Canon iP100 Printer

I went through seven portable printers last year while traveling. They kept breaking. It was a struggle to fit them in my Pelican so they could withstand getting tossed around by TSA or whatever local cargo company was handling our gear. The key to fitting was TrekPak. My Pelican 1510 is highly organized and TrekPak is the left-brainer's guide to right-angle compartmentalization of gear or office supplies. But that's for another post.

I assiduously sussed printers. I needed one that wouldn't break but that was also portable and functional.

The Canon iP100 printer is the best portable printer out there today. It has two highly functional accessories that make it truly portable and wireless: a battery and bluetooth connectivity. For moderate printing, you can charge it once a week and the battery holds up. The bluetooth connectivity function works everytime. Here's a beacon of simplicity and grace: a portable printer with no cords, that you take out of a pelican, push one button and it works.

The printer is no longer on the market as it was discontinued a couple of years ago and replaced by the "improved" Canon iP110. You can still purchase the iP100 new on Amazon, but it's twice the price as there is limited supply. The printer evidently has a number of loyal fans who would rather pay $250 for the older model than $120 for the new and "improved" model.

Why?

The answer * I think * is that the iP110 has a fatal flaw. Canon replaced bluetooth connectivity with wifi connectivity for the wireless printing feature.

The iP100 can print wirelessly from your computer via bluetooth. The iP110 uses wifi, which means you connect the printer to the same wifi as your computer and voilà.

Sounds ok in spirit. Sounds like an improvement. But it's R&D tinkering gone wrong.

The idea of portable is that it is able to be moved easily. Yes the printer will be moved from place to place on a daily basis. However, wireless networks and passwords differ from place to place. So each time you move the printer to a new place it requires connecting to a new network.

This wouldn't be much of an issue if connecting the printer to a new network was easy, but it's not. It's difficult. Reading the instructions in the manual is like reading a surreptitiously deceitful mind-game. First off, the manual is 427 pages long. So prepare to sit and engage in this process for a few minutes. At least 15 minutes. I spent several hours over the course of a year reading and re-reading the instructions each time I needed to connect.

Let's compare that to ... say ... the iPhone (the peak of consumer inventions). Did you ever read the manual to an iPhone? You can give an iPhone to a child or a grandmother and he or she can get pretty far in terms of using the device. Hand a Canon iP110 to a child and ask him to print wirelessly and see how far he gets.

Let's recap Einstein's 5 ascending levels of intelligence:

smart, intelligent, brilliant, genius and simple

Now let's look at some literature for how to print wirelessly using the Canon iP110. Open the manual and scan the Table of Contents






I see on page 21 I can "connect wirelessly". Great let's scroll to page 21:



This is all that's on page 21, it's just a description of the capability of "access point mode". So let's go back to the Table of Contents to investigate further.



 

It appears there are instructions for some wireless printing options including "Google Cloud Print", "AirPrint", "Android Print", and on page 82 it cryptically lists instructions for connecting via a "Wireless LAN (Access Point Mode)". I remember that verbiage "Access Point Mode" from page 21 so let's scroll there.



Luckily there are only 3 steps: Change the setting, Connect and Print! 

First change the setting:





Ok, when I held the WI-FI button it blinked 3 times but that was including it going blank, THEN flashing 3 times. I think that's correct from looking at the picture included. Because what Canon doesn't tell you here is that if the button blinks 4 times or 2 times it will put the printer into a different function and you will have changed it do a different connectivity setting.

Next step, Connect the Printer:

 

Ok this isn't difficult to follow. Looking at Step 3 here I see that I need to look on the back of the printer to get a Password. That's easy however on my printer I use the battery attachment. This presents a problem as the battery is covering up the label with the serial number on it.

So now I need to remove the battery which requires a Philips screwdriver. Ok not the end of the world. So I will lose power to the printer and need to start over the process. Still not that big of a deal.

It's important to note here that when you do this, you should write down the password as it's a 9-digit alphanumeric code that isn't easily remembered. So to prevent having to remove the battery each time you want to connect, it's better to write the code on a piece of tape and stick it on the printer.

Ok, so I got the password, so now I will connect to the network: "XXXXXX-iP110series" and enter the password. Boom. Now I can print wirelessly. But wait, now my computer doesn't have internet because I just disconnected my computer to connect to the network the printer was transmitting. I lost internet on my computer and now can't use the internet until I disconnect the printer. But when I disconnect I'll lose wireless printing capability. So that's rather useless. 

So let's look at the instructions again. I see that next on the next page of the manual (p. 84) there are instructions for "Changing Printer Setting to Use Wireless LAN via Wireless LAN Router". I scroll back up to see how that is different than what I just did. The instructions from the section I just completed were: "Connecting Computer or Smartphone to Printer Directly via Wireless LAN (Access Point Mode)". Hmmm ... yes I guess I do want to connect through a LAN router. I must have inferred in the first set of instructions that "... via Wireless LAN" means my router, but evidently the "Wirless LAN" the manual was referring to is a network that the printer itself produces. Not a big deal, lets read on.

The instructions for this section start out the same, except this time we see we want the POWER button to flash 4 times instead of 3, which will put it into a different mode.




Ok that's not hard, lets move on to the next page in the manual. 

Except that the next page is a completely new section. It's as if the instructions above were truncated. Actually it's not as if they were truncated, they are actually truncated. I enjoy a good non sequitur in conversation, but a non sequitur in an instruction manual seems like a cruel maneuver. Again with the surreptitious mind games ...

The next page looks like this:




Ok I quite literally don't know what to do next. So I go back to page 84: "Changing Printer Setting to Use Wirless LAN via Wirless LAN Router." Ok let's scroll back to the Table of Contents and see if I can find a continuation of instructions.

The next thing I see in the TOC that has any linguistic relation to what I am trying to do is here: On page 168 I see "Changing the Printer Operation Mode". That seems to be down the line of what I'm trying to do. I also note that directly underneath that is "Connecting Computer or Smartphone to Printer Directly via Wireless LAN (Access Point Mode)", which is listed on page 82. Now, let's take a brief moment to note the flow of the Table of Contents here. The page numbers go: ... 166, 168, 82, 172, 173. Which one of these doesn't belong? Either way, lets scroll to page 168.

This isn't what I'm looking for, but I feel like I might be in the neighborhood so I scroll down a few pages. The next section I see is on page 170, "Connecting Computer or Smartphone to Printer Directly via Wireless LAN (Access Point Mode)." This looks familiar.

Oh I remember, it's the exact same page I looked at previously. It's a copy of page 82, but on page 170. That sort of explains the previously noted confusing sequence of pages. So I keep scrolling, and it's verbatim the instructions from page 82 with the same pictures. Push the button and let it flash 3 times, connect to the wireless network the computer is transmitting. I already know this isn't what I want to do, so I keep pushing on.

The next section on page 172 explains how to put the printer back into its default "Initial" settings. I just want to note that the way to do this is to let the POWER button flash 15 times. The section after that explains how to disable the Wireless LAN Function, which is to let the POWER button flash 12 times. Did you ever turn off your iPhone or the wifi of your iPhone by pressing the Home button 15 times? I'm being antagonistic now, so let's straighten up our attitude and press on.

I keep scrolling. I see some instructions for "Changing the Connection Method from USB to LAN". The instructions are to setup "according to the instructions on our website". I"m not going to touch that, so I keep scrolling in hopes of a golden sky at the end of the storm.

The next section is on IJ Network Tool:

 

This seems useful, keep scrolling. On page 191 I come across something: "Changing the Settings in the Wireless LAN Sheet". This could be our big break. It tells me I need to temporarily connect the printer via a USB cable to the computer.
 

Under this section it gives an overview of the configuration screen. So I feel like I'm getting close now. the IJ Network Tool is a piece of software that is installed on the computer when the printer is installed on the computer. So, in order to tell the printer which wireless network to join, I need to open the IJ Network Tool program. 

My interest in pursuing this endeavor is waning. But I scroll on. On page 195 I have a breakthrough.





Instructions for how to tell the printer which network to join. All I have to do is connect the printer with a USB cable, open the IJ Network program and go through the steps. The manual gives detailed instructions for both WEP and WPA/WPA2 wireless networks, as if any typical consumer knows what that means. For instance, under WEP settings, the manual asks for 5 inputs. #1 is the Password, which is easy and obvious and the only thing that anyone would be used to entering.

#'s 2 through 5 are: Key Length (64 or 128 bit); Key Format (ASCII or Hex); Key ID; and Authentication (Auto, Open System, or Shared Key).

I don't know what that means. So I skip all those and just enter the password and click OK. And that's it. It works. That didn't take so long.

To recap on how to print wirelessly:
- Connect printer via USB- Open IJ Network Tool and go through the steps

That's not so bad except that the whole purpose of having a wireless printer is so I don't have to fiddle with wires. And beyond that, if there is no internet, there is no network to connect to.

Whoever came up with this has obviously never had to print setlists five minutes before a show on a bus in Europe. I'm not asking for a perfect plan, but something functional. Whoever invented this was looking for a perfect plan and tinkered their way down an expensive R&D rabbit hole.

Let's take a moment to remember Carl von Clausewitz's maxim:

The enemy of a good plan is the dream of a perfect plan.