i think you are right about just the one pass at 400, i'd love to see the 800 but my throughput doesn't even allow me to get a printed board on a second table by the time a new board would be done in 2 or 3 minutes.
i plan on staggering the heads in the callibration so that every other head is a half dots width out of callibration. that should emulate a dual black head.
Each pair of channels in an individual head is already staggered by 1 dot so they interleave perfectly. Mutoh printers have (up to the 1634) always run their heads in-line, while Mimaki and Roland physically staggered the heads on some models for a 2" pass width.
I wouldn't screw around with the calibration. If you're running varnish, it'll be really hard to tell the difference even if a head is 1/2 dot out of tolerance.
one other thing. does the firmware allow for "unplugging" a head? or does the firmware require "shaking hands" with all heads before a full boot?
There is a way to disconnect a channel safely; I've done it for testing before but have never actually tried to run a machine in production that way. Basically, the incoming pair of flat ribbon cables (from the umbelical) to the CR board must be disconnected and taped off to avoid accidental discharge and damage.
If you disconnect the cables coming out of the CR board instead, the machine will throw an incorrect F1-F8 fuse error which will go away once the cables are reconnected.
...i did see a page on the lavaink website that had a thorough explanation about how to get a xerox or agfa to go back to mutoh firmware. why would one need to do this? ...so a chip from another cart would read?
so, sorry to reiterate, the falcon II can be permanently chipped, no problem. but the xerox 8290, blizzard, spitfire, ...not so much?
The Falcon II, Falcon II Outdoor, and Toucan LT all allowed the chips to be bypassed in earlier firmware revisions. The I2 firmware that was released in mid 2007-2008 (usually version 3.x) blocked the smart chip override. The Spitfire, Blizzard, Xerox and Oce units never used the Falcon II style override, instead relying on a different type of smart chip unlock system.
However, if you take those units and put Falcon II Indoor firmware back on them, you can apply the old override. However, if the printer has solvent heads and you install the indoor firmware, you won't be able to set the head ranks correctly and you will just have to leave them at the default. That's a no-go for most people since the heads may fire at different voltages (throwing off the drop sizes slightly), but if you're running varnish you'd probably be OK.
one thing, your opinion is really important here. i've seen a lot of videos of the falcon II's taken apart and such. it seems all the boards and power supplies are located in the main right hull. correct? my mimaki would make a terrible candidate for a flatbed conversion because there are so many electronics that would have be moved from below the printer (located in the stand). i'm sure that is why we don't see jv3 conversion out of china.
and also concerning the conversion. the printer "seems" bulky. but there seems to be a lot of hollow air space with the covers off. is there printer brutally heavy compared to other printers? a 90" falcon looks more tank like than most other printers.
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I think they weigh about the same. The Falcon II series does have all electronics mounted on the side; there's nothing below the machine to worry about. Heater boards, if the machine is equipped with heaters, are located under the post-heater (the curving piece on the front). However, if you put Falcon II Indoor firmware in the machine, it will completely ignore the heater boards if I recall correctly.
