CHoffman, yes the quantities are in grams, which also happens to closely match the ml value.  However, don't forget this is across all 8 cartridges.  So per cartridges it's about 0.24g or 0.24ml.
Sorry for the slow reply, I did not get an email advising there had been a reply on this topic.
By the way, you say; " it can go quite a long time between power-ups".  Canon recommend you use the printer once a month.  I have gone for 5 or 6 weeks without printing, but it is probably getting risky to go beyond 2 months.  I have never had a printhead blockage on my Pro 100S, which is a first for me, having used a number of different printers, both Canon and Epson.

siavash82ir, your comment seems to be an exact copy of my post #58?

Pappa O, the 120 hour and 480 hour timers are not based on operational hours.  It is the actual accumulation of time since the last clean cycle, regardless of whether the printer is turned off or on.
So, if the printer did a cleaning cycle today and the printer was then turned off for say 6 days, it would make some noises when turned on but that is not a defined cleaning cycle.  It may use a few drops, but it's very small in comparison to a clean.  If you then did a print, before that print commences the clean cycle would start, which in this case would be the 120 hour purge (ie more than 120 hours but less than 480 hours since the last purge).  From the testing I have done, I have not seen a great deal of difference between turning the printer off when not in use compared to leaving it on, so I tend to just leave it on, since the power consumption is very low.
For me, I like to know how it works so I can organise my printing accordingly and minimise waste ink, especially since I still use OEM ink.  My previous printer was a Pro9000 and it would frustrate the heck out of me when it seemed to do a purge at very regular intervals and went through ink at an alarming rate.  I did not understand how the purge cycles worked in those days, and one mistake I made was to unplug the printer when I refilled the ink (there is a 10 min timer that causes the head to return to the home position). Unplugging the power would have resulted in a deep purge every time I filled ink and I tended to only fill the ink carts that were getting low, resulting in more frequent deep purges. To be clear, the Pro 100 does use a small amount of power when turned off at the machine. The timers probably can't run if power is turned off at the mains, so It probably resets the timers and assumes a deep purge is required. The Pro 100 clearly does not need to purge every 120 hours, so a more economical option, if you don't need to print regularly, is to do your printing in the window of time prior to the 120 hour timer expire and then not print until just prior to the 480 hour timer expiring.

I know I said I did not intend testing the 480 hour timer.  However, it was an itch that needed to be scratched.  Not so much to know the value of the timer or even the volume of ink purged.  I really wanted to know what happens if the 480 hour timer expires and a normal manual purge is performed before a print job is sent to the printer.  Could we fool the system into ignoring the 480 hour timer, which results in a deep purge, by simply doing a medium level manual purge?

Unfortunately the answer is; “No”.  If the 480 hour timer has expired, and a normal purge is requested, the printer actually does a deep purge and resets the purge timer.

Before I started these long duration tests I rechecked my recollection of the Canon Pro 100S printer manual, which states on page 268:
“We recommend you use the printer at least once a month”

What I do is print what ever I have ready in the period before the 120 hour purge timer expires, which means there will be no purge for these prints.  I then hold any further prints until I am ready to accept the pending purge.  So my first test was to test that the 480 Hr timer did exist and how much ink was purged.  This period started on 23rd Aug and ended on 12th Sept.  Hence I was able to print until 28th Aug without initiating a purge.  The period of time without printing was 15 days, well under the month recommended by Canon.  I concluded the test period in my usual way, by sending a page feed to the printer to force the purge and then did a Nozzle Check

My second test period was from 12th Sept until 4th Oct.  ie.  22 days.  This time the period without printing was 17 days.  Again, very safe.  This time I concluded the test period with a “Normal Manual Clean” followed by a Nozzle Check.

Both Nozzle Checks were fine.

Of course I weighed the cartridges before and after each purge.

The fist test gave a total purge of 3.63g or an average of 0.45g per cart.
The second test gave a total purge of 3.49g or an average of 0.44g per cart.

I have updated the SDLs and also uploaded the latest ink usage spreadsheet.

Here is a summary of the Pro-100S cleaning modes and amount of ink purged.  The values have been rounded up, to give one decimal place:

1.   Timer 1 cleaning (ie. 120 hours):  Total ink purged, both groups at once = 1.8g
2.   Timer 2 cleaning (ie 480 hours): Total ink purged, both groups at once = 3.6g
3.   Manual Clean: Total ink purged, both groups at once  = 2.2g
4.   Deep (Manual) Clean: Total ink purged, both groups at once  = 3.6g
5.   Ink Tank Replacement: Total ink purged, both groups at once = 2.2g

There are other modes, but they tend to be rare. (eg. replace a printhead)

As mentioned in a previous post, a single group purge is less efficient than purging both groups at once.

For item 5, any one of the ink carts in a group need to be out of the printer for 60s or longer, since the last purge, to initiate the new purge.  You may think that the 4 carts on the left of the printer represent one group but that is not the case.  Group 1 is: PC, M, Y, and PM.  Group 2 is: C, Blk, LGY and GY.  If you look under the printer cover you will see the carts from left to right are: M, PC, Y, Blk, GY, PM, LGY and C.

The labels I use in the SDLs for different levels of purge are: Low, Medium and High, and the action always refers to a group.  The test results indicate that the volume of ink purged across the 2 groups is evenly distributed.  Hence we can just halve the above figures to determine the ink purged in a group.  Consequently Low, Medium and High can now be defined as 0.9g, 1.1g and 1.8g respectively.  As stated in an earlier post, 1g can be assumed to be approximately 1ml.

I thought it worth posting this screenshot, because it is the first one I have of high ink levels, other than full and I think it best shows the benefit of the RUI monitor over the normal Ink Status Monitor.

There are now 3 carts where 10% of ink has been used. ie.  Y, PM and GY.  However, on the old Ink Status Monitor it is almost impossible to see it is not full, particularly on the Yellow.

A few other points worth noting:
- My PC rebooted a few days ago, after a Windows update and when I went to open the RUI, I was asked to log back in.  Not surprising, but it failed the first time and worked the second time.
- Looking at the 3 carts that are being reported as 10% empty, you would be excused for thinking they were full carts, as just a tiny bubble or 2 has appeared at top of the ink reservoir.

The Freedom Method does not require any modification to the cart at all. You do not need to touch the top ball.  The ink enters the cart via the Exit Port.


This essentially does the same as “Ink Monitor Override”, perhaps with one advantage and one disadvantage.  It’s a long long time since I have  overridden the ink monitor on a Canon Printer, but here is my recollection of how it works:

When the printer reports a cart as empty and you ignore that and try to print you will be prompted that the cart is empty and to continue using it is potentially damaging to the printer.  However, Canon give you the option of continuing to use the cart, by overriding the ink monitor.  When the cart was reported as empty there are several warning lights in addition to the on screen advise.  One of those is the red leds associated with the cart start flashing quickly, another is the “Resume Button” on the printer also starts flashing quickly.  The on screen advise will ask you to press the “Resume Button” if you wish to ignore all the warnings.  This action will result in the ink monitor displaying a “?” against the overridden cart, in place of the red “X’.  In addition the cart graph will be completely white, instead of showing 5% remaining, as in the case of the normal empty graph.

If you use the cart with “Ink Monitor Overridden”, it will eventually start to run out of ink, but there is no way of knowing when that will be, and when it does happen there is the potential to damage the printhead.  If you are part way through printing an A4 or A3 when ink runs out, you won’t know immediately because that part of the print is not yet in view and you really need to stop it printing ASAP.

Removing the cart and resetting is much the same as Overriding the ink monitor,except the ink monitor is not totally useless but it is misleading.  The ink monitor will start at 100% full, drop to 90% full after the 1st ml or so, then drop to 80% full after the 2nd ml or so and I suspect around about this point is where it is likely to run out of ink and you have the same problem of potential damage to the printhead.

Transferring ink from a Donor cart to a Recipient cart removes the danger of damaging the printhead and, I believe, should yield more ink than continuing to just use a cart reported as empty.

I agree that extracting the ink took a bit of effort in my initial trial, but I hope my revised equipment will improve that significantly.  Refilling is frankly “a piece of cake” (is that a globally used term) using the Freedom Method, from what I have seen and read.  I have not tried it yet though.

The workflow I described has more procedures than necessary, but I wanted to make sure it was foolproof.  eg.  It is potentially possible to remove a cart refill it and replace it within 60s.  However, I can imagine someone new to refilling could panic in the rush to beat the clock and stuff things up.

I have spent a bit of time researching the best way to progress with this idea and think I have come up with a very simple workflow with very little cost outlay.

The workflow is based on a few proven concepts but is limited to use on specific Canon printers, namely the Pro100, Pro100S, Pro9000 and Pro9000 Mark II.  The workflow may apply to other Canon printers but I don’t have enough information to determine which ones.

I will post more details on what is needed when I have tested the full concept, but essentially it is just the equipment used in the previous posts re extracting the ink from the donor cart, but with a few modifications, plus some decent tape, such as aluminium tape.  Resetters are more expensive than I expected, for CLI-42 carts, so that is optional.

I am going to assume 3.2g can be extracted from a cart reported as empty by the printer.  See Reply Post #10 to see how much was extracted from my GY cart.  I have only allowed 2 carts to go to empty on my Pro-100, so the average ink used by those 2 carts was 9.67g.  The recoverable 3.2g represents 33% of usable ink in a new cart.

However, if we stop using and remove a cart when the low ink warning appears, and replace it with a new OEM cart, the removed cart would have approx 1.02g more ink to use before the “Empty” warning, than the previously mentioned 3.2g.  So typically 4.2g that can be recovered.  The 4.2g to be removed from the donor cart presents somewhere in the vicinity of 43% of usable ink in a new cart (ie. 9.67g).

 It is probably best to explain the general workflow at this point and then expand the detail.

Step 1:   When a cart gets to “Low”, it becomes a Donor, replace it with a new cart.

Step 2:  Just prior to step 3, extract ink from the Donor cart.

Step 3:  When the new cart gets below 57% remaining (ie. 43% used), the cart becomes a recipient. Remove the recipient cart temporarily replacing the Recipient cart with the Donor cart, but do not close the printer cover.

Step 4: Optionally, reset the chip in the Recipient Cart.

Step 5:  You have 10 minutes, after lifting the printer cover, to inject the donor ink, into the recipient cart, using the method proposed below, before the printer head moves back to the park position.

Step 6:  Swap the Donor and Recipient carts back and dispose of the donor cart responsibly.

I am working on the basis that each cart (except the very first) will initially be used as a recipient and when removed to become the next donor cart.  Part of the aim was to avoid the need to have heaps of empty carts hanging around for lengthy periods.

More detail and explanation of the 6 steps follows.:

Step 1 has already been discussed above.
Step 2 is intended to avoid storing the extracted ink.
Step 3 is where some of the research comes into play:  You will note on another thread I have looked at the accuracy of the Canon Ink Monitor(s).  The RUI ink monitor is more accurate and easier to evaluate.  Both ink monitors jump in 10% increments and will tend to show more ink than is present because of that fact.  This suggests that the earliest you should perform step 3 is when the ink monitor hits 50%.  You know at this stage you can fit all of the 4.2g of ink into the recipient cart.

On another forum, a member has been studying the optical ink sensor and has determined that this sensor is not activated until the ink has dropped below a certain level.  The author is not able to identify the exact point this happens but information he provided suggests to me, along with other members input, it probably happens at about the 80% empty point.  The significance of this information is that it is dangerous to refill after this has happened, without resetting the cart chip, since the “Low Ink Warning” will not occur before the cart becomes empty.  So to add a safety margin, assume it happens at 70% empty.  Hence the aim is to work in the range of 50% to 70% empty, based on the best ink monitor you have access too.  The RUI is only available if you have installed the printer as a network printer.

If you choose to use a resetter, then step 3 can be done anytime between 50% and 90% empty.  The 90% empty point coincides with the Low Ink Warning.

The reason for the temporary insertion of the Donor Cart in place of the Recipient is to avoid a purge due to a cart removal.  This was tested and found to work. You only have a total of 60s before a purge will be triggered, if no cart is detected.  The donor cart will stop the timer countdown.  Each change over should take less than 10s therefore using a total of less than 20s of the available 60s.

Step 4 is optional.  If you have CLI8 carts, the resetter is much cheaper and probably worth the cost.  If you donot use this option you cannot trust the ink monitor graphs, which will report less ink than is in the cart.  However, the Low Ink Warning is still going to work, according to information I have read.  Hence there is no danger you will run out of ink and damage the printhead.

Step 5 is where the ink is injected into the recipient cart.  The 10 minute timer (also tested) on the printer cover should be plenty.  If it looks like it may not be long enough, best to just remove the Donor cart and suffer the minor purge, otherwise, I believe, there is a risk that air could be pulled into the printhead, from the very empty Donor cart, with potential damage to the printhead.

There are several ways to fill/refill a Canon ink cartridge.  The most common method is called the Top Fill method.  It involves modifying the cart.  Another common method is called the “Durchstich” or German method.  It also requires modifying the cartridge.  Methods which do not require modifying the cartridge, use the exit port and there are different options within that method.

The method I am going to try is called the Freedom Method and the advantage is that I can use the same clip used to extract ink from the donor cart.  This method uses the exit port of the cart and involves creating a vacuum inside the cart using the syringe.  The aluminium tape mentioned above is to seal the air vent.  I will post more details when I have tested the method and hopefully confirming it’s viability for this application.  I expect it to be quick, easy and clean.  In a video I have seen of the procedure; a cart was filled from empty in about 30s, after the clip was attached and the vent sealed.  The steps above should include the sealing and unsealing of the recipient cart.

Step 6 is self explanatory.

I am awaiting delivery of a few items via post, which will allow me to start testing the Freedom Method using water in my empty Gray cart.  I then need a cart to reach 50% empty to do a full operational test.

I have uploaded the latest version of the spreadsheet.  There is no new data.  I just wanted to tidy it up by adding a Key, and some tables which analyse the data.

I noticed a slight error in the colour code on the last update, which I also fixed.

The tables below all the recorded data are as follows:

On far left there are 2 small tables which just calculate average ink purged for various purge types.
Table A is a cartridge summary calculation of Full, Empty, Usable and unused ink.
Table B is a snapshot of data related to the ink monitor at the point it transitions from 70% empty to 80% empty.
Table C is the actual ink levels at the time the Low Warning is displayed, which coincides with the transition to 90% empty.

I was trying to determine how accurate the ink monitor was at low ink levels.  See my other thread on this topic.
It's been a while since I included a link to the spreadsheet so to save you looking, here it is again:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/8j6zm6zwc3pc7xg/AADhGRd_4HTNmyQtX90dFsVla?dl=0

 

I have uploaded better quality files of the screenshots to the following dropbox link:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/wm0wva3pplkm2iw/AAAs40rNKF8KBl13BvBH-1kDa?dl=0

I have also added the script previously mentioned which defines the 3 parameter values.  There is an inkSYM variable which just holds a link to the string which identifies the colour to print on screen.  eg.  'M' for Magenta.

Most Canon printer users will be familiar with the Ink Status monitor that can be accessed in the maintenance tab of the printer driver and also pops up while printing.  However, there is another ink status monitor available to those who have installed their printer as a network printer and is available via the Remote User Interface (RUI).

I have done a comparison between the 2 ink monitors, for my Pro100S, at low ink levels.  While I believe they both rely on the same data, the Remote UI (ie RUI) monitor, in my opinion, is better.  The first file attached shows both monitors taken from screenshots of the exact same ink levels and combined into the one file for easy comparison.  From a screen size point of view the RUI is significantly better.

Now have a look at the Magenta, as an example.  Would you say they are presenting the same information in the two graphs?  If not, which one is more correct/accurate?  I will discuss this further down in this post.

To open the RUI on a Windows PC, I use this method:  Open a File Explorer window and navigate down to and select “Network” on the left panel.  On the right panel you should see your printer under the “Printers” group, if it has been installed.  Double click on this icon and you will get a request for a User Name and a Password.  Use “ADMIN” as the User Name and “canon” as the Password.

I only got asked to login the first time, using this method, so not sure if that is because I have not turned my PC off since the first time I opened the RUI.  I did add the RUI as a bookmark on the “bookmarks bar” (I use Chrome) and again was only asked the first time to login.  The Ink Level display shows 4 ink horizontal colour bars on the left and 4 on the right if you have a wide screen, whereas for a narrow screen it shows all 8 horizontal colour bars in one single column.  The bars show slight “feathering” on the right of the bar graph to represent that it is not an exact presentation of the ink levels.  ie.  It is an estimate and the graphs do not move gradually, they jump suddenly.  In fact they always show more ink available than there is and will only drop to the next level when ink is estimated to be at the top of that next level.

To show the improved graphics at low ink levels, I temporarily replaced 2 full carts with one empty (Yellow) and one low (Black).  The attached file is from a screenshot that I scaled/cropped and added a percentage scale.  So it is quite clear that the Yellow shows 5%, Black 10%, Magenta 20% and PC 30%.  I have cropped out the other 4 tanks as they did not really add much information.

I decided to peek at the scripts to see if they revealed any detail not being displayed.
Each cart has 3 numeric parameters that were retrieved.  The first parameter is the colour, the second parameter is the ink level, ranging from 0 = full to 11 = Empty.  However, the value 10 is the one that coincides with the Empty warning and the graph actually shows 5% remaining.  The 3rd parameter has 4 values as follows:  0 = “Normal”, 1 = “Low Warning”, 2 = “Empty and 3 = “Ink Monitor Disabled”.   I am making an assumption re value = 3, as I did some simulation by substituting different values in the script and the value “3” gave a blue “?” inside a white circle to the left of the bar graph.  Another assumption is that the ink level parameter would be set at ‘11’ coincidentally with the 3rd parameter being set to ‘3’ (ie. “Ink Monitor Disabled”).

See the small cropped screenshot of the parameter values returned for my actual ink levels which correspond to the bar graph posted:

For the 4 carts shown in the attached RUI screenshot, the parameter for the ink levels were:
Yellow (10) Empty, Black (9) Low, Magenta (8] and PC (7).  Parameters 0 to 9 can be multiplied by 10 to give percentage ink used.   eg. Magenta is 80% used or 20% remaining. The display for carts with low ink warning is now much better than the standard ink monitor, showing 90% used or 10% remaining, which is the same value I get by measuring the weight of ink in carts that have reached this level.

I have attached a zoomed cropped screenshot of the normal Ink Status monitor, with a grid overlaid and percentage line added on the left.  The screenshot was from when the I was initially warned that the GY cart was Empty.  I have also superimposed the Ink Level parameter value that would have applied for each cart  directly under each cart.  So as in the case of the RUI monitor we have representations of 7, 8, 9 and 10 to compare the 2 graphs.  They just happen to be of different colours.
 
I will let you do your own comparisons, but in my opinion the normal ink status monitor is showing higher than the RUI monitor in all cases.   In addition the weight of the Magenta cart, in the RUI case, indicates it had 18.98% of ink remaining (or 81.02% empty) and was based on a parameter value of 7, which changed to 8 first use after taking the screenshot.  So that suggests the RUI graph is quite accurate as well as being easier to evaluate because of its size.

A few points to close on; the case where the Ink Level parameter is “9” should be very accurate, because that is determined by an optical sensor.  The case where the Ink Level parameter is “10” is very brief, because you have to make a choice at that point to either replace the cart or override the monitor, resulting in either “1” or “11” respectively.   Between “9” and “10” the display shows 90% empty and suddenly changes to empty.  If you were using the normal Ink Status monitor it looks like less than 90% has been used in this period, so can be a surprise the first time it suddenly changes to empty.

I have also found the parameter value definitions for the above 3 parameter in the scripts.  There are 18 colours defined.  ie.  The application is generic to several Canon printers.
Sorry but I had to squash all the files down to fit them inside the 256K allowance.  Hence the quality is not the best.

I have updated the spreadsheet for today's 120 hour purge.  I actually stretched the period out to 470 hours.
I did not wish to push it past the 480 hours, as that is expected to invoke a deep purge.
I performed a nozzle check and all is well.

As expected there was no evidence that there is any timer between the 120 hour known purge and the suspected 480 hour purge.

The purged volume of ink was slightly higher that previous 120 hour synchronised group purges.  But I was expecting that because I had removed several ink tanks multiple times to both weight and photograph the actual ink reservoir.  The purpose of these actions was related to investigating the ink monitor(s).  I will post a new thread on that soon.
The ink volumes were very similar to those experienced with exceeding the 60s cart removal timer, so nothing significant.

At this stage I see no value in continuing to update the spreadsheet, as the data is quite stable and I have no desire to exceed the 480 timer.  One thing I did notice is that this time the Yellow cart lost a bit more than the others in-between purges.  Typically this loss is say 0.02g or 0.03g, but this time the yellow lost 0.13g.  I have no explanation other than it may be related to me removing the cart several times.

I have updated the spreadsheet for last weeks 120 hour purge, which I have been delaying on sending the print job to initiate the purge, so they have been weekly.
So another purge is already overdue and I plan to delay for a few more days.

I now have enough data to be more specific about the difference between a synched and unsyched 120 hour purge:
A Synched Grp1 & Grp2 purge will purge an average of 1.78g total.  (This compares to the 1.9g specified for a Pro9000)
An Unsyched purge will purge an average of 2.08g total.

That represents an increase of almost 17%.

I have seen on another forum that the amount of ink purged depends on the level of ink in the cartridge, but I see no evidence of that.

I don't have enough data to compare synched and unsynched Manual purges or purges related to cartridge removal.  However, these are all user initiated and would tend to be rare compared to the 120 hour purges.

Also, I have now replaced 5 of the 8 cartridges.  I waited to replace the first 2 carts until the printer driver reported "Empty".  The last 3 carts I swapped over when the printer driver reported "Low".   I have colour coded these levels in the spreadsheet.  Orange is Low and Red is Empty.  The reason I swapped over on Low rather than Empty is that I plan to try refilling using reclaimed ink from OEM carts.  See my other thread on "Wasted Ink" for progress on that aspect.
Bruce

I think you would be doing well to get an answer to this question.  Thinking it through, the most likely source of such a study would be a 3rd Party ink supplier, as they would have the resources and the inclination.
JToolman has a close working relationship with Precision Colors, so maybe worth asking him what he can find out.

Somewhat related to this question, I have seen on another forum a member claiming to have used Precision Colors ink in Pro100 printers until the waste pads became full at 25,000 prints.
The one caveat here is that the printers are obviously in constant use which means the printheads don't get much time for ink to dry.  See this post: https://www.printerknowledge.com/threads/refilling.11808/page-3#post-100646

Bruce

I don't believe there is a battery backup.  Although I have never taken the cover off the Pro100 to see.  When you power off via the front panel there is a 0.4W power consumption, compared to the 2.1W when the printer is left in standby mode.

The Pro9000 Service Manual advises: "If the print head has not been capped before power-on" there will be a 3.8g purge (taking 115s).  That is equivalent to a Deep Manual clean.  I am very confident the Pro100 is going to do something very similar.  What it implies is you should always turn off via the front panel before powering off at the mains, otherwise when you next power up it will/could perform a Deep purge (possible exception is case ii below).  The Service Manual makes no comment about what happens if you did power off via the front panel and then turned off at the mains.  You could imply that no purge will occur when you power back on, but there is an element of risk.

I did perform a test of powering off at the mains, after powering off via front panel, back in post #2, but that was before I started weighing carts.  All I can report is that the noises lasted 60s compared to the normal 30s when the mains power is left on.  So something extra is definitely happening, but possibly not a Deep purge, since that would require about 115s.

In an earlier post I also included some comments I received from Canon Support, in answer to my questions.  I did not post any of the first reply I got because I knew some of it was incorrect.  Here is an extract from that reply, which I still would tend to take with some doubt:
"Also, only turn the printer off using the power button.  If you turn the printer by disconnecting the power, either from a wall switch or power strip,  a purge will occur every time you turn it on."

So I believe there are 3 scenarios that need to be considered:
i.   Loss of mains power after a print is complete but prior to printhead being capped (typically 60s after print, 30s of activity).
ii.  Loss of mains power after the printhead has been capped, while in standy mode.
iii. Loss of mains power after power down via front panel switch.

Case i. with definitely result in a deep purge.
Cases ii. and iii. appear to be very similar and may not result in a purge.

So if I am correct, and case i is the only case to be concerned about, then I don't think changing your workflow is going to solve or even improve your situation.

What may be worth looking into are spark quenchers or get a sparky to look at your earth leak circuit breaker.

Bruce

Just an update on the use of a purge unit to extract ink from an empty OEM cart.

The purge unit I am using happens to be from a Canon MP540, which is a 5 ink multifunction printer.  It was not mine, someone was throwing it out and I grabbed it.  My preference would have been one of my old printers but I stripped them down last year so they took up less space and it appears I threw out all the purge units, because they tend to be messy.  The purge unit on the MP540 is buried deep inside the printer and I literally had to remove nearly every other module before I could get it out.

I started writing a description of a purge unit and decided it was way off topic.  Maybe I could start another thread.

The basic function of the purge unit that I was interested in using was it’s ability to pump ink.  It does this using a “Peristaltic Pump”, driven by a small electric motor.  I have attached 2 photos of the pump from the MP540; one with cover removed but drive gears still in place the second with the drive gears removed.  There is a tube where ink enters from the bottom left and exits to a waste ink pads on bottom right (see blue text).  The other tube ink enters top right and exits to waste pads on top left (see red text).

I could not find any technical details on the motor, other than a part number, so I assumed it was a 12V DC motor.  I also randomly selected polarity of power source, and got lucky.  If I had chosen the wrong polarity the purge unit performs a different function, so not a big deal.

I initially flushed some water through to clean out old ink.  Using the top (red marked) tube, I connected a third party empty cart to the IN side.  It was the same cart I used for the previous test on a 3rd party cart.  I had re-injected the recovered ink back into the cart.  Hence there was a small amount less ink than last time.  I also used the plastic clip with shortened needle glued into the base.  The tube that enters the pump is a very narrow rubber tube, which fits loosely into the needle inlet.  I wrapped some teflon tape around the tube to make it a tight fit.  After about 40s I had to stop because it had extracted 5ml of ink and I was not prepared for much more.  It definitely had more to offer.

I flushed the pump again and connected the OEM Grey cart that I had used in previous tests and has about 1g of ink left in the sponge.  I removed the sticky tape from over the sponge vent.  After 1.5min I stopped.  No ink had been extracted using the pump, or even entered the syringe/needle hub.  I reconnected the syringe and tried extracting ink.  In this case I did not extract ink but got a small quantity in the sringe/needle hub, which I just washed down the sink.

So in summary, the purge unit works but does not exert as much pressure as the syringe.

Bruce