Many moons ago the building and zoning director at the city where I worked surprised us by ordering a bunch of these for their inspector vehicles. We went ahead and installed them but every single one suffered a slow and miserable (we were miserable trying to support them) death in the Florida sun just a couple months later. They tried bringing the in and out to the trucks every day but you can imagine how good that was for them.
Really like your presentation. I've been using BJC-85 since the nineties - have always loved its simplicity and portability. I have 3 of them, one in proper working order. Thanks for the demonstration of soaking the printhead - I've always been nervous about doing this. And I share your joy when the printer actually works!!
I have owned and used two of these printers in college and grad school. Loved them. Better than any printer I use today and faster. Good color as well. I can’t seem to make myself throw it out. Keep hoping it can get past window 98 operating system.
I think it's super neat that to do colour, the printer does three passes with the scanner, one for each colour. I'd love to see one of those modules disassembled to see how it works!
Oh man that takes me back. I used to own one of these back in the day. Used it with my old Toshiba Satellite laptop. It was really convenient to have because I could print out invoices for clients right on the spot (I was an independent computer consultant for many years.) Never did get the battery pack for it -- I just used the standard AC wall wart (actually I think it used a soap-on-a-rope type of power brick, not a wall wart) with a car power inverter. I also did some work for a nonprofit around that time, and every year they shipped us all up to the Bay Area for a training day seminar sort of thing, and I would often be called upon to put on presentations at these. I have many memories of frantically working on presentations, putting on the finishing touches and printing out handouts, etc. while driving towards SF in the dead of night. (No I didn't print and drive, my partner did all the driving.) I had NO IDEA that they made a scanner attachment for it though -- if I had known this I probably would have been one of the first ones to buy it because that just sounds so cool. Thanks for a fun trip down memory lane.
I work for IT at my college and printers are absolutely frustrating. There's always that one teacher that refuses to get rid of their early 2000s printer and we always have to service it
I had one of the first models of this series. The BJ-5. I think it may have even been the first of their portable BJ printers. Ran it to my Mac Performa 400/LCII via a Grappler parallel adapter. FYI, 7yrs late but around the 5:00 mark, to anyone finding these, BJC-xx are color units, black and white ones will only be BJ-xx.
I had that printer around 1997, I think. There was a model that was battery powered, but this one was cheaper. In color it printed 15 pages, before it ran out of ink. Back then some still used dot matrix. Laser printers were the size of a fridge and only businesses could afford them. Meanwhile, this thing was tiny, lite and affordable. As a document printer it was excellent. All BJC models support color - stands for Bubble Jet Color.
Loved this video when it came out and I've been on the hunt for one of these devices since then. Just last week I've finally got myself a canon ip90v and it's been a joy to use (excluding the fact that I haven't found a suitable cups driver yet and I'm using a windows VM to get it to work).
I have this printer as well as the battery and I've gotten it to work on Windows 7, Windows 10 and Ubuntu. I mostly use it for extended travel. It is probably the most durable and reliable printer that I've ever owned.
0:08 most hated device in the computer industry is the printer. Hard to install the drivers especially in Windows. Scanner scans very nicely. Scanners aka Reverse Printers, seem more reliable than Printers aka Reverse Scanners.
Ughh before GPS, and smart phones, I lugged one of these around quite a bit with the purpose of printing maps from Street & Trips and Mapquest for when I had to travel to different offices and customer sites.
Honestly despite using the impieral system this is way more helpful. As I'm learning to use Centigrade more. I know this is pretty damn hot. In other words, thanks.
This looks like it uses the exact same printhead s as the Apple Stylewriter 2200 which I'm having the same issue with. I'll have to try this out myself!
My dad did tech support for this printer in the 90s. Sometimes he’d say to people if you put your hand in the IR port you could see the letters going across. But then they’d actually do it and not realise it was a joke! XD
I thought this was finally the only printer to not suck, but then after a few years of no issues it now just does three beeps and doesn't work for no reason at all.
I have used a BJC 55 for almost 20 years. This year a sheet came off askew and I pulled back to remove it. Bad idea. Since the printer no longer detects the paper… out. Since there was no way I was going to buy a new printer with overpriced cartridges, I looked to buy a used 55 on the internet. I couldn't find an affordable 55 at the time, but there was an 85. It seemed pretty close, it was the same cartridges, and I was interested by the built-in paper feeder as well, so I took an 85 : almost 2x more bulky, but what a comfort not having to load sheets one by one! Indeed on the 55 the multi-sheet feeder was optional, so it was necessary to put the sheets one by one. That said, it was perfect for my needs, I only printed very occasionally, and often just one page. Another difference, on the 55, there was a built-in removable battery, which allowed printing without power. There is no built-in equivalent on the 85, you have to buy an additional portable kit, the "Canon NK-300" which comes behind the printer. I would say that the 85 is no later than 1999 because the oldest manual mentions Windows 98 and Mac G3s at most, and the Mac G4 was introduced in mid 1999, and Windows 2000 in… yeah… The list of interchangeable cartridges doesn't end there because there are special photo cartridges! Which therefore makes 4 possible heads: BCI-10 cartridge for printing black and white BCI-11 cartridges for color printing BCI-12 cartridges for printing photos IS-12 color image scanner cartridge I specify that I use these printers on a recent Macintosh thanks to the GutenPrint drivers. Very happy with my old 55 and my new 85 ;-) Thanks for this video!
Had an HP portable printer that would scan and print they are interesting and cool, looking at your version of Windows (3.1\95) you may need the specific Canon driver software for it to work on a side note I'm totally jealous of that autographed photo of Patrick Stewart 😀
having been a big Canon BJC user in the 90's and early 00's and only getting 1:33 into the video can tell when you swapped the scan cartage with the ink cartage, and the printer would not detect the ink, it's because of the ink tank holders which go bad over time, and need to be replaced, it's common throughout the BJC models, but if only need to print in b/w on some model BJC printers you can avoid the ink cartage holder all together, and just buy an XL size black ink tank with the contacts built in. While I loved these old printers for the low cost on ink, and high print quality(BJC 4000 I don't count because blue looks more purple) They don't work on modern Windows 10, Android, Chrome OS, or Linux Distros, so I'm forced to use HP. argggg!!!
When these printers came out i was lucky to have a flatbed scanner at my disposal. I always wondered how slow and crappy this contraption worked, but surprised on how good it actually is. What's interesting is, what is the light source when it scans? A small CCFL and some optics?
Their website that hosts the driver is awesome. You can select your OS version and all the drivers pop up. I mean, yeah the drivers for this printer are only made for windows 3.1-ME, no NT drivers, but still. Why can't we get this with laptops? I had this Sony vaio, and I went to their website, and it sucks. All the drivers were a pain in the ass to get to for the model I had. How come old printers have better driver support than laptops that are newer!
if ink is left stored in these long periods or not upright or on right side ink drys up and sometimes leaks into printer. big mess to clean. use rubbing alcohol to help dilute ink. also cartridge trays can get bad beyound cleaning so always keep extras onhand
Man I remember having a BubbleJet back in the early 2000s, it was a beige and purple unit and it was an absolute BASTARD. 99% of the time you tried to print with it, the colours would all bleed together or the ink would just leak all over the page, it was absolutely useless. This thing is awesome though and I really want a new portable printer (or one of these lol). My OfficeJet 3831 does me well though.
Did you ever get a color printing from your BJC-85? I've got one that I use weekly but only have black cartridges. I'd love to have color printing too.If so, what # was the cartridge? Thanks! I've got a modern Acer laptop that I use with it and don't have ton's of wires. I'm using a USB to Parallel (DB25) converter cable. Thanks for your help in advance!
Regarding that impressive agglomeration of parallel cables and switch devices: Children, take note, this is an example of "What did we use before USB?" Now throw in a handheld scanner and a Covox Speech Thing/Disney Sound Source, and maybe a ZIP drive...
After seeing this video a few weeks ago, i had headed out to the wild lands of ebay to search for one of these small printers. And after a few days i had found a BJC-80 (same model without USB), from a different seller i snatched up a pair of ink cartridges, for a grand total of £15. Now i have a printer that i can use on all of my machines from the tecra 500CDT to the newest machine that i have via LPT USB converter.
You're pretty much gonna have to wash all of the cartridge heads in hot soapy water (I actually dipped them for a long time in boiling water, and don't worry, they can take it), even the new-old-stock ones, and to echo what the other commenter said, the black cartridge is far more reliable than the color head+cartridge pack, it's a simpler and more sealed system. At least that's how it is on the BJC-2100, God that's a cheap and chintzy printer but while it works, it prints fine and it's super easy to refill.
I still have my BJC-2100 stashed away, I used a refill kit I got from Tesco's to cheaply keep it going. I was aware of a scanning cartridge for it but after seeing this in action I don't think I missed much.
Whahaha lol.. and that scan took a long time. No way to decrease dpi? Maybe try using Windows Me because and see if it's WIA support helps (icm other software)? That is why I enjoy your videos, it's the journey not the destination, so much like working on my own toys.
Definitely agree that printers are the most hated part of technology, at least for me. They just seem to never work right at all, particularly under linux, which is most annoying when that's your main OS.
Many moons ago the building and zoning director at the city where I worked surprised us by ordering a bunch of these for their inspector vehicles. We went ahead and installed them but every single one suffered a slow and miserable (we were miserable trying to support them) death in the Florida sun just a couple months later. They tried bringing the in and out to the trucks every day but you can imagine how good that was for them.
Really like your presentation. I've been using BJC-85 since the nineties - have always loved its simplicity and portability. I have 3 of them, one in proper working order. Thanks for the demonstration of soaking the printhead - I've always been nervous about doing this. And I share your joy when the printer actually works!!
There is an audio sync issue. I'm not sure of the root cause. It isn't there in my editor but has shown up in every render.
God damnit I didn't notice it until you said something
I have owned and used two of these printers in college and grad school. Loved them. Better than any printer I use today and faster. Good color as well. I can’t seem to make myself throw it out. Keep hoping it can get past window 98 operating system.
You have an autographed picture of Patrick Stewart?! Awesome!
David Phantom I have a broken iPad the top password or a play exit button does not work so might have to get a screen protector to cover it up
@@xXxmlg_vacxXx what?
I think it's super neat that to do colour, the printer does three passes with the scanner, one for each colour. I'd love to see one of those modules disassembled to see how it works!
I really like the way you present the tech you are reviewing. Very informative and interesting
Actualy i have Just found one of this printer in a box in a trashcan. And then i found my favorite TH-camr has a review on it
Oh man that takes me back. I used to own one of these back in the day. Used it with my old Toshiba Satellite laptop. It was really convenient to have because I could print out invoices for clients right on the spot (I was an independent computer consultant for many years.) Never did get the battery pack for it -- I just used the standard AC wall wart (actually I think it used a soap-on-a-rope type of power brick, not a wall wart) with a car power inverter. I also did some work for a nonprofit around that time, and every year they shipped us all up to the Bay Area for a training day seminar sort of thing, and I would often be called upon to put on presentations at these. I have many memories of frantically working on presentations, putting on the finishing touches and printing out handouts, etc. while driving towards SF in the dead of night. (No I didn't print and drive, my partner did all the driving.) I had NO IDEA that they made a scanner attachment for it though -- if I had known this I probably would have been one of the first ones to buy it because that just sounds so cool. Thanks for a fun trip down memory lane.
I work for IT at my college and printers are absolutely frustrating. There's always that one teacher that refuses to get rid of their early 2000s printer and we always have to service it
I had one of the first models of this series. The BJ-5. I think it may have even been the first of their portable BJ printers.
Ran it to my Mac Performa 400/LCII via a Grappler parallel adapter.
FYI, 7yrs late but around the 5:00 mark, to anyone finding these, BJC-xx are color units, black and white ones will only be BJ-xx.
"...I'm left wondering, what can I do to fix this thing..."
It's a printer? A sledgehammer usually works for me.
I had that printer around 1997, I think. There was a model that was battery powered, but this one was cheaper. In color it printed 15 pages, before it ran out of ink. Back then some still used dot matrix. Laser printers were the size of a fridge and only businesses could afford them. Meanwhile, this thing was tiny, lite and affordable. As a document printer it was excellent. All BJC models support color - stands for Bubble Jet Color.
oh I remember those big parallel switch boxes at school. They had one that linked to every computer in the IT room.
Hell yeah I'm going to watch a half hour video about a printer.
Loved this video when it came out and I've been on the hunt for one of these devices since then. Just last week I've finally got myself a canon ip90v and it's been a joy to use (excluding the fact that I haven't found a suitable cups driver yet and I'm using a windows VM to get it to work).
I have this printer as well as the battery and I've gotten it to work on Windows 7, Windows 10 and Ubuntu. I mostly use it for extended travel. It is probably the most durable and reliable printer that I've ever owned.
I have one of these, I owned from new - to use with a Psion. I got it running again, recently. I had to soak the print heads in cleaning solution.
0:08 most hated device in the computer industry is the printer. Hard to install the drivers especially in Windows. Scanner scans very nicely. Scanners aka Reverse Printers, seem more reliable than Printers aka Reverse Scanners.
I had one of these - There was a battery attachment that attached to the back of it.
Ughh before GPS, and smart phones, I lugged one of these around quite a bit with the purpose of printing maps from Street & Trips and Mapquest for when I had to travel to different offices and customer sites.
146F = 63.33C, for those wondering.
Honestly despite using the impieral system this is way more helpful. As I'm learning to use Centigrade more. I know this is pretty damn hot.
In other words, thanks.
This looks like it uses the exact same printhead s as the Apple Stylewriter 2200 which I'm having the same issue with. I'll have to try this out myself!
I think I have one of these and it's just collecting dust. But it's pretty cool that it has a scanner cartridge.
My dad did tech support for this printer in the 90s. Sometimes he’d say to people if you put your hand in the IR port you could see the letters going across. But then they’d actually do it and not realise it was a joke! XD
I thought this was finally the only printer to not suck, but then after a few years of no issues it now just does three beeps and doesn't work for no reason at all.
That bjc 70 works better than mine i have disassembled it as the paper feed didn't work and there where also those stuck gears
I have used a BJC 55 for almost 20 years. This year a sheet came off askew and I pulled back to remove it. Bad idea. Since the printer no longer detects the paper… out.
Since there was no way I was going to buy a new printer with overpriced cartridges, I looked to buy a used 55 on the internet. I couldn't find an affordable 55 at the time, but there was an 85.
It seemed pretty close, it was the same cartridges, and I was interested by the built-in paper feeder as well, so I took an 85 : almost 2x more bulky, but what a comfort not having to load sheets one by one! Indeed on the 55 the multi-sheet feeder was optional, so it was necessary to put the sheets one by one. That said, it was perfect for my needs, I only printed very occasionally, and often just one page.
Another difference, on the 55, there was a built-in removable battery, which allowed printing without power. There is no built-in equivalent on the 85, you have to buy an additional portable kit, the "Canon NK-300" which comes behind the printer.
I would say that the 85 is no later than 1999 because the oldest manual mentions Windows 98 and Mac G3s at most, and the Mac G4 was introduced in mid 1999, and Windows 2000 in… yeah…
The list of interchangeable cartridges doesn't end there because there are special photo cartridges! Which therefore makes 4 possible heads:
BCI-10 cartridge for printing black and white
BCI-11 cartridges for color printing
BCI-12 cartridges for printing photos
IS-12 color image scanner cartridge
I specify that I use these printers on a recent Macintosh thanks to the GutenPrint drivers.
Very happy with my old 55 and my new 85 ;-)
Thanks for this video!
hola me puedes ayudar con una bjc 85 que compré bater nb 300 y me da 2 pitidos y error
Had an HP portable printer that would scan and print they are interesting and cool, looking at your version of Windows (3.1\95) you may need the specific Canon driver software for it to work on a side note I'm totally jealous of that autographed photo of Patrick Stewart 😀
Can you help me because my eMachines Explorer pop-up and must reinstall Windows it says can you help me maybe install Windows 98
having been a big Canon BJC user in the 90's and early 00's and only getting 1:33 into the video can tell when you swapped the scan cartage with the ink cartage, and the printer would not detect the ink, it's because of the ink tank holders which go bad over time, and need to be replaced, it's common throughout the BJC models, but if only need to print in b/w on some model BJC printers you can avoid the ink cartage holder all together, and just buy an XL size black ink tank with the contacts built in. While I loved these old printers for the low cost on ink, and high print quality(BJC 4000 I don't count because blue looks more purple) They don't work on modern Windows 10, Android, Chrome OS, or Linux Distros, so I'm forced to use HP. argggg!!!
The BJC series is actually in CUPS...so if you know what you're doing, you should be able to configure the printer to work fine within Linux.
So it would be possible to use a small Linux computer as a print server?
Ennar i realize this comment may be a bit late but i hooked up my BJC 80 to a raspberry zeroW, and using it as a network printer. :)
I had one those printers in college and never knew it had a scanning option.
When these printers came out i was lucky to have a flatbed scanner at my disposal. I always wondered how slow and crappy this contraption worked, but surprised on how good it actually is. What's interesting is, what is the light source when it scans? A small CCFL and some optics?
10:13 Bob Ross reference ++.
Just found one of these new in box at a thrift store. The ink cartridges actually work!
10:12 that reference
Their website that hosts the driver is awesome. You can select your OS version and all the drivers pop up. I mean, yeah the drivers for this printer are only made for windows 3.1-ME, no NT drivers, but still.
Why can't we get this with laptops? I had this Sony vaio, and I went to their website, and it sucks. All the drivers were a pain in the ass to get to for the model I had. How come old printers have better driver support than laptops that are newer!
there is an addon battery pack for this model
This is cool device. Thanks for the video.
if ink is left stored in these long periods or not upright or on right side ink drys up and sometimes leaks into printer. big mess to clean. use rubbing alcohol to help dilute ink. also cartridge trays can get bad beyound cleaning so always keep extras onhand
Man I remember having a BubbleJet back in the early 2000s, it was a beige and purple unit and it was an absolute BASTARD. 99% of the time you tried to print with it, the colours would all bleed together or the ink would just leak all over the page, it was absolutely useless.
This thing is awesome though and I really want a new portable printer (or one of these lol). My OfficeJet 3831 does me well though.
Did you ever get a color printing from your BJC-85? I've got one that I use weekly but only have black cartridges. I'd love to have color printing too.If so, what # was the cartridge? Thanks! I've got a modern Acer laptop that I use with it and don't have ton's of wires. I'm using a USB to Parallel (DB25) converter cable. Thanks for your help in advance!
Regarding that impressive agglomeration of parallel cables and switch devices: Children, take note, this is an example of "What did we use before USB?" Now throw in a handheld scanner and a Covox Speech Thing/Disney Sound Source, and maybe a ZIP drive...
A scanner cartridge to turn a printer into a scanner, wow!
After seeing this video a few weeks ago, i had headed out to the wild lands of ebay to search for one of these small printers.
And after a few days i had found a BJC-80 (same model without USB), from a different seller i snatched up a pair of ink cartridges, for a grand total of £15.
Now i have a printer that i can use on all of my machines from the tecra 500CDT to the newest machine that i have via LPT USB converter.
Nice Futurama shirt! Also, are you running "scanner" on SPP or EPP?
soaking did work with my old 2000 canon printer. thanks :)
You're pretty much gonna have to wash all of the cartridge heads in hot soapy water (I actually dipped them for a long time in boiling water, and don't worry, they can take it), even the new-old-stock ones, and to echo what the other commenter said, the black cartridge is far more reliable than the color head+cartridge pack, it's a simpler and more sealed system. At least that's how it is on the BJC-2100, God that's a cheap and chintzy printer but while it works, it prints fine and it's super easy to refill.
I still have my BJC-2100 stashed away, I used a refill kit I got from Tesco's to cheaply keep it going. I was aware of a scanning cartridge for it but after seeing this in action I don't think I missed much.
@@NiebaumCurran I didn't know that we sold ink for this printer. Huh.
@@IanC14 it was years ago I had the generic refill kit.
that laptop does not have network?!! you had to pull out HDD(SDCard)?
It's a 486 based laptop, no networking is expected on that era of laptops
23:36 (Bottom left) "STAR TREK THE REXF GERERAFIOR" (T looks like F and N looks like R)
These printers were everywhere in the 90's and they never worked... Seeing how my friends never managed to get it to work, I never got one
Ooh! Awesome you have Patrick Stewart's autograph!
default is bitmap which is huge.printer spools memory
Whahaha lol.. and that scan took a long time. No way to decrease dpi? Maybe try using Windows Me because and see if it's WIA support helps (icm other software)? That is why I enjoy your videos, it's the journey not the destination, so much like working on my own toys.
Apparently this printer came out in late 99 or very early 2000.
Oh, and nice Bender T-shirt.
win xp and newer is best for drivers for these units. win 95 may work the 70 as its only parallel port
Definitely agree that printers are the most hated part of technology, at least for me. They just seem to never work right at all, particularly under linux, which is most annoying when that's your main OS.
Edgy
I have terrible news
You have...
B U G E Y E S ! ! !
Bradley Hove can you please explain this meme
Yep, over 300MB is what I was expecting
the bulb in scanner burns out so get a spare head if can
I used IBM 701c for years with no drives and no gigs mem. use net
these printers were never made for speed so...scanner was mainly for doing faxes of documents
You are cool!
Bonus points for Ubuntu font
RIP Devil.
1:55 dongles in the 90’s
0:00-0:06 is very true . also my printer hates me too
the 70 was oldest model with way less features and wont do scanner even
9:16 oh that's just nasty..
Insert "Make it so" reference here
long life and prosperity
Oh man. this scanner is extrem slow. Line by Line, Color by Color usw.
Scan me up, Mr. O'Brien
I bet swap file eat all free space
low quality DPI and color palet also. not good for pics
Imperial? Noooooooooooooooooo!!!
Oooooo Lego games
thank god for usb ._.
these are only option for mobile printers yet no longer made. go figure
I feel discriminated against. I do not know the Fahrenheit scale. We Brtis use Celsius cause it is better.
negative