Still holding the cartridge as straight vertical as possible. pull the syringe plunger filling the syringe as quickly as possible. Do it fast to make sure the swirling and turbulence through the cartridge's pump mechanism pulls as much air along with it as possible. The foam/bubbles in the syringe means we got lots of air out. That all would have gone straight to the printhead! The HP printheads can deal with a pretty decent amount of air, but there's no sense in pushing one's luck.

[BTW, you can just squirt that ink into the matching ink tube. There's no reason to waste it]

Repeat filling and purging each catridge in turn. W00t, all done. No mess, everything according to plan. All the exosed glue/epoxy joints appear to be perfect.

Let the cartridges finish gravity filling, top off each tube with ink, and DONE. The printer powered, went through its 'new cartridge' ink charging routine, reported full ink and spat out several perfect dignostics pages.



And now... NEXT PRINTER...

I feel positively inadequate now as my workshop doesn't have nearly this many tools and materials to work with but I have to say that that guide provides all the clues and input anyone would need to put together a simple but effective system.

It mirrors some of the things I've developed myself with the exception of the reservoirs which are much more simplified. In particular the reservoirs air shut off isn't included but TBH I think it's overkill as regular top ups help avoid empties whilst the pump/bulb system built into the original cartridges and printer stops you pumping air into the printer anyway... Still n'all an excellent piece of documentation and the stuff on the printhead in particular is going to force me to play with one of my HP88 dead heads real soon.

So, my thanks for all that info... As for the "next printer"... Any ideas which one?


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Printers: (Canon) MP500/830, MX700, iP4000/4200/4300/4500/5200, iX4000(A3) (Epson) C84/86, D88, CX6600, R285/800/1900 (HP) K550, K850, K5400, L7680

Martin wrote:

I feel positively inadequate now as my workshop doesn't have nearly this many tools and materials to work with but I have to say that that guide provides all the clues and input anyone would need to put together a simple but effective system.

Well, after the first part it kinda stopped being a guide and more 'I like to take pictures'.

Martin wrote:

It mirrors some of the things I've developed myself with the exception of the reservoirs which are much more simplified. In particular the reservoirs air shut off isn't included but TBH I think it's overkill as regular top ups help avoid empties whilst the pump/bulb system built into the original cartridges and printer stops you pumping air into the printer anyway...

The floats definitely turned out to be more trouble than I planned for. More than they're worth? Yeah, probably.

Aw heck, I just thought of a way to make real easy simple floats that would work better and take way less space... dangit...

As for the bulb and pump system not being able to suck in air, I'm not sure why you think so. They'd be able to pump air to the heads by accident just fine. I'm pretty sure the way the printer senses out of ink is when it pushes in the bulb, and then the bulb doesn't spring back because there's no ink [or anything else] left to suck from the sealed bag. If you know different, do say so-- I'd love to just lose the floats.

Martin wrote:

So, my thanks for all that info... As for the "next printer"... Any ideas which one? :)

Yeah. A few more of the same (HP Business Inkjet 2250). Eventually I'd like to have a nice personal photo printer with a CIS system, but it's not in my budget right now.

Monty

xiphmont wrote:

Martin wrote:

It mirrors some of the things I've developed myself with the exception of the reservoirs which are much more simplified. In particular the reservoirs air shut off isn't included but TBH I think it's overkill as regular top ups help avoid empties whilst the pump/bulb system built into the original cartridges and printer stops you pumping air into the printer anyway...

The floats definitely turned out to be more trouble than I planned for. More than they're worth? Yeah, probably.

Aw heck, I just thought of a way to make real easy simple floats that would work better and take way less space... dangit...

LOL... ain't that always the truth... but at least you've figured something out

Quote:

As for the bulb and pump system not being able to suck in air, I'm not sure why you think so. They'd be able to pump air to the heads by accident just fine. I'm pretty sure the way the printer senses out of ink is when it pushes in the bulb, and then the bulb doesn't spring back because there's no ink [or anything else] left to suck from the sealed bag. If you know different, do say so-- I'd love to just lose the floats.

True enough... I had forgotten that aspect of things... *eats humble pie*

Quote:

Yeah. A few more of the same (HP Business Inkjet 2250). Eventually I'd like to have a nice personal photo printer with a CIS system, but it's not in my budget right now.

...money is so awkward sometimes...


_________________
Printers: (Canon) MP500/830, MX700, iP4000/4200/4300/4500/5200, iX4000(A3) (Epson) C84/86, D88, CX6600, R285/800/1900 (HP) K550, K850, K5400, L7680