Canon i950: Display the ink levels in the different tanks?

When the ink level in one of the tanks got low, a display showed up automatically, which displayed the ink levels in the different tanks. Is there a way to call up this ink level display manually?

it's an ink low only measure. why not just lift the cartridge if you want to know ?

Ernest1 said:

When the ink level in one of the tanks got low, a display showed up
automatically, which displayed the ink levels in the different
tanks. Is there a way to call up this ink level display manually?

Click to expand...

Just go to the Start button and find Settings/Printers, then right click on the printer,go to properties, click the maintenence tab and then click Start Status Monitor.

I've always thought that Canon should have made this more available than they did.

But, the levels shown are just estimations and very oftrn are way different from the actual ink levels, so as the other poster said, its better to just lift each cartidge and visually check the ink levels.

dickm

wazza said:

Ernest1 said:

When the ink level in one of the tanks got low, a display showed up
automatically, which displayed the ink levels in the different
tanks. Is there a way to call up this ink level display manually?

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

wazza said:

it's an ink low only measure. why not just lift the cartridge if
you want to know ?

Click to expand...

Downside of this is that if you open the cover, the printer will assume you've put a new cart in and run a cleaning cycle wasting all the inks.

Just run status monitor for the driver from the maintenance tab.

RW

My i950 and i850 do not clean every time I extract the cartridge.

The status monitor is wildly inaccurate. If I have an importna tprint job over a few dozen sheets I always manually check.

A number of time the status mintor said I had 50% left in cyan and on checking there was less than 1% left (thin film on the bottom)

Richard W said:

wazza said:

it's an ink low only measure. why not just lift the cartridge if
you want to know ?

Click to expand...

Downside of this is that if you open the cover, the printer will
assume you've put a new cart in and run a cleaning cycle wasting
all the inks.

Just run status monitor for the driver from the maintenance tab.

RW

Click to expand...

Yes, what happenes is that as that imm gets lower to nothing, that kicks the light bean into play and it triggers the low ink warning.

the low ink warning is a timed amount of ink/printing you have left. So when you get this low ink warning, the printer lets you have 'so much' more output before you get a no ink warning when they don't print any more. There's still a healthy reserve but it's best to bin the cart then

Just sharing ideas
spanky

Spanky said:

Yes, what happenes is that as that imm gets lower to nothing, that
kicks the light bean into play and it triggers the low ink warning.

the low ink warning is a timed amount of ink/printing you have
left. So when you get this low ink warning, the printer lets you
have 'so much' more output before you get a no ink warning when
they don't print any more. There's still a healthy reserve but it's
best to bin the cart then

Click to expand...

I usually get a number of fine pages out of a cart after I get the low ink warning, and a low-ink cart has never failed on me mid-page. The out of ink warning always comes (for me, anyway) at the end of a page, so no paper/ink is wasted. (This seems to be because the out of ink message is slightly conservative, and even after the out of ink error, you can still squeeze a couple good prints out of the cart before it totally fails, though I would not recommend doing that normally.)

So, anyway, I'd recommend leaving the low ink carts in place until you actually get the out of ink message.

wazza said:

My i950 and i850 do not clean every time I extract the cartridge.

Click to expand...

I was basing my comment on the S900 which I have, and assumed that the later Canons do the same - on the S900 merely lifting and closing the lid is enough to trigger a cleaning cycle as it assumes you've lifted lid to change a cartridge.

If they've stopped it doin gthis then that's an improvement.

wazza said:

The status monitor is wildly inaccurate. If I have an importna
tprint job over a few dozen sheets I always manually check.

Click to expand...

Are you refilling?

RW

Richard W said:

wazza said:

My i950 and i850 do not clean every time I extract the cartridge.

Click to expand...

I was basing my comment on the S900 which I have, and assumed that
the later Canons do the same - on the S900 merely lifting and
closing the lid is enough to trigger a cleaning cycle as it assumes
you've lifted lid to change a cartridge.

If they've stopped it doin gthis then that's an improvement.

Click to expand...

Must be then

Richard W said:

Richard W said:

The status monitor is wildly inaccurate. If I have an importna
tprint job over a few dozen sheets I always manually check.

Click to expand...

Are you refilling?

Click to expand...

no, Canon only. I get them trhough work if you know what I mean so no need for IJG.

Richard W said:

RW

Click to expand...

Ernest1 said:

When the ink level in one of the tanks got low, a display showed up
automatically, which displayed the ink levels in the different
tanks. Is there a way to call up this ink level display manually?

Click to expand...

Thank you all for your helpful comments
Ernest

Hi Richard

Do you remeber me, I used to be called the griff. I changed the name and re registered when I deleted all the cookies.

I think the head charge after every p head movment is a double edged sword that is both good and bad.

Firstly, yes, even if you do a nozzle check pattern, on the p heads return it does a little head charge and 'wastes' ink but say you want to print an A3 on your most expensive paper, I just put the sheet in and hit 'print'. I've never had a print go wrong because of a blocked nozzle or other similar ink problem! No, when I hit print, 99% of the time, I get what I want.

I used to have an epson photo 750, before I printed a photo with that, I had to do a nozzle test pattern to see if any nozzles where blocked. often one or two where so I'd run a head clean.

That's all history now I have the S9000, I only have to click print now and (touch wood) I get good prints most of the time.

Getting back the the little charge after p head movment: while it is expensive in ink, I'd rather it be like this than have the epson way again.

just my milage, YMMD
spanky (formerly the griff)

Spanky said:

Hi Richard
Do you remeber me, I used to be called the griff. I changed the
name and re registered when I deleted all the cookies.

Click to expand...

Yes I do. Nice to see you back.

spanky181896 said:

I think the head charge after every p head movment is a double
edged sword that is both good and bad.

Firstly, yes, even if you do a nozzle check pattern, on the p heads
return it does a little head charge and 'wastes' ink but say you
want to print an A3 on your most expensive paper, I just put the
sheet in and hit 'print'. I've never had a print go wrong because
of a blocked nozzle or other similar ink problem! No, when I hit
print, 99% of the time, I get what I want.

I used to have an epson photo 750, before I printed a photo with
that, I had to do a nozzle test pattern to see if any nozzles where
blocked. often one or two where so I'd run a head clean.

Click to expand...

Know what you mean - my 750 has been relegated to printing web pages and draft text. Superb printer for it's time mind you - shame it didn't do borderless but even now some of the prints I did with it look excellent and compare well with the S900 and Epson 1290.

spanky181896 said:

That's all history now I have the S9000, I only have to click print
now and (touch wood) I get good prints most of the time.

Getting back the the little charge after p head movment: while it
is expensive in ink, I'd rather it be like this than have the epson
way again.

Click to expand...

Yes, I never had any clogging problems or a single bad nozzle check in over a year using the S900 with OEM inks - I currently use refills and while cheaper it's not ideal as ink flow issues rather than clogs are real at times.

Interesting actually that there have been so many posts about i950/i960 heads clogging as this was one thing that the S900 really impressed me with - the fact that it didn't clog. Now, if the newer models don't do as many 'housekeeping' cleaning operations as the S900/S9000 did, that might well be an explanation for the apparent clogging issues seen with these later models (along with widespread practices of refilling and inadequate ink delivery from 3rd party/refilled carts rather than real clogs).

RW

Hi richard

Richard W said:

I currently use refills and while cheaper it's not ideal as ink flow issues rather than clogs are real at times.

Click to expand...

Yes, I won'y even consider refilling now cos of ink flow issues and I really want to go the quad black route (or other carbon inks for b&ws without colour casts) I would like to swap heads, have 2, a col and a B7W with greyscale inks in. I think I may have problems if one is left out of a printer tho, drying up, etc. What do you think?

I am even considering getting a s900 and putting these quad tones and small gamutt blacks inks i that. Then just swap heads between them. This is where that ink charge will be expensive as the printer not being used will have a chage when you lift the lid to swap the head. Any thoughts?

Richard W said:

Interesting actually that there have been so many posts about
i950/i960 heads clogging as this was one thing that the S900 really
impressed me with - the fact that it didn't clog. Now, if the
newer models don't do as many 'housekeeping' cleaning operations as
the S900/S9000 did, that might well be an explanation for the
apparent clogging issues seen with these later models (along with
widespread practices of refilling and inadequate ink delivery from
3rd party/refilled carts rather than real clogs).
RW

Click to expand...

You may be right about this. Another thing is the 2pl ink drop size. That won't help any will it? And I fully agree about refill inks, very tricky to do right and retain quality and good ink flow.

I disagree about 3rd party ink tho! I've just found my last batch of OEM ink to have a high precentage of iffy carts amoung them. Indeed, that's been the major headache of my life for the last 6 months, nessecitating 2 new p heads, a return of the printer to canon and the new i9100 replacment (which had a fault and was returned).

I had no bandng, change an oem cart and the bandfing started again. I ordered cheap compatibles, didn't even do a head clean, just put all 6 of them in and hit print. I got a faultless print and was very impressed.

Canon ink = problems
compatibles = enjoyable printing time

This is the way it's been for me, tho I have swapped oem supplier now
spanky

Spanky said:

Hi richard
I would like to swap heads, have 2, a
col and a B7W with greyscale inks in. I think I may have problems
if one is left out of a printer tho, drying up, etc. What do you
think?

Click to expand...

Sounds dodgy leaving one lying around unprotected, you'd imagine it would dry out quite quickly.

spanky181896 said:

I am even considering getting a s900 and putting these quad tones
and small gamutt blacks inks i that. Then just swap heads between
them. This is where that ink charge will be expensive as the
printer not being used will have a chage when you lift the lid to
swap the head. Any thoughts?

Click to expand...

Sounds like you'll waste lots of ink.

spanky181896 said:

spanky181896 said:

Interesting actually that there have been so many posts about
i950/i960 heads clogging as this was one thing that the S900 really
impressed me with - the fact that it didn't clog. Now, if the
newer models don't do as many 'housekeeping' cleaning operations as
the S900/S9000 did, that might well be an explanation for the
apparent clogging issues seen with these later models (along with
widespread practices of refilling and inadequate ink delivery from
3rd party/refilled carts rather than real clogs).
RW

Click to expand...

You may be right about this. Another thing is the 2pl ink drop
size. That won't help any will it? And I fully agree about refill
inks, very tricky to do right and retain quality and good ink flow.

Click to expand...

I think it certainly can be done well, but the carts become less effective for ink delivery over time, and you really need to refill before the clear reservoir is dry to stop lower sponge getting air locks.

spanky181896 said:

I disagree about 3rd party ink tho! I've just found my last batch
of OEM ink to have a high precentage of iffy carts amoung them.
Indeed, that's been the major headache of my life for the last 6
months, nessecitating 2 new p heads, a return of the printer to
canon and the new i9100 replacment (which had a fault and was
returned).

Click to expand...

Odd that. Not bought any OEM inks for about a year as I tend to in big batches. Noticed that Canon packaiging has changed - wonder if they've changed supplier or something.

spanky181896 said:

I had no bandng, change an oem cart and the bandfing started again.
I ordered cheap compatibles, didn't even do a head clean, just put
all 6 of them in and hit print. I got a faultless print and was
very impressed.

Canon ink = problems
compatibles = enjoyable printing time

Click to expand...

Other thought is could those OEM Canon carts have been fake. There were comments about fake Epson carts some months ago, and the Canons without chips I assume would be easier for the criminals to copy.

RW

Hi R

Fake? I thought like you so e-mailed the shop I bought them (they are quite big and run full page adverts in most computer/photo magazines) I can't see them selling fake carts!

But I could see them selling old carts so I e-mailed them asking, the manager/owner rang, mind, rang me back and said the have canon ink on their shelves for 1 month (maybe 2) max! If he had something to ide, he wouldn't of rang me would he? Give me that personal contact?

I get big orders of ink (like you?) so I had 6 months of banding issues, tearing my hair out at what could be wrong. I put 6 compatibles init, and I WAS REALLY impressed by the A6 B&W that came out! I didn't even do a head charge after inserting them, tho the printer does this itself.

If it wasn't for colour/longevity issues, I'd stay with compatibles. Thing is, you are relyingon them to provide consistent samples months apart and they can't do this. Every now and then, they send an odd BCI cmpatibleas they had no colourjet in stock....I'm rambling

No, I think canons have a fragile need for ink supply, if you don't inspect your prints you may not notice. I don't now as I know I'll get depressed if I see 'the 'B' word' lol

sTake care
spanky