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Line of Black Dots on Prints - Roland XC 540

LegacyCode

New Member
Hello all,

We are having an issue on our Roland XC 540 where it is printing a line of vertical black dots in all our prints.

For the most part it is a straight line, but sometimes it moves around on a bit of a contour.

No matter where we place the file on the page or how large the media is, it is always an inch or so from the left edge of the print.

It happens with all files we try and from multiple computers.

Please see the attached pictures. One is a normal print, the other is with the data cables swapped between the black and yellow heads. I have increased the contrast to help show the issue. As you can see, even with the data cable swap, the issue stays in the black. Makes me think it is something in the head.

I have also tried multiple head cleans as well as cleaning the encoder strip.

I wanted to run this by the forums to see if anyone has experienced this before or has any ideas.

Thanks!
 

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LegacyCode

New Member
Versaworks.

To make sure it was not something with the RIP, we tried it on another computer with a completely separate instance of Versaworks and it still exhibited the issue. We run many Roland printers so I have plenty of alternate machine/computer combinations to try. Two other printers on this same computer/RIP combo are not experiencing the issue.

Also to update, it seems like the problem is getting worse. It has progressed from dots to long lines through the prints.

I agree it is electrical. The question for me is wether it is the head or something before it like a board or a cable. I just want to narrow this down, before I order parts.

I am leaning toward the head since the issue remains with the black even when I switch data cables around.

Anyone have alternate thoughts?
 

artbot

New Member
on thing about data swaps.... you also need to do a data swap making sure the cable ends and swapped. a basic data swap changes the data to the head. but if the same end of the cable is still in the same port of the print head because the switch was made at the carriage board, then you still have yet to eliminate the "print head end" of the data. did you also after the data swap completely remove the data cables and swap them? the black end of your cable may be bad or a small drip of ink may have gotten into your print head.
 
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