Do You Repair Your Roland Yourself?

[player]

I have a buggy machine and have been given pricing of $5K to attempt a fix with no guarantee it will even be fixed after that repair, and of course no returning parts that are not needed once installed.

I have decided I will need to become my own tech, and I am wondering how many here do the same?

Is it worth the learning curve?

Any tips or tricks?

 

[Santimus]

Well I've never had a Roland but I do my own tech work on printers. I've done work on a Mimaki, Mutoh VJ1204, HP L25500, HP Latex 360, Compress iUV, and am currently learning our new HP Scitex 500. I've also done repair work on our Gerber edge, lasers and plotters. It pays off IF you are good at fixing electronics and such AND you have a tech manual or specific instructions. If you're not a Mr Fixit around the house or business you're probably in over your head and can break more than you're trying to fix resulting in higher costs with a tech.

 

[Santimus]

I will add that if I ever feel like I might be in over my head with a particular repair I call a tech in so I can watch and learn.

 

[equippaint]

I fixed our Roland until we bought a new Mimaki. The only tricks I have are to get the service manual and always look for simple stuff first, run out the singles and progress to the more difficult stuff. Most things are stupid easy but many techs want to feel important and go right for the most obscure difficult issue possible and work backwards.
We get this at the truck dealers and avoid them at all costs. On one of our trucks we just spent over $4k replacing wiring harnesses, lift pumps etc for them to find a clogged fuel pickup after all of this. They will never admit this either and will tell you it was a combination of things. As a general rule, things don't break in groups.

 

[player]

Well I've never had a Roland but I do my own tech work on printers. I've done work on a Mimaki, Mutoh VJ1204, HP L25500, HP Latex 360, Compress iUV, and am currently learning our new HP Scitex 500. I've also done repair work on our Gerber edge, lasers and plotters. It pays off IF you are good at fixing electronics and such AND you have a tech manual or specific instructions. If you're not a Mr Fixit around the house or business you're probably in over your head and can break more than you're trying to fix resulting in higher costs with a tech.

Yes I am pretty handy. I can solder components on and off a board, do some basic electronic measurements, but I am not able to read the Roland VP board schematic...

 

[ams]

General maintenance I do myself, for bigger repairs, I let the techs do it.

 

[equippaint]

Yes I am pretty handy. I can solder components on and off a board, do some basic electronic measurements, but I am not able to read the Roland VP board schematic...

A board itself is its own schematic plus you usually just look for swelled capacitors and broke circuits, no need for any schematic. Don't overthink it or you will get overwhelmed, its all basic.

 

[player]

A board itself is its own schematic plus you usually just look for swelled capacitors and broke circuits, no need for any schematic. Don't overthink it or you will get overwhelmed, its all basic.

The service manual has 9 schematics for the main board... I cannot use them. The guy that fixes my appliances (washers and driers) has a degree in electrical engineering and knows everything that is happening to a Maytag...

 

[Webcc]

I have a buggy machine and have been given pricing of $5K to attempt a fix with no guarantee it will even be fixed after that repair, and of course no returning parts that are not needed once installed.

I have decided I will need to become my own tech, and I am wondering how many here do the same?

Is it worth the learning curve?

Any tips or tricks?

I work in an island without service store and i was forced to maintain my machine (sp300v) alone. Dont worry i have change everything, like print heads and others by my own at last 15 years

 

[Solventinkjet]

I have 1000's of customers and almost all of them work on their own machine. If I had to guess a percentage it's about 80% of my customers fix their own machines. There is a lot of talk about soldering above but in my 10 years experience as a field tech and someone who has supported many customers fix their machine, it's almost always a surface mount fuse that needs to be changed and that's it. Sometimes you might need a transistor or two but most repairs on these machines don't require soldering.

 

[rjssigns]

I work on my Roland. Basic stuff. Cap tops, dampers, ribbon cables, sensors, encoder strip and board etc...

 

[Active Sign]

I do most of the repairs on my Roland. If I’m busy I call a tech in to do it. When it comes to circuit board issues I remove the board and send it out or just replace it.


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[0x4A]

I've often found that troubleshooting compound issues and finding reliable information such as manuals, service codes and procedures can be more difficult than much of the actual hands-on maintenance. If you get that far you're already winning. That being said, assuming you have the time, you can always try to repair it yourself and if you fail you're only back to where you started - needing a tech. Naturally this all predicates on the fact that you don't somehow make the problem worse, which with a little common sense is usually pretty unlikely. If you succeed you'll have far less anxiety when the next time inevitably comes along (speaking from my own experience here).

A general rule for these situations that I like to use is that while hand grenades are not typically part of the process it's best not to rule them out entirely.

 

[decalman]

Im the 20% that can't fix.
I can however...screw in a light bulb

 

[Jim Hill]

I have a buggy machine and have been given pricing of $5K to attempt a fix with no guarantee it will even be fixed after that repair, and of course no returning parts that are not needed once installed.

I have decided I will need to become my own tech, and I am wondering how many here do the same?

Is it worth the learning curve?

Any tips or tricks?

Not sure where you are located but I do know a tech that is reasonable and good and he works on Roland Printers
His name is James McGill and his phone number is 270-243-0599 and he lives in Paducah, Ky. but he services printers from the mid west all the way down to Florida where I live. This guy knows what he is doing for sure. Hope that helps you.

 

[player]

Not sure where you are located but I do know a tech that is reasonable and good and he works on Roland Printers
His name is James McGill and his phone number is 270-243-0599 and he lives in Paducah, Ky. but he services printers from the mid west all the way down to Florida where I live. This guy knows what he is doing for sure. Hope that helps you.

Thanks, but I live in Canada. I may call him and ask him what he thinks it could be though. The stripe has switched from black to yellow and now it is magenta...

 

[IslandSignWorks]

We're starting to do our own repairs. There are no good techs in Maine and the next closest Roland dealer is in Boston. There is a wealth of info on Youtube and on this site, and on others, to do most general repairs. If I get stuck I have a new friend who is a Roland tech in another state and he can sometimes help me over the phone.