More Roland Headaches

[SignGuyNate]

I'm having a heck of a time with my Roland lately. I'm at the point where I have to calibrate the cut and the scan/feed before every job, but in as little as 36 inches of material later my print is completely distorted and my cut is up to a half inch out of alignment. It's almost like my material is drifting, or in crooked, but I've got it locked in pretty tight. Anyone dealt with this issue before?

 

[SignGuyNate]

If you just feed it through the printer without printing or cutting, does it walk?

Using roll holders?
Using roll holder "guides" or "stops" or whatever they're called?
Tugging the roll in the middle before dropping pinch rollers?
Pinch rollers and grit rollers clean and free of debris?

Not that I can tell, yes, yes, yes and yes as far as I know. I will wipe it down later on today and see if it helps. It's just weird. I didn't have this issue until last week, when the power went out suddenly three times in the middle of running a job.

 

[jfiscus]

Do you motice the drifting in your prints theirselves? I would try printing a 4'x8' "checkerboard" of exactly 1' squares, then check your results to see how it is skewing.
I am suspecting your linear encoder strip is dirty, although when it goes wonky, it is usually VERY noticeably stair-stepping...

 

[Gino]

The power going out could be an indication of some kind of communication failure. Communications or intermittent signals could cause any number of problems with your equipment.

 

[CS-SignSupply]

We recently had a situation where the printer printed the file properly but when returning to cut, the cut data was being distorted.

Turned out to be mainboard. Processor sending corrupted data to servo board.

 

[xxtoni]

We had a similar issue months ago with our VS-640.

Prints would have banding on them and cuts wouldn't be accurate.

Dealt with the dealer for a while, they wasted a lot of our time. One of their guys came out and concluded that the servo motor controlling the feeds must be shut. Then they said that they have to consult with the head office in Italy and after they confirm they can order the motor from Japan.

Long story short - We took the machine apart and found some ink had made it's way onto the encoder strip. Took a bit of alcohol and cleaned it up, worked like new.

 

[SignGuyNate]

Do you motice the drifting in your prints theirselves? I would try printing a 4'x8' "checkerboard" of exactly 1' squares, then check your results to see how it is skewing.
I am suspecting your linear encoder strip is dirty, although when it goes wonky, it is usually VERY noticeably stair-stepping...

Stair-stepping. That's what I'm getting. Couldn't find the words for it.

The power going out could be an indication of some kind of communication failure. Communications or intermittent signals could cause any number of problems with your equipment.

No, the power to the building went out three times. Someone working on the bridge a half mile down the road damage a cable and knocked this whole side of town out. Was up and down while the power company was trying to fix it, but every time it went out my printer was running. That's not to say there isn't an issue with comm now because of that, though.

We had a similar issue months ago with our VS-640.

Prints would have banding on them and cuts wouldn't be accurate.

Dealt with the dealer for a while, they wasted a lot of our time. One of their guys came out and concluded that the servo motor controlling the feeds must be shut. Then they said that they have to consult with the head office in Italy and after they confirm they can order the motor from Japan.

Long story short - We took the machine apart and found some ink had made it's way onto the encoder strip. Took a bit of alcohol and cleaned it up, worked like new.

I hate calling the dealer. I especially dread it in this case because I don't know how to explain what's going on.

I cleaned the encoder strip and did the limit initialization procedure, and now I'm loading a banner job. So in about 20 minutes we'll see how it went...

 

[SignGuyNate]

Well, the media is walking, but not a lot. A 1/16th of an inch to the left over 8 feet.

I changed the print to uni-directional and the issue seems to be less noticable, but it's still there. I suspect the encoder strip and/or the encoder sensor needs to be replaced.

 

[mbarden]

The VS Series of Printers has a new encoder that previous Rolands do not have. The oncoder controls the grit rollers actions. Open the right and side of the printer, 2 top pieces, the piece around your power cord and the right hand side piece should be removed. Take a dry paper towel or lint free cloth and clean the "circular" encoder disc that is attached to the right had side of the grit roller. this should solve your problem.

 

[SignGuyNate]

Yeah, I have a VP series though.

 

[P Wagner]

Well, the media is walking, but not a lot. A 1/16th of an inch to the left over 8 feet.

I changed the print to uni-directional and the issue seems to be less noticable, but it's still there. I suspect the encoder strip and/or the encoder sensor needs to be replaced.

I am confused. Is the media moving laterally (walking) on the printer platens, or is the printed output stair-stepping on the media (or both)?

 

[sdodson1]

Just this week I had an outer roller cover come loose and run cockeyed on the inner brass roller that holds the bearings. Called and got 2 to replace both oters and no more problems! Might be worth a check