1204 dropping bands of ink during print

[waximoff]

I'm hoping someone here might recognize this issue and have some advice on how to cure it.

It started yesterday, after a few hours of normal printing, I started to get a few prints where the carriage would just stop and the familiar "error" beep would sound.
I was getting the "E074 ERR CR2 Current" code. I'd reset everything and print again.. after 3 or 4 errors, I headed home.

Today I fired everything up and the first 4 or 5 prints went perfectly fine.. Then all of the sudden I started getting these dark bands all the way across the print but it doesn't start messing up until it's about 4 or 5 inches into the run. The carriage was even going right off the edge of the media and laying ink down on the metal.. I restarted everything and tried again.. same thing, Then another "E074" error popped up.

I'm scratching my head over here.. Has anyone seen this?

Here are some pics of the last print.

 

[Solventinkjet]

Take the long top cover off the machine and run some prints that way. If the issue is resolved, your trailing cables and guides need to be changed. This method works sometimes but not always and the issue could still be bad trailing cables even if the issue doesn't go away with the cover off. If it does fix the issue, you can also just run the machine without the cover on to save some money but it may pop up again.

If that doesn't do the trick, I would change the head cables. After that, it's going to be a head, trailing cable or main board issue.

 

[waximoff]

Thanks for the response! Are you referring to the door that lifts up or the actual top of the printer case?

 

[Solventinkjet]

The top of the printer case. You basically want to expose the trailing cables.

 

[waximoff]

I took the top off and ran a print. It's not the same file that was triggering the error but it seemed to have printed o.k.

Now why would the case have anything to do with the cable if the cable doesn't touch the case while it's on?

 

[Solventinkjet]

When the cable is old, it can become deformed from moving back and forth a million times. It starts to jump up and down instead of moving smoothly. Eventually it will start to hit the case randomly from the jumping and for some reason that scrambles the signal from the main board to the head. It's one of the weirder issues I have run into with this exact model.

 

[waximoff]

well that's two full prints now without a hitch. Thanks a ton for your help!

*EDIT* Well I spoke to soon, ha! as soon as i hit send on the third print, It messed up again with the bands.

 

[Solventinkjet]

well that's two full prints now without a hitch. Thanks a ton for your help!

*EDIT* Well I spoke to soon, ha! as soon as i hit send on the third print, It messed up again with the bands.

Dang it! I would start with changing the trailing cables and guides. It's not the easiest or funnest repair but it should fix the issue. You could try changing the head cables first but in this situation it's almost always the trailing cables especially if you were getting error 74. They are related because the encoder signal gets sent back through the trailing cable as well.

 

[waximoff]

Sounds good, I'll start there. do you know a good place to buy the cable?

 

[Solventinkjet]

Shoot us an email and I'll get a quote for you. We would drop ship them directly from Mutoh. Customerservice@solventinkjet.com

 

[waximoff]

I came back today and tried to run another print, just to see if anything changed. The print was coming off nicely for about the first 4 feet.. then as I was leaning over the exposed carriage as it was printing, I heard a high pitched hiss, and the bands started laying down immediately after that noise. I ended the run in flexi and cleaned all the overprint ink that was layed down to start another try.. this time I heard the high pitched noise after just one pass... there went the bands. Ha.

Anyone ever hear this noise from their printer?