Just venting - VG series

[emhmotorsports]

Hey everyone, sorry just need to vent a little bit and ask a rhetorical question: Why is it that Roland locks these printers up tight as soon as the smallest thing goes wrong? After solving some other issues, I now have a Service Call 0400 (relates to incorrect damper movement, I guess) that is arguably a minor issue so I don't see why it should block me from doing other operations like cutting. The frustrating bit is that while the machine sits and waits for parts, I can't even manually circulate the white ink - which can cause a whole new set of problems. If it prints crummy while 0400 is active, fine that's on me, but at least let me use other functions of the machine.

The really dumb bit is these machines seem to forget that they just set a fatal code, and so when you shut it off to stop the incessant beeping, it just powers up again and begins another cleaning cycle that will just fail the same way and end up just wasting ink. The only way to break the cycle is to kill the master power.

For a $30,000 piece of hardware, it sure doesn't seem to be designed like one.

Ok, end of rant. Thanks for reading.

 

[CanuckSigns]

Yeah roland really shit the bed when they rolled out the tru vis machines, we owned nothing but roland printer for 10 years before we got one, now because of those printers and Roland's horrible customer service we switched to epson and I don't think I would ever go back.

They rolled out an untested machine on their customers and expected us to to their R&D for them on our dime.

 

[Solventinkjet]

They rolled out an untested machine on their customers and expected us to to their R&D for them on our dime.

Unfortunately it seems to be a trend in the industry. I won't name names but I've had more problems with machines out of the box in the last 2-3 years than ever in my career.

 

[ewded]

Yeah roland really **** the bed when they rolled out the tru vis machines, we owned nothing but roland printer for 10 years before we got one, now because of those printers and Roland's horrible customer service we switched to epson and I don't think I would ever go back.

They rolled out an untested machine on their customers and expected us to to their R&D for them on our dime.

Had a truvis, was a nightmare, fortunately I could cancel the purchase and they took it away after 2 weeks. Then got a mimaki, which was fine. Later I worked on an epson and boy! that's what I call a printer.

 

[emhmotorsports]

So I'm curious. For those that use other makes of machines, are they also so tightly locked down when errors happen? I'm just particularly irked that I can't even work on my cut-only jobs until I get this damper thing sorted. Maybe it's just me coming from the auto biz, but it's preposterous in my world to shut down a car simply because a headlight is out...

 

[ewded]

So I'm curious. For those that use other makes of machines, are they also so tightly locked down when errors happen? I'm just particularly irked that I can't even work on my cut-only jobs until I get this damper thing sorted. Maybe it's just me coming from the auto biz, but it's preposterous in my world to shut down a car simply because a headlight is out...

Not on mimaki or Epson. But my canon deskjet printer won't print without yellow ink

 

[petepaz]

we got a truvis VG540 when they first came out and it was a big lemon. we also have had roland printers for like 12-15 years before with little to know issues (at least nothing compared to this) i was ready to throw the thing in the parking lot and tell them to come pick it up. even to this day it still doesn't cut that good. the sheets shift in the printer even with all the pinch rollers and you can't always use all the pinch rollers because they leave marks on the material. i will say this we had no issues with roland or our vendor who sold us the printer they did everything they could to get us up and running so service wise they were great but i kid you not it took them like 2 yrs and 2 big overhauls on the machine to get us up and running again. it prints good but like i said the cutting can still be an issue. i agree roland shit the bed on this one . i think they just released it before they had adequate testing.

 

[petepaz]

roland needs to bring back the XC and XR printers just make them a little faster. those two machines are work horses

 

[ewded]

roland needs to bring back the XC and XR printers just make them a little faster. those two machines are work horses

Not gonna happen, the whole issue started when Epson decided to enter the solvent printer market thus increasing the price of the printheads. Roland was not happy about it and switched to ricoh heads for the entry level machines which fail to deliver the same quality and reliability.

 

[emhmotorsports]

Well now that I've got all my parts and it's back up and printing beautifully again, I'm feeling a slight bit less rant-y. I wonder if this was part of the TruVis marketing strategy: Make it print so beautifully so that you forget the rage of the past few days when it wasn't. I can see why shops that have high throughput would not be happy with these machines. It seems you really need to have 2 (one on standby) if you intend to print 24 hrs a day.

I wanted an XR-640, but if you can even find a used one, the price is ridiculous.

 

[victor bogdanov]

It seems you really need to have 2 (one on standby) if you intend to print 24 hrs a day.

if you need to print 24hrs per day you need to move up to the next level of printers like the Colorado

 

[emhmotorsports]

Tell that to my diesel that went into limp mode when the def system had an issue... on the god forsaken interstate!
But I do feel for ya.

Unfortunately hands are tied there. The federal govt mandates that sort of stuff. I can only imagine the stupid stuff that would have to be done if they got their hands into printer operation. Solvent emissions...I shudder at the mere thought.

 

[emhmotorsports]

Unfortunately it seems to be a trend in the industry. I won't name names but I've had more problems with machines out of the box in the last 2-3 years than ever in my career.

This seems to be a trend in general. There is a new way of thinking going around that releasing it first is the ultimate priority, you can always fix it later. Lots of stuff coming off the west coast seems to be following that ideology. I don't agree with it, but apparently I am in the vast minority.

 

[netsol]

This seems to be a trend in general. There is a new way of thinking going around that releasing it first is the ultimate priority, you can always fix it later. Lots of stuff coming off the west coast seems to be following that ideology. I don't agree with it, but apparently I am in the vast minority.

A friend who works for Microsoft always talks about that.
When a product release is behind schedule the pressure is incredible to release (close to on time) & "fix it with a service pack"

 

[brycesteiner]

Maybe it's just me coming from the auto biz, but it's preposterous in my world to shut down a car simply because a headlight is out...

I would agree until one of my employee's BF had a headlight get a crack on his new GM truck. it went into limp mode and it took two headlights and a some kind of a software fix to get the transmission to work right again.

 

[JWitkowski]

This seems to be a trend in general. There is a new way of thinking going around that releasing it first is the ultimate priority, you can always fix it later. Lots of stuff coming off the west coast seems to be following that ideology. I don't agree with it, but apparently I am in the vast minority.

The North American auto industry (I'm thinking GM to a large part - but not exclusively) has followed that plan for decades.

 

[GAC05]

I would agree until one of my employee's BF had a headlight get a crack on his new GM truck. it went into limp mode and it took two headlights and a some kind of a software fix to get the transmission to work right again.

We were wiring up the dome light of new camper install (new F150), disconnected 1 tail light to wire into it - truck would not start without the tail light working.