Need Help HP Latex 360 - Media does not stop loading...board problem? Lay it on me.

[ecstaticdesign]

I have a Latex 360 that has been running like a champ, but suddenly started having a problem where it continuously feeds material until manually stopped (or it runs out of substrate). A technician replaced the carriage board and did some other troubleshooting, but couldn't figure out what was wrong and said we should replace the machine instead of throwing more parts at it. Any suggestions of things I might try? Thanks!

 

[balstestrat]

So when does it start this feeding? How do you manually stop it? What's on the screen when it does this? Just try to explain specifically how and when it happens.
You have the newest firmware installed? NEXUS_01_18_11.1

 

[ecstaticdesign]

Yes, newest firmware is installed. The machine boots normally with no substrate loaded. When I load the substrate into the machine and lower the handle, it starts loading and says "Checking Substrate" as it normally would, but never stops winding. If I press the red "X" to cancel, the machine will not respond until I lift the blue lever and manually remove the substrate (at which point it goes back to the normal "load substrate" window). If the substrate runs out, the machine asks to feed substrate onto roller etc. I see a red led flashing along the substrate path (right hand side of machine) that I thought has something to do with substrate detection, but I don't know. Fundamentally it appears the machine is not registering that substrate material is being fed.

I have also checked connections/ribbon cables/etc that connect the component boards and haven't seen any obvious cuts/crimps/poor connections, etc.

 

[balstestrat]

Okay I see. Now tell me, what happens if you try to load the material with the blue lever down, so do not release the level before loading. Do not even go to the loading menu, stay in the main screen.
Just push the material in and what happens?

 

[ecstaticdesign]

Okay, I went tried that. When I manually fed the material, the machine senses that it has been loaded and starts automatically feeding. However, it behaves the same as if I used the lever (continuously feeds, must lift lever and manually remove substrate)

 

[balstestrat]

Ok so the media sensor works and that is not the problem.

Now take a picture of the flashing red sensor for me please. It doesn't need to flash or anything just open the window and try to take a good picture of it.
That is the problem.

 

[ecstaticdesign]

Is this what you are referring to?

 

[balstestrat]

Yep. Try to clean it best you can for starters, it's just a glass window in the middle.
Then try to load again.

On the side note, you should poke those vacuum holes clean sometime...

 

[ecstaticdesign]

Unfortunately cleaning that sensor was one of the first things I tried. Just cleaned it again, same issue. I can double check the sensor wire path to make sure it isn't compromised somewhere. I know it is at least. getting power since it is blinking. Any other troubleshooting suggestions?

And yes, some of the vacuum holes on that right side were pretty clogged up!

 

[balstestrat]

It just seems dirty like there would be some glue there or something. I would take some alcohol and scrub it down good.
There is a camera inside so it needs to be clean enough for it to work.

Anyway if cleaning doesn't solve it you can do some diagnostics.
2.4 OMAS module

This one you can only run with material loaded so... I guess you can't.
1.3.4 OMAS Sensor Check

You can disable it for testing purposes but I'm not sure if it will still make you able to load or not...
1.3.3 Enable/Disable OMAS

If you can't get it working by cleaning it I would replace it.
B4H70-67006 - OMAS Module

 

[ecstaticdesign]

Terribly sorry, but I have been given some additionally important insight into this issue. My co-worker (who primarily runs the machine) just handed me paperwork from the technician who worked on the machine last month.

The tech stated that the Scan Axis wouldn't work properly, so he replaced the Encoder Sensor but that did not fix the issue. He then stated that diagnostic tests showed the Scan Motor is defective, and seems to have given up troubleshooting after that. He evidentially replaced the Carriage PCA Board at some point (but didn't document in the invoice I have.) He didn't seem confident that was actually the problem, and said it would be a diminishing return to keep throwing parts at it. I have some free time to work on it, so I've been giving it a shot myself in hopes of resurrecting it.

I've taken out the OMAS sensor to clean and check the connections, will re-assemble that shortly and see if that did anything.

 

[balstestrat]

Scan motor is not a problem until you get an error code for it. I have no idea why he would have replaced the Carriage PCA, maybe he had no idea what he was doing unless there was some other issue before... Waste of money if it was replaced because of this problem. Same goes for the sensor.

I'll tell you, this OMAS is the issue because it has to detect the leading edge of the material when you load it. Now clearly it can't detect it so it just keeps pumping it out until nada.

 

[ecstaticdesign]

I dug into the error logs on the machine, and found some Carriage Board errors and Media Advance Sensor errors from last month, so maybe he was chasing something else? Not sure. There don't appear to be any new errors from the reboots I've been doing lately.

Is there some kind of diagnostics I can do in Service Mode? If so, how do I find the code to enter Service Mode? Haha, I'm hopeless.

For what it's worth, the shop owner has ordered a replacement HP Latex machine, so this one is soon to be on the sidelines. I'd like to get this one back up and sell it, otherwise maybe part it out?

Thanks for your assistance with this, I appreciate you taking the time to help me.

 

[balstestrat]

You can find the service manual around...
I already posted the related tests to it.

Parting I don't see it's worth it. You wait forever for someone to need one part and get $20 for it.

 

[ecstaticdesign]

Update: I found a service manual, ran some diagnostics and confirmed the OMAS is having issues (and the Scan Axis etc. tested fine). The OMAS calibration failed, so I disabled it and now the machine feeds correctly and prints again. First few prints have turned out great.

I'm going to order a replacement OMAS sensor today. I plan on doing some more research on the function of the it, but do you know what the implications are of disabling the OMAS? Like, should I keep an eye out for increased skew or something?

 

[balstestrat]

Update: I found a service manual, ran some diagnostics and confirmed the OMAS is having issues (and the Scan Axis etc. tested fine). The OMAS calibration failed, so I disabled it and now the machine feeds correctly and prints again. First few prints have turned out great.

I'm going to order a replacement OMAS sensor today. I plan on doing some more research on the function of the it, but do you know what the implications are of disabling the OMAS? Like, should I keep an eye out for increased skew or something?

OMAS corrects banding coming from small imprecise movements of the media.
So now that you have omas disabled you can see banding sometimes with thicker or very thin materials. But you can adjust that in the printmode settings.

You might very well be able to run it just fine without OMAS for the rest of its life.

 

[ecstaticdesign]

Resurrecting this HP OMAS sensor thread- I went ahead and replaced the OMAS sensor and OMAS cable, but nothing changed. OMAS just blinks every 3 seconds and is unresponsive to service tests or media. At this point I'd look at the OMAS controller card, but thought I'd see if you have any advice. I've been running it with the OMAS just turned off and haven't noticed any problems, so that's good. Thanks again for the advice.

 

[balstestrat]

Well I can't say. If you have brand new OMAS on your hands and it behaves like the previous... you can only follow the chain backwards and go from there Or that one is DOA.
If it doesn't even give any error codes.. I have no clue. It should mean that it can communicate with it just fine.

B4H70-67114 - OMAS PCA would be the next..... Actually not even terribly expensive.

 

[ecstaticdesign]

Yeah, that's the kicker...when I check the OMAS controller and sensor in diagnostics mode, they still both report communicating with no errors.