It seems like Canon's intent was to guarantee that whenever you print, a mini cleaning cycle has been done within the past 5 days.  If that's the case, there will be no way to get around that.  I also assume that the 120 hour counter is hardware based (in the printer) and not driver based.  One way to confirm that might be to wait the 120 hours and then connect the printer to a different computer and make a print: it'll probably run the 120 hour cleaning cycle.  Then reconnect it to the original computer and print: see if it runs another one.  I doubt it: I would bet the counter/timer is in the printer itself.

Edit: I just set my PC date to 6 days in the future and printed a nozzle check: no cleaning cycle.  So that would suggest that the timer is indeed in the printer itself.  Unless there is some hidden Esc code you could send to the printer to reset the timer, I doubt there is any way to defeat the timed cleaning cycles.

Mike

I don't hold out a lot of hope for a "hacked" firmware.  I would guess they are code signed with a private key anyway and the effort to crack it would be more than it's worth.  I'm not really concerned about ink usage but rather how quickly the waste ink tank will fill, at which point you basically have to set the printer by the curb for trash pickup.  Then again, at about $75 (net) for the printer, I guess I shouldn't really worry about that either. 

P.S.  I have some year old PC ink prints hanging on my wall that have no observable fading versus a fresh print.  They are on glossy paper and are not in direct sunlight, but if I were to sell prints, I'd go with OEM.

Mike

I forgot to mention that when I powered up yesterday (28th June), it took 50s, whereas previously it has taken 30s, when using the front panel.  There is nothing in the ink levels to suggest more ink was used.
Today I decided to do a manual clean on Group 2 only, just to measure the ink usage.
I have updated the spreadsheet.  For the time being there are 2 spreadsheets.  The one with the "2" in the file name is the latest.  I will delete the other one soon.

The ink used for the manual clean is very similar to when I removed ink carts for Group 2.
Bruce

I think it’s reached a point now where I can sum up how the printer behaves re purge cycles.  I have not done any testing of the 480 hour timer and I don’t currently intend to do any such tests.  However, I note that Jose Rodriguez has indicated in a video he uploaded today, that he will do this test.

First I will fill you in on the changes I made to the SDLs a few days back:  The test results from 28th and 29th June suggested to me that one of my assumptions had been incorrect.  My assumption had been that the volume of ink purged for a Manual purge, a 120 hour purge and an ink cart removal were the same.  I decided to go back to the Pro9000 Service Manual to see if I had missed something.  When I first looked at the Service Manual I cherry picked the items I was interested in at the time, since there are several cases listed which invoke a purge.  For example if you remove the printhead and replace it with a different head you get different levels of purge than replacing the same head.  When you first setup the printer there is a significant purge.  For the Pro9000 the manual clean and a cartridge removal result in a purge of the same level.  However, a 120 hour purge results in about a 21% less purge than the manual purge. One reason I missed the above difference was that I was looking at the duration of a purge (easy to test), which is the same for all 3 types of purge for the Pro9000.

There were 3 main changes to the SDLs:  The first change was to assign an extra value to P1 and P2.  ie.  0, 1, 2, and 3 representing: No Purge, Low Purge, Medium Purge and High Purge respectively.  Where Low is for the 120 hour, Medium is for a Manual or Cart removal and High is for Deep Purge (480 hour or Deep Manual).  The second change was to handle error cases such as Paper Jam and the 3rd change was to expand out the case for a manual purge request while a purge was pending.

Anyway,  I had a 120 hour Group 1 purge yesterday (3rd July) and a 120 hour Group 2 purge today.  I have updated and uploaded the spreadsheet (Issue 3) with the new data, which helps to confirm that the 120 hour purge uses slightly less ink than the manual or cart removal purges.  As mentioned previously, I have used colour coded columns, in the spreadsheet, to easily identify the amount of ink lost in either a purge or between tests.  Since I recently added a column for manual purges I will define them here again:

Green is the period between tests (usually 5 days but sometimes less), Blue (Cyan) is a 120 hour purge, Pink is a purge due to a cartridge being removed for more than 60s and Magenta is a manual purge.  

 Of some interest is that my Yellow cart started flashing yesterday after the Group 1 purge and my Grey started flashing today after the Group 2 purge.  Hence they both now are shown as “ink low” via the printer driver.  The yellow went low while transitioning from 18.87g to 18.62g, whereas the grey went low while transitioning from 19.03g to 18.74g.  So, it would appear that the ink low warning happens around 18.8g.  You can actually tell when it is going to happen because you can see the small amount of ink left in the tank side of the cart just before it happens.

I will use the current carts until they run out, based on recommendations from Jose Rodriguez. I intend storing the old carts in case I decide to refill in future.  I have bought a full set of OEM replacements and plan to weigh full and empty carts when I do the swap, this will allow me to get a better cost estimate of the purges.  I also plan to confirm there is no purge when I change the cartridge.  Until now, all my testing of cartridge removal is when the printer is registering some level of ink in that cartridge.  An empty cartridge may trigger a different response.  However, based on the Pro9000 Service Manual, I am no expecting any difference.

Here is my summary of the data in the spreadsheet, for the Pro-100S:

1.   With the exception of a manual purge, if a purge of one group takes place, a small amount of ink is lost in the other group.  Suggests keeping the 2 group purges synchronised is worthwhile if they are only a day or 2 apart.  (Note: I have only performed a single manual purge and it was on group 2 only)

2.   The average ink purged for a 120 hour purge of both groups is 1.995g (call it 2g). It is not evenly dispersed over the 2 groups, but the difference is quite small (4.6%) and may balance out over a longer period of testing.  This figure does not include ink lost in a group not being purged during a single group purge.

3.   The average ink purged for a manual purge or cartridge removal in both groups is 2.21g (call it 2.2g).  Hence about 10% more for a medium purge versus a low purge.  Again it is not evenly dispersed between group 1 and group 2 (5.5% difference), but in this case it is reversed, in that the group 2 loss is slightly higher than group 1.

4.   Looking at columns L and V we see how much ink was lost over 5 days, when no print jobs were sent to the printer.  Column L is for power off  and column V is for power on.  Total ink lost was 0.18g and 0.06g respectively.  Just to confuse the picture, column R is for a single night with power on, which lost 0.11g.  Column F adds a tiny bit more data, but only represents one cartridge for when the power was turned on and off over the 5 days.  I would have to say the data is inconclusive and tend to think it’s the test itself that causes the ink loss.  ie.  The uncapping and recapping of the printhead. The same explanation could apply to point 1. above.  ie.  Ink lost in groups not being purged.

For items 1 and 2 above, if the ink lost during a purge which is in a group not being purged at that time is included in the figures, the total figures are 2.08g (120 hr purge) and 2.38g (Cart removal).

I have not actually printed on paper since 17th June.  All purges were induced by sending Form Feeds to the printer.  I still can’t say whether it is worth turning the printer off after use or leaving it on permanently.  I don’t believe there is a purge as a result of turning the printer off and then on, since the ink lost is very small and similarly a small amount is lost even if you leave the printer on continuously.

If we compare the test results for the Pro-100S to the Service Manual for the Pro9000, we get:
- Pro-100S:  2.0g/2.2g (Low Purge/Medium Purge)
- Pro9000: 1.9g/2.3g (Low Purge/Medium Purge)

For the Pro9000 a Deep (Heavy) Clean uses 3.8g, so we can expect about a 4.0g purge for the Pro-100.  In this case the Service Manual shows the same level for a Manual Deep clean and a 480 hour deep clean.

Bruce

Yes Mike, your interpretation is correct.
The only thing I can add is that Red River have done extensive analysis of the ink cost of many printers, including the Pro-100.
Here is the one for the Pro-100:  http://www.redrivercatalog.com/cost-of-inkjet-printing-canon-pro-100.html

Red River admit their costs do not include purge costs.
However, the Red River analysis does provide an indication of ink usage on various size prints.  Based on the Red River figures an 8x10 uses 0.668ml per 8x10. Versus your 0.56ml per 8x10.
So I guess the Pro-100 uses more ink than the average printer.
Here is the maths I used:  Red River determined the Pro-100 uses 0.000643 cartridges per square inch.  Multitply by 80 (squ inch per 8x10) gives 0.05144 cartridges per 8x10.  Multiply by 13ml per cart gives the above 0.668ml.
Red River also mention they assumed a 95% coverage.

A graph, or table combining the Red River costs per print plus purge costs, mapped against usage, would probably gives users an idea of their true costs per print.
Bruce

Hear Hear!!

Fred

We do not have the buying power of the USA

Our price is printer - £359.00

Ink - £86.57 inc VAT for set of 8

Just keep on printing and enjoy qimage.

Jeff

Sorry dannac, I just realised you probably wanted an answer to your post.
I don't think the powering on and off makes a lot of difference to the ink used.  Without looking at the power consumption specs, I doubt the printer uses that much power in standby.
If I were you I would probably spread the printing out so that the printer does not go longer than say 2 weeks without a purge.  In fact I would probably build up to that by starting at 8 or 10 days and send a nozzle check or purge sheet to initiate the purge and confirm no clogged nozzles.

I was not expecting to be reporting this so soon, but my Gray cart reported empty today.
So I measured the weight of the full gray cart and the empty gray cart giving a figure of 9.49g.  I was expecting more like 13g from what I had heard around the traps.  I am guessing it is because the cart still has some usable ink and the printer driver will probably continuously pester me to change the cart every time I try to print, but may still let me print.

After replacing the empty cart with a full cart, I sent a Form Feed to the printer.  There was no purge, which is interesting, because the Pro-100 User Manual says there will be a purge.  However, as already mentioned in this thread, the Pro9000 Service Manual indicates the purge will only happen if a cart is removed for more than 60s.  I probably only took 10s.

So now we know there is no variation to the purge procedure if the printer (driver?) has determined there is an Empty Cart.
I have updated and uploaded the spreadsheet, which also contains the recent purge of both group 1 and group 2, which I synchronised by delaying printing until both groups 120 hour timers expired.

Bruce