I got a free printer (paper weight)

[Derek Lofgreen]

I was gifted a free HP Photosmart Pro B9180 from a friend. I know the printer is old, no longer supported by HP and ink carts are not available. I was thinking I might be able to put together some sort of CISS onto it and see what I can get out of this, considering it was FREE I can spend a little to see if it will even work. I am no stranger to digital printing, been doing it for a long time but never with a CISS. So I am looking for any pointers or pitfalls while I fiddle with this thing.

So far the only CISS I see for this printer is on fleebay or this one at inksystems.com http://www.inksystem.com/ciss/hp/CISS-B9180.html

Any helpful thoughts or advice is welcome.

Thanks,
D.

 

[nmp]

That is the best printer I had, particularly for digital negatives. The OEM Vivera inks still has the crown for the most long-lasting pigment inks in the market, even after nearly 20 years in existence. The printer itself is great at printing but the hardware never got off the early kinks as they bailed on it with just one model. I have gone through 2 of them, both stopped working because of some hardware malfunction, something that could not be fixed. I just recently crashed the second one. So I am back to Epsons now. If you want to revive the printer, just be ready for a lot of tinkering and trouble shooting. Luckily you can still buy the heads as they are shared with their other large format printers. And heads are affordable unlike those of Epsons.

Good luck!


:Niranjan.

 

[Derek Lofgreen]

Niranjan, did you run a CISS on the printers you had? If so, any tips or sources for a good system?

Thanks,
D.

 

[nmp]

Niranjan, did you run a CISS on the printers you had? If so, any tips or sources for a good system?

Thanks,
D.

Never did. For me it was the OEM inks that kept me using it. So I never considered a CIS with third party inks. I did consider buying refillable carts and then fill them with ink from larger carts made for other HP printers, as the 9180B carts have become scarce with some colors like yellow impossible to find. And then the printer died.

:Niranjan.