Onyx/Oce Colorado communication issues

Hey All, real head scratcher here.

Basically I’ve been running an oce Colorado on onyx 18.5 for around a month now, had some teething problems but now it’s taken a full bite!

The printer is not networked itself, it’s connected through an Ethernet cable to the pc, the pc has two network points (one for the printer, one for the internet). All of this seems well, I can ping the printer and it seems happy enough.

As far as onyx goes, everything seems to be in working order, I can see the synced media’s, delete them, look in the configure printer menu, do an ip/tcp test and it comes back happy. The pc can definitely see the printer and communicate with it.

BUT.. whenever I print a job, it sends it, then said job doesn’t seem to make its way to the printer, no error, no sign at all that there’s any problems, just disappears and doesn’t end up in the print queue.

Anyone had this before/knows how to fix it? It was running fine for weeks, then went for lunch, came back and it wouldn’t print any more. Tried everything I’d expect to get it going so if anyone has any ideas, let me know!

 

Haha, tried that! Had the machine, the pc and them both off at the same time (just in case).

In the case of the pc updating, it wasn’t connected to the internet when I left it (our onyx has been a bit screwy since the start, works better when I disconnect it from the internet). So I doubt that could be the issue.

Just baffling me that everything is working as it should until I hit print. Have tried installing it as a new printer etc. Even tried it on a new pc today, exact same problem - that’s why I didn’t put it in the software bit specifically, it’s almost like the printer isn’t accepting the jobs for whatever reason.

A little extra problem, I had deleted some profiles from the media manager the other day, but in the list of media’s in the “configure printer” it was still there. So whenever I tried to sync the media’s with the printer, it crashed onyx. Every time. That was Saturday and it’s been a nightmare since. Though I did eventually fix that! (reinstalled the problem media then deleted it again).

 

Yeah I had a canon guy remote in and do all that generic stuff but I’d already cleared the “work” folder, it was definitely going to the Colorado and not printing to a folder etc.

We eventually got it working today, reinstalling a generic 1640 print install file (that we had already tried a few times) but this time it works, then let’s me send files over whenever I disconnect the pc from the network. When it’s on the network, no files will end up at the Colorado. Not ideal but if it means I can print all my work before screwing around with it. Imma do that! Now canon get to blame our IT lol

 

Couldn’t agree more with this. Once I get a roll on and it starts printing, it’s a dream. It’s everything other than that, that still feels a bit sketchy.

A few things that should have absolutely been sorted prior to release, the ink levels on the machine, engineer told us not to trust them at all! (Just said when it asks for a bottle, give it one). Ink is supposed to have a 2.5l reservoir but 1l gets it from 50% to 100%???

Not being able to print on media that’s print side in, literally just needs the roll to be taken in the other way!

Another thing that annoys me is the tension bar, when we’re printing on super expensive media and need to use about 1.3m just to get it on the bar, it’s a huge waste of money.

On top of that, there’s about the same length at the end of the roll that I cant print on. Naturally with the design of the machine I can get why I can’t print on say the last 300mm-400mm (so anything printed has enough media to be cured) but in real world it’s more like 1m for us. The minute it unwinds from the roll it stops.

The cleaning, while not a massive issue, canon told us it was a monthly occurrence but the machine asks for it at least once a week. Guessing they just didn’t put the test machines through their paces.

 

Don’t get me wrong, the take up is ideal. And even the media’s that canon have the tension bar turned on, I turn it off first go to see if it’ll let me run it without. However, the media’s that I do need the tension bar for, it wastes a lot.

What’s your opinion on the Colorado 1650? Pretty disappointed here to be honest. It’s like they’ve fixed all the quirks with the 1640 (including inks) and instead of making the relevant changes to the 1640, they’ve released a new machine.

Naturally I get that they’ll eventually release new machines with this tech, but the 1650 is the EXACT SAME MACHINE but with a different ink and a couple extra options. Not worthy of being released as a new line. Especially the option of being able to print on media on the inside of the roll, all of these things should be fixed on their 800+ existing machines before they go selling new ones.

Just seems very shady..

 

Honestly with the 1640 it still feels a little beta-ish and clunky. Once the machine is running, you can wander off and it’s a dream. It’s when it’s not going that the problems start. There’s just a few niggly things that an almost two year old machine should not be experiencing.

My biggest grievance currently is that if you, say, print half a roll then leave for the night (or an hour) - basically any time that’s long enough for the Colorado to go into sleep mode). Then the machine will forget where it is.

You then have two choices, either treat it as a paper jam, or let it cut through the last thing you printed.

There’s also a few annoyances on the 1640 like inks too shiny and it can only print on the outside of a roll (no media’s that are print side in). But these appear to have been solved by the 1650.

With all of that said, if you want a printer that has great speeds, you don’t need to babysit, has consistent output and a pretty decent gamut. All of that with very low ink costs and pretty low maintenance, then it is great.

We have a pretty big IT network so we’ve had a few problems with onyx, summa etc (like the one above) but I doubt you’d get any like the ones we had. If you have any specific questions, feel free to ask.