Roland Fj-500 Picked Up one have questions

[Hkjeep]

I picked up a Fj-500 on craigslist pretty cheap.. It had been sitting for a while.. I do have a few questions..

I have been able to print some test prints from the service menu the solid fill patterns.. I have dye ink loaded in the machine.. which is 4 colors of cartridges loaded twice in the machine.. I noticed there are 2 print heads in the machine and you can do a clean from left or right printhead.. when facing the machine and looking at printhead I see ink in the tubing coming down into the head on the left side but not the right side.. but the printer does print 4 colors of ink.. So my question is when dye ink is loaded Is it only using the left print head.. I am totally confused with this.. I do have a user's manual but it does not mention which colors use which head etc.. Can someone with knowledge on this machine give me a little heads up with this.. i do have banding and some print issues just not sure what I am dealing with on these heads..

Thanks much, Lisa

 

[Hkjeep]

HELLPP Just a little to point me in right direction.

So I guess no one else has one of these FJ 500

So I will just ask generic question that should be with any roland large format printer

Is there someone on the forum that can tell me if the ink lines coming from the printer off the damper are supposed to be full of ink or does the ink just run through as it is printing?

I have read on the forums where people suggest pulling ink from the capping station with a syringe.. my question is .. is the purpose to pull ink from the waste bottle ..I am not sure why one would do this.. Can someone explain..

Thanks for any help or any enlightment here..

I am going to take the print head out and try to flush it.. this has had only pigment and dye ink in it ..So what is the best fluid to flush it with...

Please help!!!

 

[R08]

I dont have this machine but you are asking a lot. And you haven't asked some questions that you should have. YEs.. the lines should be full.

If I was you I would do a search on this machine. You need to know the difference between dye and solvent based inks. They are not the same.

The reason you haven't recieved a lot of answers is because you are at ground zero and you want to fly a helicopter. You're going to have to do some research before you can even ask the right questions.

(edit: an 'old' helicopter.)

 

[sfr table hockey]

Having never seen this printer, but knowing the older Rolands are similar yours is an 8 color printer. You have the option to use C,M,Y,K,LC,LM,O,G or you can double up on the CMYK and get a faster print speed (I think).

If your printer sat for a bit in transit it may have had the ink draw back into the carts. You should have all lines full and the dampers (about half full is standard). If you have no ink in the lines you need to get them and the dampers filled with ink. If you can use a syringe and connect at the capping station and draw ink though the heads and into the syringe. Make sure all the 8 carts of ink have ink in them as well.

Waterbased is quite easy to get going again but having some cleaning fluid on hand will help. You may have blockages in the drain lines if you find that the pump does not seem to draw any ink.

In the printer menu it should show the ink options. Dye ink is cheaper than the pigmented so if you plan to do art work you might want pigmented. Not sure if you can convert this printer as I don't think the print head will stand up to solvent.

There is lots to it but that is a start.

 

[Hkjeep]

Thanks,, I guess I should have given some background that I have done a couple weeks for research before posting... I do know this machine has a dx3 printhead .. I have bought new dampers and ink cartridges.. I was just trying to get a little extra knowledge of what I need to be seeing.. I have had large format epson printers in the past so I do have a little knowledge I am not starting from zero..

each time I mess around with the printer i add problems but each time I learn something new.. I was able to get into service mode and I have printed the test patterns.. when I print the test patterns from left side head and right side head and option for left and right side head at same time..they all look the same.. I was hoping if someone else had one of these that they could tell me which head is pulling from which cartridges in the back.. The cartridges are located in back of machine not front.. I cannot find anywhere in my research to tell me which head is printing what .. I wil just switch the cartridges around to find out for sure..

I know the difference between solvent ink and aqueous ink.. I do not plan to change to solvent printer ( I do not think this one can even be changed to solvent printer.. did not see any information on my search that it could be changed.) This printer does have a Dx3 printhead so I am not sure why it cannot be converted but for some reason this model cannot be converted..

My other question is if this unit uses a dx3 printhead.. Can I pull a dx3 printhead out of an old epson that has dx3 head and install into this monster.. I saw in service mode where to enter the printhead codes..

I am waiting for my dampers to come in before I start anything else on it..
oh one last question.. is there a way to clean out of soak this dampers that are in it.. since it is not solvent ink it seems that you could ..

Thanks, Lisa..

 

[sfr table hockey]

I think the DX3 heads on the Epson are the same as are the DX2 and the Epson printers.

Not sure what you meant on the dampers. If you mean flushing the dampers out, you might be able to do a bit to clear them if they were plugged but try to suck out the crap from the top and not push through. If that filter thing does anything in the damper I would think you would not want to push more dried stuff into that area.

You got a 50/50 chance on what set of 4 carts go with what head. You could pull one cart out and attach a syringe to one line of that color and see if you get air in the line. Attach the syringe first then pull out the cart or you may get a bunch of ink leaking out where the cart was. Not sure on that.