Jv3 Print Issue- Communication?

[NEGD]

First I want to apologize for the camera phone photos, as I don't have my digital available.

I'm not sure where to start. I assume this is a communication issue, but not positive. Please, any help would be appreciated at this point.

Attached are some photo examples of what is occurring. This began on Friday, first time ever, where I had to cancel and reprint a job. During the reprint, bands of "lesser" ink were being put down almost in a pattern of solid then not. I shut down both the computer and printer, rebooted and all was well. No additional loss of solid print. (2 pictures attached, blue/green solid and then bands)

Then of course, this morning it happens again. But this time, the reboot didn't seem to fix the issue.

Any suggestions as to what is occurring?

 

[artbot]

i'd first see if i could isolate the issue to a particular head. put together a file that is a block of black, cyan, magenta, etc. then print (maybe 6x6's). looks to me that it's your black head or magenta. if so, it does look like a data issue. after that you'll be stuck with a mandatory data swap to see if it's the head or the data going to the head (cable, slider board, main board).

 

[MikePro]

ink supply issue. my money's on magenta.

got a pic of your test draw?
it also looks like you're running 4pass? try dialing it up to 16pass, unidirectional and see how it prints.

*double-check that there's actually ink in your carts. i've had carts run dry before when they still registered 2/10 on my printer.

*other than that, your capping station could be wearing out and not making a proper seal on one or more of your printheads... making it difficult for the printer to refresh the heads with ink.

*other than that, your dampers could be clogged or loose too. they're cheap and easily replaced to rule them out as an issue.

*other than that, you could have a bubble somewhere in your ink lines that's inhibiting your ink flow. try to confirm visually before making steps to purge it.

 

[artbot]

i actually think mikepro is right. looked like the bands were all the exact width. but looking closer they are intermittent widths.

 

[NEGD]

Thanks guys!

Actually I did a test draw before (always do before printing) as well as immediately after I started having issues and that were the same.

I run 16pass but when this "drop out" occurs, it looks like it's running in 4pass.

As far as the other possible issues, I'm going to run through what you suggested and get back to you.

Thanks!

 

[NEGD]

Well, after coming back from lunch (complete shut down of computer and printer again), I figured I'd try to simulate the issue and see where / when / if / how while it's doing it... and I get a normal print. Go figure.

I still would like to nip this in the proverbial butt... this Jv3 has been nothing but headaches the last year or so.

 

[NEGD]

Mike,
I think what you wrote may be the issue. I again had it happen. It seems to occur after about 2-3 ft of print. I get solid print, then it starts to drop out, then nothing.
I noticed it is now "printing" but not lay down ink then returning to the capping station and on the pass back it puts down a wide swatch of ink. See the photo attached.

ink supply issue. my money's on magenta.

... making it difficult for the printer to refresh the heads with ink.

 

[artbot]

after you isolate the issue, a damper swap is next. put a functioning color's dampers on the bad color's manifold. if the new functioning color's dampers do the same, it's vacuum/pump/caps. if the issue disappears at that location, it's dampers, clogged line, bulk supply filter, possibly clogged manifold.

 

[NEGD]

all the colors are functioning. I did as you suggested previously, and printed solid C / M / Y / K and the issue isn't color specific.

 

[artbot]

color specific as in the banding/starvation (whatever we want to call it) appears in all the colors? or none of the colors when doing the test.

 

[NEGD]

So we've narrowed the issue down to this "starvation" only happening when I use the Onyx rip program. When I print 100% of any color in Onyx, I get this horizontal banding which is almost consistently the same amount of space. When I print 100% of any color in Raster (my alternative choice when printing) I get solid color, no banding. I'm currently changing over to Raster until I can get this Onyx issue taken care of, but does anyone have suggestions as to why this is happening?

 

[artbot]

well in that case we have some kind of "data starvation". very odd. so you can force to happen side by side same file different rip? does the alternative rip have the same density?