"Powering down" upon sensing media.

[artbot]

I had my carriage over in the maintenance side/left for several minutes with the printer turned off, unplugged, and button pushed several times.
Power up the printer up.
The printer does its cleaning routine. Nothing suspicious.
Upon "sensing media" the head carriage quickly but softly stops and the printer powers off.
(It seems simultaneous Carriage stops/power off).
I've un-plugged and re-plugged and purged static with no luck.
Attached is a photo of the exact point where the printer powers off.
Thank you for any advice on this.

2015 VJ-1617H

 

[FatCat]

Take a look at your encoder strip. Any scratches, deformations or ink smudges near the area where the carriage is stopping? We had a similar problem years ago (without it powering off) with a 1604 and wound up replacing both the encoder strip and the sensor that rides along it. Worked fine after that...

if that doesn't fix it, another thing to check is that you don't have any loose or exposed wires on the head or carriage assembly. The "powering off" thing is weird - usually any type of error on a Mutoh VJ will simply stop and flash lights and beep...so wondering if a short or electrical issue is the cause.

 

[artbot]

Thanks FatCat. Will do.

 

[artbot]

Take a look at your encoder strip. Any scratches, deformations or ink smudges near the area where the carriage is stopping? We had a similar problem years ago (without it powering off) with a 1604 and wound up replacing both the encoder strip and the sensor that rides along it. Worked fine after that...

if that doesn't fix it, another thing to check is that you don't have any loose or exposed wires on the head or carriage assembly. The "powering off" thing is weird - usually any type of error on a Mutoh VJ will simply stop and flash lights and beep...so wondering if a short or electrical issue is the cause.

One question. As a first time Mutoh owner, it seems odd to have a printer shut itself off without its doing so pointing to the printer attempting to "not damage itself". As in, it's experiencing a dangerous voltage and such.
As I'm cleaning and poking around, re-powering the printer, seeing it likely auto-power-down, am I not to be dismayed/worried that I'm exposing the printer to some electrical precautionary shut down system?
Is this a common way Mutohs go about dealing with sensors not receiving and or shaking-hands properly. ...to just turn itself off while not pointing to any alarming voltage issue?
thanks.AA

 

[jriley]

Take a look at your encoder strip. Any scratches, deformations or ink smudges near the area where the carriage is stopping? We had a similar problem years ago (without it powering off) with a 1604 and wound up replacing both the encoder strip and the sensor that rides along it. Worked fine after that...

if that doesn't fix it, another thing to check is that you don't have any loose or exposed wires on the head or carriage assembly. The "powering off" thing is weird - usually any type of error on a Mutoh VJ will simply stop and flash lights and beep...so wondering if a short or electrical issue is the cause.

In my experience, there's no way for a dirty or damaged encoder strip to cause your printer to shut off.

Edit -- I just noticed that you've duct taped your head cables. Have you been messing with anything else on your printer?

Edit #2 -- are your ink lines empty?

 

[flyplainsdrifta]

i don't have a lot of mutoh experience but that seems like a much bigger issue than encoder or really anything else other than an electrical issue. like i said, not much exp, but id say there is a deeper issue. id call a tech to get some better info so you don't end up electrocuting your self if it does happen to be a power issue.

 

[FatCat]

Just spoke to a good friend of mine who is a Mutoh technician. He asked if you are seeing any kind of an error code before it shuts down? He too, seemed to want to point towards the encoder and/or sensor, but he also said it could be due to a voltage or amperage spike (perhaps due to it hitting something, or a bad motor, loose or shorting wire, etc.) and the machine is shutting itself down as a safety precaution. Let us know what you find...

 

[artbot]

Just spoke to a good friend of mine who is a Mutoh technician. He asked if you are seeing any kind of an error code before it shuts down? He too, seemed to want to point towards the encoder and/or sensor, but he also said it could be due to a voltage or amperage spike (perhaps due to it hitting something, or a bad motor, loose or shorting wire, etc.) and the machine is shutting itself down as a safety precaution. Let us know what you find...

My local tech asked me to do some general inspection of obstructions, and clean the encoder (Did not clean the reader yet. I believe that requires removing the carriage board).
But I may be on to something worse regardless.
After poking around for easy movement, and cleaning the strip, the printer did not start at all.
I restarted my UPS (uninterrupted power supply, a new nice one) and it did start.
I noticed that the menu's "initializing" very slightly flickered (very slightly).
The carriage bumped around a bit getting ready to do a cleaning cycle.
Then the printer shut down.
This should point away from travel (encoder, motor load) related issues, I think. In that this time, the carriage never made an attempt to even head down the gantry.

(My lines are empty-ish. I was putting on new o-rings before this began. Which I did meticulously cleaning and watching for any drips. But I could have missed one. Still though, no codes. Just goes blank/powers off. The tape is because they are new data cables and I prefer not to crimp them at 45 degree angles. The tape has the metal (magnet?) band underneath to hold it in it's proper position.)

 

[artbot]

My tech asked me to plug directly to the wall to eliminate the UPS.
This time I got an error! (sarcastic excitement)
E095Err PF Drv Err

Maintenance Manual says:
1. Is the weight of the media used within the recommended weight?
2. Is there paper jam around Grid roller?
3. Doesn't PF motor get hot? Replace PF motor.
4. MAIN board may be damaged.
5. Power board may be damaged.

 

[artbot]

Think it's fixed (so to speak).
Cleaned the PF encoder disc (lightly dusty). Also noticed that I still had my left side cover off (perhaps the encoder needs darkness?).
Printer is working fine now.
Not that it's actually printing.
I bought this printer off of auction, sight unseen. Lines were full of ink. It was tossed around pretty bad in transit, even got lost wrongly heading to Mexico.
Head is now not jetting ink. No errors. Maybe I also blew the head while working on the o-rings. So far this printer set up has been pretty rough going.

 

[jriley]

How long was it sitting. From the Carriage, it looks like it could be a 1626UH (or some other non-solvent ink setup?)

 

[artbot]

How long was it sitting. From the Carriage, it looks like it could be a 1626UH (or some other non-solvent ink setup?)

I believe it was sitting in a warehouse for about a year, full of ink. The lines took forever to flush out.
It's a VJ-1617H likely the same mechanics as a 1626UH, sans UV LED lamps and UV resistant lines.

With all the auto-shut downs (about 7 while trying to figure things out) it seems I may have lost the head.
...maybe due to a drop of ink during the o-ring change
...maybe due to some power gremlin
I've checked the main board and carriage board fuses. One main board fuse was iffy and was swapped.
Powered up, all is acting okay. But still no ink jetting.

[I do have one definite gremlin. IF I choose User Type 1 I get a "BreakPoint Error 016". If I choose User Type 2 all's good.
I have yet to just set up new "User Types" to see what happens then.
There are many theories unsupported on why this is so. It surfaced about a week into getting the printer going.]

 

[jriley]

Do you have access to one of those fancy line monitors that can generate a report on your power over time? I've heard low/inconsistent power can cause malfunctions that would otherwise be inexplicable in a printer. Plus, the E095Err PF Drv Err error you mentioned is also caused by low voltage to motor. All of those E016 errors seem to be related to power and/or mainboard. I would go from the power cable to AC inlet to power supply board to the main board, testing if you can and/or replacing if necessary. Seems like this isn't going to be an easy or cheap fix

 

[artbot]

Do you have access to one of those fancy line monitors that can generate a report on your power over time? I've heard low/inconsistent power can cause malfunctions that would otherwise be inexplicable in a printer. Plus, the E095Err PF Drv Err error you mentioned is also caused by low voltage to motor. All of those E016 errors seem to be related to power and/or mainboard. I would go from the power cable to AC inlet to power supply board to the main board, testing if you can and/or replacing if necessary. Seems like this isn't going to be an easy or cheap fix

https://www.amazon.com/CyberPower-C...ocphy=9027819&hvtargid=pla-319420626891&psc=1

This is the UPS that is on the printer. Mainly it is there because once or twice a year our lights will blink (country property, wind, trees). Also the power, in the past, was not consistent. I had my CNC's pc die due to "brown outs" a long while back.
That said, to isolate, I plugged the printer in directly to the wall and it died. To me, this points away from the UPS being faulty. What would be the odds that right when I decide to boot the printer without the UPS on that very second there's a line condition. Not likely.

I assume that the auto shut downs were connected to the PF motor/encoder. There's no way to insure this. I haven't had it do the auto-shutdown since cleaning the disc and blowing air at the reader. It certainly didn't look that dirty. It doesn't make sense that I'd get about 5-7 shut-downs, then I get an error. Plus the BreakPoint 016's.
I may have a gremlin in the printer. I hope not. Symptoms are seeming a little too disconnected.