My 1204 has been acting up for a while with banding in blue and green colors. 1440X720 and 1440x1440 printing masks the problem mostly. The one-button nozzle test from the control panel shows that all cyan jets are firing as they should. But, a self-diagnosis nozzle test print shows a big problem with cyan. See attached pix. I have cleaned
the T-fence (encoder strip) several times and I replaced the CR_ENC assembly with no improvement. I'm thinking maybe the encoder strip or head cables are the problem. Just wanted to see if anyone else has seen and fixed this problem before. Thanks for any constructive input.
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1204 with banding and good/bad nozzle test
- Thread starter RG
- Start date
heyskull
New Member
I think your problem is not the printhead or the encoder strip.
It looks to me as if you have an encoder disk issue.
I am not up to speed with the 1204 but on my 1604 looking at the printer from the front, on the left hand side their is a panel.
Once removed you will see the encoder disk (Clear disk with a sensor at the top).
Clean gently with isopropyl alcohol and then try a test print.
They are not expensive to replace so maybe that would be a good idea.
Drafstation PF_ENC scale Assy - DF-49028
SC
It looks to me as if you have an encoder disk issue.
I am not up to speed with the 1204 but on my 1604 looking at the printer from the front, on the left hand side their is a panel.
Once removed you will see the encoder disk (Clear disk with a sensor at the top).
Clean gently with isopropyl alcohol and then try a test print.
They are not expensive to replace so maybe that would be a good idea.
Drafstation PF_ENC scale Assy - DF-49028
SC
Hey, heyskull, thanks very much for your input. Yes, a 1204 is mostly a smaller version of your 1604, same print head, same MS, same profiles, etc. The encoder disk was right where you said it would be. I never put my right side cover on, but I had never taken the left side cover off. I cleaned it as you instructed. I also called Mutoh "tech" support. That guy told me that the problem was deflected nozzles. I don't think that was right, but I followed his suggestion and printed a couple of large blocks of pure cyan using a banner 2 profile. I did another nozzle test in self-diagnose mode and the problem was 97% cleared up. I'm almost certain that cleaning the encoder disk solved the problem. I noticed a problem with banding in blue colors about 2 months after I bought the printer. The higher dpi printing did OK until the last few weeks when cyan went downhill. Again, thanks for your help.