Arizona 350GT 1 magenta printhead doesn't print anything

[Signmeup_DK]

After 2 or 3 weeks with no maintenance caused by hollidays and bad communication
I tried firering up our OCÉ Arizona 350GT
First thing it told me was that, Coolent level was low, so I refilled that.
I did some cleaning and purging and a testprint.
Everything looks fine but M7, one of the magenta printhead is not printing at all, not a drop.
Ink is coming out when I purge and I did a bleed ink filter, everything looks fine.

Any idea what can be wrong?

 

[Pauly]

So you've done the basics.

When the print head pures, it cuts the vacuum to the print head. So there's a chance it could not be responding to date. Open up the case and just see if everything is working, if all the boards are on (there's little LED's on each board)

How did you store it over the period? was it off?

 

[Signmeup_DK]

Thank you very much for your reply.

Is it in the carridge i can find the boards?
In the carridge there is a green led with the text OK. It is on/blinking.

I'll have a closer look when i get back.

/Anders

EDIT: The printer was on the whole time

 

[Pauly]

Thank you very much for your reply.

Is it in the carridge i can find the boards?
In the carridge there is a green led with the text OK. It is on/blinking.

I'll have a closer look when i get back.

/Anders

Yep open the carriage up. Inside will be all the boards for each ink head. on each board there should be LED lights. just shows if they're getting power. And just check inside for anything that seems odd.

I remember a tech telling me someone had a similar issue with a head not firing like you explain. They did a test print with out doing any maintenance. as in warm up the inks and do a test print. and it started working. But stopped later on. The head was gone.
There's a good chance that you'll be changing a head or a board.
If it's data, nothing will work properly in there.

That big green light is just there saying it's ready for print. I.e ink is up to temp, no safety buttons pushed ect. It'll turn off if there's an issue like the carriage guard has moved or it's not initialised.

 

[artbot]

I've experienced where those toshiba heads blank out. then just miraculously come back 30 minutes to three days later. not a clue why. i have heard that this sometimes points to that the power board (your printer may be set up some other way) is getting dodgy. on my printer, the power board is a smaller inexpensive board that perches on the main board sending power to the channels.

 

[Signmeup_DK]

Thx a lot for your time trying to help me out, much appreciated!
I shut the maschine down.
Had some issues starting it up again, when it says to move the guard on startup it did not react at all, when I moved it.
Power of and back on, now it startet up and reacted fine.
Ink tempeture good, when cleaning, purge look weird.

The black and the yellow filter was clogged so I changed those and purge looked good again.
They where fine when I shut the mashine down.

Don’t know if it matters or not, just wanted to give you all the information.

Nozzle test, still M7 not firering a drop.

In my mind, pushing the printer out the door to the nearest harbour and into the water….

I have 2 white printheads firering ok, I almost never use white, actually it gives me more trouble than profit.
Could I switch a white head with the M7 magenta head and do lots of purge to clean out any white ink?
That would save me a few days in shipping, and some bucks of course and last but not least proof that it is the printhead, not the mainboard or powerboard or something like that.


What would be your next move?

 

[Pauly]

You shouldn't be leaving it off for a long period of time with out doing a proper shutdown procedure. You need to contact oce for that.

But you should always leave the machine on, so the vacuum keeps the ink in the heads ect.

I most definitely not change the heads around. Once you do that, your heads will not be aligned, and you risk banding and all sorts of stuff. Arizonas print at such good quality to risk doing it on your own.

Try a long purge. (hold down the purge button for 10 seconds)

You mentioned the carriage guard didn't register. Possibly your firewire cable. I've replaced 2 already. try giving that a wiggle inside the carriage. when my firewire cable went, the printer would do all sorts of weird stuff. to the point it wouldn't initialise.

 

[Signmeup_DK]

The printer was allway on J

Today I tried to switch the cable from the board down to the printhead to see if it was the cable.
That did not make any change so that part is ok.

I’ll order a firewire today and a new head just to be sure.
Heard about cleaning the head with cleaning fluid and a syringe, putting it directly in the print head.
Any photo manual on how to do that?
I’m not 100% sure where to flush.

I'll keep you posted

 

[Pauly]

firewire is easy to test. but it can be a pain to change. I've got a tech contract on call, so if anything goes wrong i call and they come and do the fixing.
But if you have to change it, a few things will need to come apart, but initially you tape the new to the old and pull it through.

You won't need to clean it like how you mentioned. it's not clogged. it's just not firing which means either no data going to the head. the head isn't responding. or the board isn't working.

a long purge will remove any air inside the head which can cause nozzle outs. but i dont think this is it in your case.

 

[Nate1n22]

The head is probably shot. Happened a couple times to me.
I doubt it's the firewire cable, but if you already ordered one just plug it in up in the carriage, and go directly into the board by the PC. I wouldn't waste all that time routing it through the igus track just to find it it doesn't fix your problem.