**HELP** VP-540 Not Printing

[Smug Munkey Designs]

I recently bought a Roland VP-540 from a local school. They bought it new and only used it one then let it sit for a number of years. So far, I've replaced the heads, dampers, and caps. I've also replaced the feed tubes and flushed all the lines yet I can't get black or cyan to print. I've primed all the lines but the cyan and black don't seem to be pulling ink. I'm not really sure what else to try at this point. Any advice or opinions are greatly appreciated! Thanks

 

[Solventinkjet]

Test the head fuses. On that model I believe they are on the slider boards that moves back and forth on the head carriage. It could be on the main board though. It's been a while.

 

[ExpertWideformat]

If you hook a syringe to the bottom of the captop tube and pull, does it pull ink or does it just suck air?

If it's sucking air, then the capping station may need to be aligned. The captop may be misaligned to the head so it might not be getting a good seal. It's been a while since I looked at one, but I believe the whole capping station area is attached by 4 screws to the chassis. If you loosen the 4 screws you can move the station in slight increments so that the caps line up, visually, to the heads.

Also, if I'm not mistaken, the C/K lines share a pump. So the pump may be clogged, disconnected, have a leak (worn tube), or have some other failure.

 

[Smug Munkey Designs]

Test the head fuses. On that model I believe they are on the slider boards that moves back and forth on the head carriage. It could be on the main board though. It's been a while.

I couldn't find any fuses on the head carriage but found two fuses on the main board. Both of them tested good. I'm not sure if there are other fuses elsewhere?

 

[Solventinkjet]

I couldn't find any fuses on the head carriage but found two fuses on the main board. Both of them tested good. I'm not sure if there are other fuses elsewhere?

Try out what ExpertWideformat said. Make sure ink is flowing through those heads. If it is and they still don't print, the fuses I am talking about are not your standard glass tubes. They are very small ceramic fuses.

 

[Jim Hancock]

The fuses you need to check are marked in the attached pic. Do as ExpertWideformat suggested with a syringe on the caps. Do pull very gently.

 

[Smug Munkey Designs]

If you hook a syringe to the bottom of the captop tube and pull, does it pull ink or does it just suck air?

If it's sucking air, then the capping station may need to be aligned. The captop may be misaligned to the head so it might not be getting a good seal. It's been a while since I looked at one, but I believe the whole capping station area is attached by 4 screws to the chassis. If you loosen the 4 screws you can move the station in slight increments so that the caps line up, visually, to the heads.

Also, if I'm not mistaken, the C/K lines share a pump. So the pump may be clogged, disconnected, have a leak (worn tube), or have some other failure.

Thank you for the advice. I found the issue. It was a clogged connection on the pump but now the cyan head is streaking across the vinyl...

 

[ExpertWideformat]

Power down and unplug! Reseat the ribbon cables at the head and carriage (slider) board.

If that doesn’t solve it, you could try swapping the ribbon cables from head to head to see if the problem follows the cable. Different combinations of cable swaps can narrow it down to a bad cable or bad board.

Inspect the ribbon cables for damage or burned out contacts, etc.

 

[Jim Hancock]

If you do any cable swapping, use the attached pic as a guide, as you don't want to swap cables on the same head. The 2 cables on a single head carry different data, signals, voltages, etc., so never swap on a single head, only from head to head as shown in the attached pic. Otherwise, you can cause damage to the mainboard.

 

[Smug Munkey Designs]

If you do any cable swapping, use the attached pic as a guide, as you don't want to swap cables on the same head. The 2 cables on a single head carry different data, signals, voltages, etc., so never swap on a single head, only from head to head as shown in the attached pic. Otherwise, you can cause damage to the mainboard.

I switched the ribbon cables as depicted in the diagram and now neither head is printing even when I switched them back. Wondering if that damaged the board?

 

[Jim Hancock]

Please call me to discuss how to best troubleshoot this issue.

 

[Smug Munkey Designs]

Please call me to discuss how to best troubleshoot this issue.

Thank you, Sir! I am out of the office until Monday if the offer is still available?

 

[Jim Hancock]

Anytime after 10am Eastern time...

 

[Jim Hancock]

FYI, you will need a multimeter. If you don't have one, you can pick one up at Home Depot for a few bucks. If you haven't used one before, no worries, I walk you through it.

 

[Smug Munkey Designs]

FYI, you will need a multimeter. If you don't have one, you can pick one up at Home Depot for a few bucks. If you haven't used one before, no worries, I walk you through it.

Jim, I received the fuses. Thank you! The machine is printing again but I am still having some streaking, which I believe may be the ribbon cables. Just wanted to thank you for your time and help!

 

[Jim Hancock]

Glad to help and that your printer is running again. Please post a pic of the issue so I can verify if it is a ribbon issue. If it is a ribbon, it may possibly blow a fuse again, and possibly take out a transistor this time. It's not a bad idea to replace them anyway, but let's still see a pic. My technician mindset is to know what caused the problem, if at all possible. This adds to the troubleshooting knowledge base and shortens troubleshooting time when I see the same symptoms in the future.

 

[player]

Good work. I hate VP540's.

 

[Smug Munkey Designs]

Glad to help and that your printer is running again. Please post a pic of the issue so I can verify if it is a ribbon issue. If it is a ribbon, it may possibly blow a fuse again, and possibly take out a transistor this time. It's not a bad idea to replace them anyway, but let's still see a pic. My technician mindset is to know what caused the problem, if at all possible. This adds to the troubleshooting knowledge base and shortens troubleshooting time when I see the same symptoms in the future.

Apologize for the long delay. I've been out of the office. The attached image is what the printer is now doing.

 

[player]

When mine did something like that it cost me a new mainboard. There are a bunch of things I was told to try like new cables, but ultimately it cost me lots of $$$.

 

[Jim Hancock]

Replace the ribbons with new ones and let us know...