Problem with SC-500 printing blue streaks.

[A&ESignShoppe]

Hello. I'm new to the boards, and I've got a serious problem on my hands.

I posted the following over on the official Roland boards two days ago, and still have yet to get even the slightest response. I'm hoping you guys can help me out.

Our Roland SC-500 which we've had for years has recently started giving us blue streaks REALLY badly. We've tried everything we could think of to get rid of them, but nothing seems to work. The funny thing is, they just seem to come and go as they please. One minute the printer will be streaking like crazy, and the next they'll just disappear, and we'll be able to print perfectly for several days until they decide to come back again.

So far, we've tried cleaning the printhead (both powerful and normal cleans, several times), swabbing the printhead itself with cleaning solution, disconnecting the ribbons from the circuitboard and cleaning them, etc. etc. We've also been VERY careful regarding static electricity, making sure that we never touch the machine itself without de-charging ourselves first. We've even tried experimenting with different levels of humidity in the room. No dice.

Can anybody offer me some advice on this matter? I'm at my wits end here. We've got a VERY important job that we have to finish printing by the end of this week, and nothing I have tried has made a difference.

Here are a couple pictures that should help you visualize the problem I'm having. One of these test prints streaked all the way through, while the other one streaked about halfway, then eventually cleared up for some reason.

 

[Jack Knight1979]

Try changing data cables.

 

[sfr table hockey]

Try to blow some air around where the encoder strip censor is on the tool carriage. I have had dust or a fuzz get stuck on it and caused lines randomly in the print but not that bad. It should line up where the encodor strip sits.

Otherwise thoes lines can be related to data issues. If the bending of the cables that run with the print head back and forth happen to break one of the wires inside it eventually, it may do a hit and miss on showing up and then all of a sudden it may be bad enough that the wires quit connecting and then needs replacing.

Do you find if you do a test print on the one side of the printer and then move the base point to start on the opposite side and see if it does it the same. This would show where the bend in that wires happens and if the wire is not totally broke off it may print fine on the one side and then show up on the other.

This is a bit of a guess on this issue.

Do like Jack said, start with the cables from the heads to the board. Make sure power is off and discharge.