Home made Take up reel? Take up Reel hacks?

You could definitely rig something up with some simple code on a raspberry pi and a contact sensor that would queue a motor for a second or two when material gets low enough. I've thought about it when we had a Roland that had no automatic take-up, but we ended up getting an hp so I never had to make one.

 

We got something similar to this for our Roland a few years back. Worked a treat and didn't cost $2500.
I'm sure there will be something similar for HP machines somewhere. Worth a try at that price.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Pow...lgo_pvid=574e1113-ec06-489f-9c82-4fd567035306

 

A take up reel also adds tension so your media is tight and doesn't hit the heater.

You could buy a motor and sensor and all that and not have the tension... But why go aftermarket?

For the $1000 you get a tension bar... Take up reel, and a second media bar. So if your not using it for the take up function you can have two medias loaded and save time on switching medias.

$1000 isn't much compared to the machine... Definately worth buying it instead of trying to rig your own.

 

I have an extra - complete take up real system from a VJ1624....new still in the box...if you think it will work make me an offer...Pretty big box so i would guestimate $80-$100 ground shipping...

 

I took the spool and axle from the take up mechanism on my VJ1204, slapped together a stand out of a couple of 2x4's and scrap aluminum laminate, added casters, and a mini-bungie stretched over the exposed end of the axle for tension. The spool stands as high as the bottom of the printer. I roll it over in front of the printer and when the print has a couple of feet hanging out the front I gently pick up the bitter end and tape it to the spool. When the loop in the print is hanging dangerously close to the floor I turn the axle winding the print on the spool. About every 10-15 minutes or so. Gravity provides sufficient tension on the print. Sort of like a manual version of the take up version of an old Mutoh Falcon.

 

I bought one of those cheapy dual motor $200 generic ones on eBay. Didn't hold my hopes up as the "tension" system is a joke. But... the media wraps as needed, gravity (mostly) provides the tension. Been using it for almost a year with no issues.

 

We bought a take up reel system on Aliexpress about 3 years ago and mounted it to the wall near our laminator and it worked great. However, we stripped the torque dial and had to replace the whole unit. We bought one 3 weeks ago from Digiprint. https://www.digiprint-supplies.com/en/digitool-media-take-up-54.html?category=684 It arrived in 5 days and is much better and about the same price as those found on Aliexpress. Most units on Aliexpress have a motor on 1 side. The Digiprint model has a motor on each side and seems to be more stable and better torque. You'd have to figure out a way to mount it to your printer, but I'm sure it can be done.

 

Another option might be to find a used one and retrofit it to your machine. There are plenty of broken down parts machines on Ebay and craigslist that might have one for cheap.