Falcon 1 Outdoor 48 rebuild - documenting!

[chorca]

Hi guys. I've been wanting to play around with some large format digital printing for what is basically a hobbyist graphics purpose for some time now.

After perusing some online information (and a lot of stuff from this forum!) I decided to go ahead and try to get one, so I found a Falcon Outdoor 48 locally for $750, and the guy even threw in an older version (7x) of Flexi.

The story is, the thing had been sitting in this guy's house for about 3 years, no cleaning, no nothing, just sitting. Well, it was a hard offer to pass up, so now it's at my house, and I'm going to do my best to get it back up and running.

I want to give back to all the awesome people here who post such great info by trying to document as much as I can about this machine, mainly through my rebuild process, so I've started a blog, The Falcon's Phoenix, for me to dump everything I go through to get it up and running again.
So far, I've got some teardown guides, and some in-depth photos of the components, and hopefully tomorrow I'll be getting in the big refurb kit from CMYKParts.com, and I can start documenting the build and calibration.

Let me know if any of you would like more pictures or info on something, I'd love to help! Also, if I'm doing something totally stupid, please let me know, this is my first time working with a large solvent printer!

(link again)
The Falcon's Phoenix (http://falconoutdoor.blogspot.com)

 

[phototec]

I m p r e s s e d

Wow, I'm very impressed with your project, and the way you are going about it.

Love the blog and the photo diary, keep it up, you are an asset to this group.

I had a thought, I 'll bet this could lead to a new business for you, just think if everything works out, and you get this printer rebuilt and operating, you could either offer a rebuild service or purchase printers like this in non-working condition, take them apart, clean them up, get them running again and offer them for sale?

 

[Border]

Wow! This is a fantastic write up!

 

[chorca]

Thanks for the kind words! I'll definitely keep going with this. The kit of parts should be here anytime now, waiting for the doorbell.

I've got a long way to go too, the mechanics might be the hard part for some people, but I hafta learn how to work a RIP, pick color profiles, all that good stuff. I'm hoping the couple projects that I'm going to be working on with this machine will help me recoup some of what I'm putting in to it!

As far as a business, perhaps, if it's something I can do profitably! I've seen many of these printers in the Orlando/Tampa area on Craigslist, mainly the larger 62" models; It'd be interesting to work on one of those!

There's a lot of these printers around and I just really hope that I can help someone out who may have never taken one apart before to realize they can fix it, and to show that everyone makes mistakes (I tend to document those too)

If people would like, I can put a post up here whenever I update the blog; I know not a lot of people follow things on Blogger and whatnot.

 

[Border]

yes, please update!

 

[chorca]

Well, here's an update!

Just got the CMYKParts.com order in, and took some pictures of the parts, and some comparison pics with my old bits and pieces.

Check it out: http://falconoutdoor.blogspot.com/2012/01/cmykparts-order.html

 

[CRD]

Nice write up, keep it going until it works
I am also in need for the flatcables.
I found out the heater and touchpanel are same length and both 26 pins.
But at local computerstores not available at 80 cm length.

Paco

 

[chorca]

Just wanted to let you all know that I posted a new update to the blog from this weekend, and tomorrow I'll be editing the pump/capping station post to add in the proper procedures for reassembly (there's not much to it).

This new post is mainly going over cleaning out the ink lines from tank to damper, and showing how things are getting remounted, ink lines are cleaned and run, and some more info about electronics (I'm an electronics guy)

As always, let me know what ya think, if there's anything I left out or you'd like clarified feel free to tell me!

http://falconoutdoor.blogspot.com/2012/01/some-reassembly.html

 

[jhanson]

In regards to your comment on dampers and suction, the damper acts as a seal on the end of the siphon to prevent backflow into the cartridge. However, the O-ring and nut must seat properly or else you will get an air leak that breaks the siphon. Since you already got new O-rings with your kit (hopefully they're the right size; the Falcon uses an oddball O-ring and damper nut size compared to the later machines) you should be OK.

Just keep an eye on the lines when you charge the machine up again.

As for the sticker on the beeper... the machine is much more tolerable with that sticker left ON. Those beepers are ear-splittingly loud for such small POSs...

 

[chorca]

Actually, I didn't get any O-rings with my kit. :/ I'm just going to use the old ones; they seem soft so hopefully they'll work. I suppose if they don't I can order new ones, unless you think it's worth waiting and ordering another set.

 

[jhanson]

As long as the O-ring isn't too squashed/flattened/twisted, you should still be able to get a good seal with it. I found that they usually had to be replaced about every 3-6 or so damper changes, depending on how abused they were.

 

[chorca]

I am also in need for the flatcables.
I found out the heater and touchpanel are same length and both 26 pins.
But at local computerstores not available at 80 cm length.

I was going to reply to this, but forgot!

I doubt you'll find FFC at any local computer shops. Unfortunately, it's a hard to find cable in small quantities, since it's built into large production runs of equipment. I tried about 10 different FFC manufacturers and they all said they wouldn't have the ability to make the cables for me.

It's actually 1.25mm (i think) pitch, 26-conductor FFC, same-side ZIF terminated (if you have a friend at an FFC manuf)

Your best bet is just to find a used set like I did.

Hope yours goes well too, keep us updated!

 

[OneUpTenn]

Wish you lived in Nashville

 

[CRD]

Chorca,

I repaired the cable with high tack vinyl (see other post).
Thanks anyway for the response.

Paco

 

[chorca]

Had a crazy idea early in the morning. How about a Wiki-type site for all this great knowledge we've got here?

It's kind of cumbersome referring to old threads and trying to find information, i thought I'd create us a wiki and see how much info I can fit on it while I'm doing my things.. Everyone else can contribute too! (shortly)

I just have it running on my personal server for now, and registrations prolly won't work, but here's the front page:

www.chorca.com/wiki/

 

[CRD]

Chorca,

Not a crazy idea.

See if people can supply faq from all the problems and answers reported here.

Paco

 

[chorca]

Well, last night was productive, I got the system back up and running! Tonight i'll take pictures and start putting up a bunch of info on what i've gone through. I got a roll of OraJet (blew through the last few feet of my junky old white vinyl doing calibrations) so I can finish up the calibrations and get things rolling.

There's a lot of differences between what I see on the control panel and what is actually in the printer as far as calibrations go and such, so I'm going to try to document what the manual doesn't say. Or at least, my copy of the manual.

Also, while running a couple of the calibrations, I got a "E016 CPU Err [05]"
and all the lights started blinking and it was beeping like crazy. I have no idea what this means, other than what I see in the manual, so not sure what to do about it, but I'll keep looking.

I'll reply again tonight after I get the post and pictures together.

 

[Border]

Love seeing the updates, keep up the great work! I have one of these myself that I am planning to revive soon.

 

[jhanson]

E016 CPU errors, on all Mutoh printers, are basically the equivalent to a Windows blue screen. It just means that the firmware crashed.

If you can always reproduce the error, then it's generally caused by hardware. If it pops up once in a blue moon, that's pretty normal.

 

[chorca]

So, got things up and running, and I've been trying some test prints after calibrating a little to see where I'm at. The odd issue I'm having is that the non-primary colors printing in the built-in test prints are printing splotchy.. This is with the platen at 60C and fixer at 50C.
(Don't mind the black lines, they were from a previous print.)


This is basically what's happening here. I have full-size files of the important parts of the printouts as well, they are here:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/6752581/Mutoh/letters.jpg - 2.6MB
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/6752581/Mutoh/colorbars.jpg - 4.2MB

As can be seen in the printouts, the primary colors seem fairly smooth, except the secondaries seem pretty not good. Light Magenta is not working right now, but not sure if that could be contributing, as the solid boxes on the colorbar chart seem pretty even.

This is on Oracal 3651 inkjet vinyl, brand new.


On another note...
Some of the CPU errors aren't happening now, so that may? be good.. not sure.

I know I said I'd have a post up tonight, and while I have most of it written, I still haven't added in the photos, and I really need to get some sleep so I'm not a zombie at work tomorrow. I'll finish it up tomorrow evening and get it up there with some more info that I've started adding to the wiki I began.