure exerted by the ink level above the print head. You're probably safe until the ink level gets too high above the top of the cartridge but when it starts getting low the cartridge may not pull enough of a vacuum to suck the ink at the very bottom. This is solved by using a mariotte siphon, though the need for it is arguable and is further explained by mikling on this thread.

http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=4718

 

[BOYNTONSTU]

Pressure = height x density x gravity (hdg)

When you add volume to the original cartridge and you do NOT increase the height of the fluid level, the pressure remains the same as before.

Siphons, etc. are needed when dealing with different fluid levels.

My concept is like this:

: : : :
: : : :
: :===: :
_________________

 

[johnwarfin]

I still don't understand why commercial CIS units work so well. I have a Canon and dozens of Ebay Epson functioning perfectly for couple years now. The level in tanks is initally much higher than cartridges and just before filling way below (tabletop level). No leakage and none go dry.

In these systems siphon don't appear to be operating because all lines are initially filled with air yet soon fill with ink. No priming required. A homegrown siphon setup I did does need priming and stops working if the lines fill with air.

I can't seem to grasp how the Marriote principle maintains such perfect pressure. Apparently nozzles are not that particular about pressure?

Vendor warning in big red letters seems to be a clue:

"When refilling your unit, it is important that the air filter is replaced with the travel plug and that both the travel plug and refill plug are not removed at the same time"

I remember my first setup several years back where I was told by idiot vendor to raise tanks above printer. The system worked but overnight emptied through the nozzles destroying my printer. The new units don't seem to care.

 

[BOYNTONSTU]

An extension of the original FIXED (non-moving) cartridge through a hole drilled in the side of the printer to a reservoir at the same level should eliminate any pressure associated problems.

How does the cartridge know that it was enlarged?