Japan mode? Not sure I understand this ... cli-8s ? bci-7s ? Whats
all that about? What is Japan mode .. what does it do ?
Righto, first of all canon makes a printer, a physical printer. There
are at least three major markets... North America (letter paper)
Europe (a4 paper) and Japan (a4 test market).
-bci-7-
http://www.amazon.co.jp/exec/obidos...38456/sr=5-1/ref=sr_5_2_1/250-0493249-2157847
-closeup image-
http://images-jp.amazon.com/images/P/B00065FVUI.09.LZZZZZZZ.jpg
BCI-7 is just like bci-6, what you likely use for your current canon,
except with Chromalife-100 ink. Japan simply put got the ink sooner,
last year if not earlier.
http://images-jp.amazon.com/images/P/B0007V1USI.09.LZZZZZZZ.jpg
What I wasn't understanding is the new pixus ip4200, the japanese model
clearly takes the bci-7e rather than the cli-8, what the US model
takes. bci-7e is the same bloody thing as cli-8 but with the chips.
This would explain why one one person set their printer to be Japanese
it refused to accept cli-8 cartridges, and refused to accept bci-6
cartridges. It was looking for the chip, the japanese one.
What I was talking about is the fact you can tell the printer which
market it's in, and in doing so inable features. For example telling
any ip4000 or even ip4200 it's Japanese or European enables CD
printing. I thought one could diable chip detection because bci-7s
were used in the pixus series, but I was unaware of the bci-7e, the
chipped version.
Simply put, Japan gets stuff earlier as they are a test market. They
got the newer ink first, and the ip4000 took the newer ink. For
European models, they had their own mode with CD printing enabled,
North American this feature was disabled. Exact same printer, one
change in the settings to reflect where it's going, the destination.
CIS in a 4200 machine ( no smart chips ) and only use 4 tanks .. leave
the one black tank out?
Look, I'm not going to pretend i've done those, nor know anyone who has
actually done this. But take the time to look at the bci-6 vs the
cli-8, the chipped cartridges in the ip4200.
-German page-
http://www.druckerchannel.de/artikel.php?ID=1154
-Large Image-
http://www.druckerchannel.de/cache_...chwer_LOCf310297c7baab64b4760340a9678c12d.jpg
Now according to what I've read, to print you need cartridges with
chips, even if you refill a cli-8 with a chip you can print with it.
You get a warning, the metering gets disabled, but you can print with
it. The trick I believe would be removal of the chips and placing them
in such a way on existing takes, or drilling out holes in OEM tanks and
routing tubes for your CIS. Again... I've not done this, but look for
your self... seems a reasonable hypothesis. But if you don't want to
monkey with such things, buy a ip5000. No chips, 1pl printhead, no
worries. Or go ip4000, pretty good no chip no worries. Or heck,
ip3000, no extra black, no worries.
As far as the small black... well it sucks that you don't have it but
since it's not used as much as the other cartridges, you can get away
with refilling it or buying new ones as, at least in my personal
experence about 40ml of regular ink is used to 13ml of the small black.
This isn't "great" but isn't bad.