JV3 160 sp color washed out or magenta lines

[superdj23]

Still having issues with my machine. When I print on Fast mode, I have the problem of the color printing washed out after a few feet. When I print on Normal Mode, I don't have that issue but it prints "hairline" magenta lines in a few different places. It goes away if I stop it and do a soft cleaning, but then they will eventually come back. I have been told two different possible reasons. One is that there is a communication issue, and the other is that the head is bad. I replace the firewire cable and it seemed to be printing fine, I was able to print about 90 feet on fast mode without any issues. Today it is back again. See the attachment for a picture of the magenta lines.

Thanks for any help.
DJ

 

[ChicagoGraphics]

Are you sure you don't have any gunk or fibers from banner material hanging off one of your heads.

 

[superdj23]

Yeah, I do custody washes every couple of days and clean the heads appropriately.

 

[woahdude]

as soon as the color washes out stop the printing and do a test draw to see if nozzles are out

 

[artbot]

a vertically printed "data" line/mark is usually a portion of the data cable inside of the cable carrier or a the board is being pinched or torqued i'd push the carriage out to that point and see if you see something or hear something. or at that point snug up/straighten anything that looks to be pulled left or right.

 

[superdj23]

I have stopped it as soon as the color drops out and the test draw is perfect every time.

 

[superdj23]

I looked at the cable carrier area and didn't hear or see anything unusual. The area had a lot of dust built up, so I cleaned it out pretty good. I tried printing a banner and everything looked good until about 6-7 feet into the eight foot banner. The I had about 6 lines and some were double lines. It seems to be getting worse rather than better. It started with one line, then it started printing 2-3 lines, now I am up to six. It seems like it would be a communication issue, but I'm beginning to wonder if the communication issue is happening at the head itself.

 

[superdj23]

Another Picture

Here is the latest failed print attempt.

 

[artbot]

i seriously doubt it can be the head. one way to prove that theory would be to do a data swap. this would help you track your vertical line source. my assumption is if you data swapped black and magenta, black will be the one printing the vertical line. also, remember that a vertical line is Y oriented. a data cable, or a head or any part of the electronics are just "receiving a signal". the encoder strip system in a printer is what works on position across the Y. the only problem is, that position that it reads is universal, meaning one number that all the heads and slider board use as a reference. a vertical line then is an issue, or a "blip" in that system relating to position. otherwise you'd have an intermittent issue.

one question, how "perfect" is the line. is it precise or a little fuzzy? take a close up of it. the look of the line can tell a lot.

 

[superdj23]

All the lines are crisp, similar to a crop line.

 

[artbot]

are you familiar with a data swap? here are two renderings that show the way to do it.

 

[superdj23]

I will give the data swap a try and see what happens.

 

[superdj23]

Well, I haven't had a chance to do the data swap yet. But I am able to have success if I stop the print every 4' or so and do a soft cleaning. It is hit or miss whether I can print on Fast mode or normal mode. Today I was printing on fast mode and was able to print about 5' and then the color started to print washed out again. I did notice something that may be relevant here.
I normally print on 8 pass and when the color starts printing washed out it looks like it is only printing on four pass which may explain why the color looks washed out. Anybody ever heard of this and what the diagnosis may be?

 

[artbot]

can you "count" the passes visually shifting from eight to four pass when it changes? i remember way back, there were a few discussions on the yahoo jv3 group about a printer switching passes.

...and you kinda "have to" do data swap eventually to prove where the magenta line is coming from.

 

[woahdude]

a while back on a mimaki jv5 i had some sketchy heads that to prevent dropout on huge banners i had to run at 24 pass instead of 12 pass, and do cleanings every 15'

as far as passes go from what i can tell, a larger number pass uses more of the head to fire creating a bigger footprint, it doesnt actually force more ink through the head or pass over itself any more

i wonder if that test draw check is flawed. when it pulls back to the capping station it may be getting primed. post a picture with the stopped print at the point where it has printed only 1 pass. you can often tell if nozzles are out from that. even better if you can do that with a IQ print

 

[superdj23]

I will definitely do the swap to see if the lines change. It's just hard to find the time to dedicate to printing something when you don't know how long is going to take. Yeah, the passes are visually shifting from 8 to 4 which seems as if that is why I am not getting 100% color.

 

[superdj23]

More lines

Well it has been awhile since I posted about the issue. I have been pretty much dealing with it. However, I did notice that the lines are coming back, but now they are cyan lines. I cleaned the encoder strip in the areas where the lines were showing up and the lines seemed to clear up when I started a new print. When I closed the hood I could see the lines forming again. I lifted the hood and they went away. What gives? Does it have something to do with the amount of light on the encoder strip? Did I not clean it good enough?

 

[MikePro]

dealing with it for 6months?!? lets fix this pig!

try cleaning your encoder sensor as well... removes easily from the carriage via 2 gold screws on the back wall of the carriage just above the dampers. it cups the encoder strip, so just remove the screws and lift it out. (after powering-down the printer, of course.... just to be safe)

I recently had issues with printing, and discovered that my encoder sensor had a fine glazing of magenta ink on the lens... cleaned it up, and everything's working great! (i used only the slightest bit of cleaning fluid on a swab, knowing that I could potentially burn the plastic lens with too much solvent)