Comments on: Continuous Ink project

By: Yasuko Nemith

Yasuko Nemith — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 08:59:12 +0000

The only way to REALLY save money on ink is with a Continuous Ink Supply System (CISS)….

By: Lang Calendars

Lang Calendars — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 17:30:19 +0000

Useful info. Hope to see more good posts in the future.

By: conundrum

conundrum — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 22:37:54 +0000

hmm.. had a good idea, what about using the old epson chips to build musical “recycled” cards.. use the small speakers from toys, and a 10F200 as the controller…

By: James

James — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 17:25:52 +0000

So I *was* going to say that this would be great for the old Canon we had, but then I remembered that like 2 months after the warranty was up the feeder went and we had to give it one sheet at a time (or else it’d suck up the whole stack of pages at once). That was the final straw that drove us to lasers, and we never looked back. With color lasers below 200 bucks (though I grant you you’ll spend another 200 on toner after you blow through the “starter” cartridges in a month), it’s just a better idea in the long run.

By: roens

roens — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 02:05:34 +0000

It’s also popular to use this sort of setup on printers modified for printing etch resist onto copper clad for making PCBs…

http://www.cnczone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=30951
http://techref.massmind.org/techref/pcb/etch/c84-st.htm

By: Kirk Duncan

Kirk Duncan — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 22:55:39 +0000

This is Great and Green too

By: rak0ribz

rak0ribz — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 13:30:42 +0000

lukes:

The ink-level-sensing chip, iirc, doesn’t actually sense the ink level. They just have a counter that keeps track of how much ink has been “requested” from the print head. The chip typically runs out before the ink’s totally gone. If you’re not very cynical, you could say that this is because of a combination of uncertainty in their measurement method and the desire to maintain uniform quality as long as the cartridge is viable. On the other hand, new cartridges cost $35…

By: nubie

nubie — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 07:23:00 +0000

Niiice, show those greedy printer companies* who is boss. (*I mean ink companies that give away free printers.)

For pity’s sake this should be a $50 option to any printer above entry-level (all ~$80 and up printers).

I especially like how he hacked into the stupid chip. Very nice.

By: David

David — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 05:47:22 +0000

As others have posted here, this is very common here in Asia. You can get a printer outfitted with big ink silos stuck to the outside case. The ink reaches the cartridge via tubes. I’m surprised you haven’t seen this in the U.S. Oh – right, trial lawyers in the U.S. will get you…

By: Zortslowski

Zortslowski — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 04:30:19 +0000

I have had one of these on my canon pixma mp830 for the past year.

I paid $50 for the kit, installed in then 11 months later paid $20 (shipping included) for a refill.

I love my CISS!

By: LukeS

LukeS — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 03:26:05 +0000

Why do you need to hack the level sensing chip if you are dumping more ink into the cartridge (so the level will never be low)

By: Life2Death

Life2Death — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 03:05:57 +0000

With canon’s non “throw-away” printers, the print head is removable and the same exact head thats in their $15k ‘plotters.’

I own two i850′s, and my dad has a i950, and we’ve never, ever once had a single problem with them. We’ve gone through a ton of HP’s and Epson’s that die or crap through expensive ink all the time.

I also own a HP LaserJet IIId thats still kicking, and a HP 1200C or whatever for wide format printing, and a HP Pen Plotter that i’ve been meaning to hack, though it still works beautifully, being 23 years old.

By: jim

jim — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 02:42:13 +0000

im glad to see a pro like eddie getting some attention here, he has some inspireing ideas on his site’s, i modded an old epson c40 with a continus ink flow after seeing his work, and it worked great for years untill i forgot to refill the black bottle and ran dry, it never worked right after that:(

he wrote a great fiction book to, i recommend for a read

By: maddog007

maddog007 — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 02:33:28 +0000

did they already doing this in Asian?
last time I was in Taiwan and China,
they are doing something like this everywhere.

By: KayDat

KayDat — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 02:13:42 +0000

@tashwold
Like many of the people already said, it depends on the printer. Some have the print head build into the cartridge (HP I believe does this), and some in the printer. The main reason why ink is so expensive is because that is how the companies make money. They sell the printers at a loss–a loss leader, just like most console developers. They make the money back from the ink cartridges, which explains why they are usually against cheap cartridge replacements and CIS systems, just like how the console companies are against games piracy.