Setting up PC for auto test prints ???

[Fish Chris]

I had a brainstorm today.......

Neil has repeatedly talked of the importance, of using our printers on a regular basis, so that the ports do not have a chance to dry out, and clog. He says at least every other day. Now I don't know about the rest of you, but the way I am, I might use my printer every day.... even two or three times in a day, for a week straight..... but then, I might also let it go for a week (two weeks would be rare) without using it.

So how about this ???
I am just absolutely sure, that there must be a way, that I could set up my PC, so that every day at a chosen time, it tells my printer to do a test print. The default nozzle check for my old i960 just did 6 small blocks, of a light shade, of a pure color from each cart, and I'm sure it used exceedingly little ink...... But, on the other hand, it should be enough ink, to "keep things moist and flowing well".

So first off, Neil, or anybody, how does this idea sound ?

Secondly, if you guys think this is a good idea, who can tell me how I would go about setting my PC up, for something like this ???

Thanks in advance,
Fish

 

[Nifty]

Fish, this is a pretty interesting idea! A few quick thoughts that came to mind:

1) A nozzle check pattern is good because it guarantees that all the nozzles will be fired. Sometimes I wonder if it passes enough ink through the nozzles to really help insure that they aren't getting gummed up.

2) I would think that a program could be written and put into your "Startup" folder to run every time Windows starts.

3) I don't know if every day is necessary. Many people on this forum have had their printers for years and years and only print a few times a week. I'm not sure, but the trade off of saving the printhead may be at the expense of extra wear and tear on the printer which may shorten it's life anyway.

Best case would be a program that could tap into the memory of the printer ( http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=165 and http://www.nifty-stuff.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=116 ) and print a nozzle check pattern and page of color if the last print date is greater than, say, 3 days.

There are programs out there that can create system wide macros for Windows (copying mouse and keyboard commands). You could create a macro to run every day that would open up your printer preferences, print a nozzle check pattern, maybe print a colorful test image (http://www.nifty-stuff.com/gallery/sample-images) and then close printer preferences.

What do you think?

 

[websnail]

It's already been done..

MIS Associates has a small utility that was donated by a user.. It tackles the problem by allowing you to select a period of X days between prints and then allows you to select the printout you want to use to purge your system.

You can find the utility via the knowledge base here: http://inksupply.info/index.php?_a=knowledgebase
...using the keywords "autoprint" (1st article).

Enjoy...

 

[fotofreek]

MIS also has purge files you can download. The one for your printer is identified by the number of ink carts it uses These files have a band of each color your printer uses and is especially handy when changing ink manufacturers to purge the printhead of the previous ink. To use less ink you could reduce the size of the color bands and use this file for your auatomatic print job.

 

[Fish Chris]

Thank you very much guys.

Hey websnail, that's just what I was hoping for. I will check out this link, and see if I can make it work for me. BTW, I would imagine that if you could make something like this run automatically every day, then it shouldn't be hard to make it run every other day..... or every 27.3 hours for that matter. The amount of time in between is probably of little significance to the program.

Thanks again,
Fish

 

[websnail]

Glad to help..

FWIW.. I've been using it for a school using C84 and C86 printers and it has been a major boon for them this last summer.. It was set to print every 3 days using a purge4.gif (4 colour print out) over the summer holiday and instead of each printer requiring a cleaning session to get it working again I found only one required a single head clean.

In terms of ink used it's also worth noting that the printer used a LOT less ink with the 14 odd printouts they each did compared with what the 3 or so cleaning cyles will put out. So it's actually more economical..



Oh and just to note, you do need to have the computer turned on the whole time, or at least for the time the schedule is due to run, for it to work..

 

[fotofreek]

websnail - MIS has two utilities listed. One is named "refresh" and the other is "163refresh". Which one did you use, and does it permit doing the autoprint at any interval you wish? I've never used the scheduler on my PC. I'm running XP pro.

 

[websnail]

websnail - MIS has two utilities listed. One is named "refresh" and the other is "163refresh". Which one did you use, and does it permit doing the autoprint at any interval you wish? I've never used the scheduler on my PC. I'm running XP pro.

Ah... You've hit the dreaded "MIS website navigation needs refurb" issue..

The site is frankly a MESS of links and duplicated info that misleads or confuses and it's the biggest problem I have with MIS...

You need to go through:
- Support
-> Tech Support
---> Knowledge base

and then search using the keyword "autoprint"..

That should find it for you...

 

[Fish Chris]

Hey Websnail, or anybody, one more question.....

I have installed the "autoprint" program, but I would like to use the "nozzle check" pattern that comes up when I use the Canon Easy photo print program, as I believe it has got to use a lot less ink than the patterns supplied with "autoprint". In fact, I'm sure it will, as the color blocks are much smaller, and much lighter in shade...... and because the color block pattern used by Canon easy photo uses so little ink, I'll probably set "autoprint" to run every day.

Now, the "autoprint" program even allows you to browse for the image you want use for a test print....... But their is only one problem.... "I can't find that freaking image anywhere ! I don't even know the name of it, so I can't do a search :-(

Any suggestions ?

Thanks again,
Fish

 

[fotofreek]

I suspect that the nozzle check pattern is built into the firmware of the printer. If you want to use it I would guess that you run the nozzle check and scan the print. It is a pretty delicate pattern. I would prefer to adapt a purge file like the one that is available from MIS. You can crop it down to a very small size to minimize the use of ink. Depending on how long you will be gone, you'd better be sure you have full ink carts installed! I think that printing a pattern every three or four days would suffice.