FoxBoom!

I bought a Canon Selphy CP510 printer today (no link, because the thing’s so old that Canon don’t even list it on their site any more).

I thought I’d tell you about it.

I fired up my Mac and installed the drivers and software, got all the updates off the webs, then fired up iPhoto to find a good shot to test it with. I cropped it down to 4×6, and sent it off to the Selphy.

The Selphy’s power light blinked red, and the print job stopped.

I checked the manual, which suggested restarting the printer would fix a blinking red light (which, incidentally, has no fixed cause and could mean almost any kind of error at all), so I did it and tried again. Same again.

I re-installed the drivers, and still the blinking. I installed the older drivers, and still the blinking. I pulled out and reset the ink and paper, and still the blinking.

Then I figured I could try just printing directly from my camera, which would at least rule out a general hardware issue. I took a shot with my Canon EOS 20D, and plugged it into the Selphy (which has a brilliant little spooled USB cable built in), and behold! After switching the camera’s communication mode to PTP, a photo came out.

So I went back to Canon’s website and started filling in a technical support request, and while I was listing all the things I’d tried, I realised I could try it in Windows, to at least narrow it down to a Mac driver issue.

I fired up Parallels Desktop, booted into Windows XP, installed the drivers and fired off a photo. This time, I got a real, honest-to-goodness error message! I’d apparently selected a paper size which the printer didn’t have… and then things started to make sense.

The printer does 4×6 prints, but the paper is actually a little longer with perforated edges. In the printer setup (for both operating systems) I’d selected the wider paper option, but it turns out that the printer is intelligent enough to know the difference between the paper’s actual size and printable size, and was looking for paper of a printable size of my selection. The Windows driver knew I was wrong, and told me. The Mac driver didn’t, and left the printer to shrug it off.

But, hey! The printer’s great. It’s a few years old, so the new models might be faster or smaller or something, but this one’s great.

Also today: I tried to buy a new bed from Argos, but they won’t accept my credit card. I hope it’s a problem on their end, and I hope they fix it soon, because the floor I’m sitting on now used to be my bed.

Also tomorrow: I’ll be handing in my notice of resignation, marking the end of my second-shortest term of employment ever. Life is way, WAY too short to only have the second-best job in the world, and I’m leaving with no ill-feelings whatsoever, but only with the knowledge that my skills are better suited elsewhere.