Partly Working Vintage Canon BJC-80 Color Bubble Jet Printer

Partly Working Vintage Canon BJC-80 Color Bubble Jet Printer

• Era: 1997 according to manual.
• Size:  Printer 30cm wide x 25.5cm deep x 6cm tall when folded
• Weight: 1.5kg
• Power Supply: 110V, Mains end 1.5m long, 13V DC end 1.5m long
• Condition: For Parts/Repair but please read on as it maybe you can make it work easily? Originally bought as refurbished  and used for a few years and then not used for about 15 years. The printer has been tested and switches on, lights up, the paper feeds through, the printer head moves, but the black and colour cartridges in storage containers don’t appear to work. However, there are two hermitically sealed cartridges in their original packets so I opened the back ink one and tried that and nothing was printed out either. So, my guess is the printer either needs a cleaning job inside or maybe inks don’t last many years, even if hermitically sealed? Note that it is supplied with a US 110V power supply, but so long as you find a 13V 0.8A DC power supply to replace this (if you live in Europe) then you can power the printer. The printer has no USB connector so you need to have a parallel Centronics type printer cable to make it work or you could try the IR link . This printer was intended for Windows 95, so have no idea if it would be compatible with later versions of Windows.
• What is included: Printer, US power 110V supply,  instruction manual, storage container for monochrome cartridge/tank and storage container for colour cartridge/tank, hermitically sealed colour cartridge tanks in a box, just opened BCI-10 Black cartridge tank in a box.
• What is not included: Parallel printer cable and driver. If I find these between now and a sale I will include them.
• General Comments: At the time this was a remarkable printer as it was small and compact and could be taken around with a laptop. It even had an IrDA link for direct line of sight wireless communications. This one on-sale needed a power supply, though optional extras available back then could include a portable battery power source and a scanner head that could convert the printer into a scanner! The manufacturer specs say that it is capable of printing up to 5 sheets per minute in black and white and 2 sheets per minute in colour. The print resolution is 720x360 dpi.
• As stated in the conditions, this printer has been tested as far as switching on and feeding paper through, the printer head moves, bleeps can be heard, and the cartridge/tank(s) can be changed. However, the cartridges/tanks it came with, which were in containers (see images), don’t appear to print anything – though the colour cartridge did briefly print some horizontal yellow lines before not printing any other text. So, I think that they have mostly dried out. Cleaning the nozzle heads did not improve them. There are two other cartridges in their original boxes and hermitically sealed, I opened the black and white one, and although the weight feels like it has some ink inside, this failed to print anything out either.
• My overall feeling is that this can probably be made to work  after some cleaning, by someone familiar with the workings of ink jet printers of that era.
• Otherwise it can be used a spare parts, has one-unopened Canon BC-11e Color BJ cartridge set of ink tanks, an original user manual and a US power supply for this printer.
• Oh, and don’t forget that communication with the printer is either via a parallel Centronics type cable or through the irDA infrared link.
• The last image is a 3D anaglyph. If you put on stereo anaglyph glasses with the red filter over the left eye and the blue/green filter over the right eye then you can see it in 3D.
• For overseas buyers, you are responsible for any customs duty or import taxes.
• For returns the customer is responsible for the cost or repackaging and postage.

Enjoy!