Heres the latest up-date on refilling the PGI-29 ink tanks

[The Hat]

Filling is still very easy now that I have done it more than a dozen times but I am still nervous using bottles of ink with their lids open, I cant use my usual method of SquEasy bottles with these tanks which is a pity.

The chips on these tanks are more intelligent that I had previously taught they have completely ignored the newly designed light sensor prism and the air pressure inside the tank.

So I will just have to revert back to disabling the on screen ink monitoring on each tank when they empty, not that it matters a jot with the size of these tanks anyway..

 

[jtoolman]

The Hat. I apologize but I guess I must have missed any previous post by you regarding the refilling and chip management on the PRO-1 PGI 29 carts.
What inks are you using and what about the Gloss Optimizier or whaever Canon calls it. I was not aware that there was inks for this system yet.

Thanks

Joe

 

[The Hat]

The Hat. I apologize but I guess I must have missed any previous post by you regarding the refilling and chip management on the PRO-1 PGI 29 carts.
What inks are you using and what about the Gloss Optimizier or whaever Canon calls it. I was not aware that there was inks for this system yet.

Thanks

Joe

There isnt any and wont be for a long time so I make do with the inks from the Pro9500.
The gloss Optimiser is the only one I get from Canon.

The ink situation is a bit of a bummer but need must and it seem to be working alright so far..

 

[jtoolman]

Oh I see. How is the refilling procedure? Is it simmilar to the PGI 9s, refilling throught the ink exit port?

 

[The Hat]

Oh I see. How is the refilling procedure? Is it simmilar to the PGI 9s, refilling throught the ink exit port?

The refill method is very much same using a plastic end of a syringe and so is the procedure. (See pictures)
http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=7473

It goes like this

I weigh the cartridge that needs to be refilled first and take its weight from the weight of a new cartridge which is 80 gm and put that exact amount of ink into my large syringe fitted with my little refiller. (One gram = one ml.)

Then holding the cartridge in one hand and the syringe in the other with the cartridge on the bottom (best way) pull on the plunger and take out about 10 ml of air from the bladder inside and then push on the plunger again slowly.

It takes a few pulls and pushes on the plunger to get all of the ink into the cartridge and then when you let go of the plunger it tends to rise up a bit allowing the air pressure to equalise inside the bladder at that point.

I remove the syringe slowly by twisting it and that allows the cartridge valve seals up again once the refiller tip is out.

 

[jtoolman]

Very nice info. What about the chips? I assume you have to disable the ink monitoring system instead?

 

[The Hat]

Very nice info. What about the chips? I assume you have to disable the ink monitoring system instead?

Yes Joe I have started to use that method with the chips already see thread #1 ..

 

[The Hat]

Very nice info. What about the chips? I assume you have to disable the ink monitoring system instead?

I am quite happy using my pro 1 now despite not having the ink monitoring available even after trying to hold the ink levels on screen at 50%, it made absolutely no difference, the refilling is going a treat dough.

This printer is far more intelligent then what went previous as it now monitors ink usage
rather than using their new prism sensor to detect ink levels inside the ink tanks, its very very accrete.

What I can see with these new chips is that they are total useless to the user (i.e. me) and are only there to prevent a ink tank being refilled, purely guess work on my behalf in short I have no idea at all yet.

 

[The Hat]

The Pro 1 has settle down nicely now that I am using the same inks from the 9500 despite having no separate green in the mix.

I was going to mix up some extra separate individual inks for it but decided Id have too many different inks to cope with and would only end up putting the wrong colour in the wrong cartridge; I have 22 SquEasy bottles varieties as is.

I use only one mid shade grey colour in all three tank positions with no great colour shift that I can see anyway.

I have being gifted with a trial bottle of the clear optimiser from Mikling (image Specialists) and it mixed in with OEM optimiser perfectly so now I have a complete set of inks without having to use the OEM stuff anymore.

I have to say to be fair I dont do high quality colour photos on glossy or any other fancy papers but I am producing photos and text together on plain paper with excellent results.

Until new ink becomes available for the pro1 its not going to a photographers dream machine and I would strongly recommend them waiting for a new batch to be produced,
otherwise they might be very disappointed with their B&W results.

I wouldnt have bought the pro 1 if I had known that the inks were completely different
like no green (my ignorance) Id have got another 9500 instead.

I am very happy with my new beast despite its initial ink problems; it is a bit faster than the 9500 but doesnt print as good a black as it.

Dislikes: - (1) its weight all of 70 lb.

(2) I had to rig the printer to stay on standby to prevent it bathing in ink each time it power on.
Edit: leaving the printer on is of no advantage.

(3) I dont like the paper being centred in the carriageway instead of the fixed left side position as normal,
registration can be a problem for overprinting which I do on special occasions (try it sometime for some great colours).

New printer new challenges but now perfectly satisfied with it, would I buy another one,
definitely not I get a bigger one next time A2 size..