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Discussion Roland Legacy printers questions

Jim Hill

Jim Hill

New Member
I was at a sign shop that also sells and services Roland Printers and the guy who is the manager of the service department told me that my SP-300 is considered a legacy printer which means Roland no longer makes the servo board or the mother board.

Because of this he told me they would not longer send out a service tech if I needed one in the future.
He also told me they would no longer sell Roland parts to end party users for this printer which I am.

I understand their position on no longer serving the printer and I can live with this because I have always changed the heads, encoder strip, cap tops and scanner motors myself anyway.

I am surprised that they no longer want to sell me parts.
The service manager also told me that the techs are told not to work on any printer that uses after market parts or inks!
I also understand that the owners of Newer Printers will not be able to enter the service mode without the current code which only techs have access to.

I was just wondering if anyone else has run into this problem.

Jim
 
strypguy

strypguy

New Member
I run an SP300V and SP540V and have heard the same thing. I'm a small one-man shop and really don't want to upgrade. Plus, I just love these printers. If the aftermarket consumables dry up I guess I will be forced to do so if I want to stay in business. I just hope the dampers, wipers, and captops are available OEM. Aftermarket captops especially are crap in my opinion. John
 
Jim Hill

Jim Hill

New Member
strypguy said:
I run an SP300V and SP540V and have heard the same thing. I'm a small one-man shop and really don't want to upgrade. Plus, I just love these printers. If the aftermarket consumables dry up I guess I will be forced to do so if I want to stay in business. I just hope the dampers, wipers, and captops are available OEM. Aftermarket captops especially are crap in my opinion. John
Click to expand...

I also love the Roland SP-300 line of printers and they work like a charm most of the time.

Almost all of the parts are available from after market companies and I must admit I have had good luck with captops and dampers so far. Wipers are tricky because they are made just a little thicker then the OEM part.

Jim
 
G

Gabil

Gary
While it is true that Roland discontinued certain parts for certain models, as long as main board concerned it is hard to believe because main boards usually compatible with different model lines besides SP.
 
Jim Hill

Jim Hill

New Member
Gabil said:
While it is true that Roland discontinued certain parts for certain models, as long as main board concerned it is hard to believe because main boards usually compatible with different model lines besides SP.
Click to expand...

Gabil: Do you know which Roland printers use the same main board as an SP-300?

I am still surprised that the Roland dealer won't sell the parts to someone who owns a legacy printer.
I believe that at some point the Roland dealers will only sell Roland parts to Roland Certified Techs only.

Just my opinion Jim
 
G

Gabil

Gary
Jim Hill said:
Gabil: Do you know which Roland printers use the same main board as an SP-300?

I am still surprised that the Roland dealer won't sell the parts to someone who owns a legacy printer.
I believe that at some point the Roland dealers will only sell Roland parts to Roland Certified Techs only.

Just my opinion Jim
Click to expand...


Depending on firmware version and DIP switch setting, it is compatible with VS, LEF, RT, SG, RF, RE series.
 
S

Scott at Roland

New Member
Jim Hill said:
I was at a sign shop that also sells and services Roland Printers and the guy who is the manager of the service department told me that my SP-300 is considered a legacy printer which means Roland no longer makes the servo board or the mother board.

Because of this he told me they would not longer send out a service tech if I needed one in the future.
He also told me they would no longer sell Roland parts to end party users for this printer which I am.

I understand their position on no longer serving the printer and I can live with this because I have always changed the heads, encoder strip, cap tops and scanner motors myself anyway.

I am surprised that they no longer want to sell me parts.
The service manager also told me that the techs are told not to work on any printer that uses after market parts or inks!
I also understand that the owners of Newer Printers will not be able to enter the service mode without the current code which only techs have access to.

I was just wondering if anyone else has run into this problem.

Jim
Click to expand...

Hi Jim - I thought I would pipe in and clear up some misconceptions about the Roland policy for "End of Support" devices. The way it works is that we (Roland) will support a device for five years after the last machine has shipped. At that point the printer becomes an "End of Support" device. This does not mean that we stop servicing. But it does mean that we may no longer be able to get parts.

So, using the SP-300V as an example, the last machine was shipped on 7/30/2010. Therefore it entered End of Support on 7/30/2015. At that time, our parts pipeline could start to dry up and eventually, parts like Servo Boards and Main Boards are no longer available to us. That does not mean that your dealer needs to stop servicing that machine. Parts can still be available, like print heads and dampers, etc.

I am a little confused why the dealer would not want to service an older machine. For our part, Roland does not have much control over the servicing of out of warranty machines, and I would think that a dealer would look at the "billable" service activity as a profit generator. Anyway, hope this helps clear up the policy.
 
Jim Hill

Jim Hill

New Member
Scott:

Thanks for helping clarify Roland position with support.

I was a little surprised when the Roland dealer service manager told me that because my printer is now considered a legacy printer they will no longer be able to provide repair services but I was really surprised when he told me they would no longer be able to sell Roland OEM parts to me.

I was thinking well if your not willing to service the printer I will have to find an independent service tech who will service the printer and I will also have to find another source for parts.

I happen to really like the early Roland Printers and since it still works great with no real problems and they are not hard to fix yourself if you follow the manual.

Thanks again Jim
 
Jim Hill

Jim Hill

New Member
I personally have never used Mac media but I have read some of the comments other poster made and many of them did not seem happy after using mac media for whatever reason.
Sounds like you had a good experience with them.

I also use digiprint and so far have been very happy using them.

Jim
 
hand851

hand851

Roland Mutoh & Mimaki inks digiprint-parts.com
I am not digiprint supplies, I am digiprint-parts. I have the same sources they have and made in the USA inks.
 
Jim Hill

Jim Hill

New Member
Many of the Newer Roland printers have more bells and whistles and much higher prices but the SP series always seemed bullet proof and was a real great working printer that was not to hard to fix when something happened to it.

Just my opinion but the SP series printers were the best Roland ever made.

Jim
 
P

player

New Member
Jim Hill said:
Many of the Newer Roland printers have more bells and whistles and much higher prices but the SP series always seemed bullet proof and was a real great working printer that was not to hard to fix when something happened to it.

Just my opinion but the SP series printers were the best Roland ever made.

Jim
Click to expand...
I didn't like the 2 colours in one head.

Another thing is it's impossible not to have some type of banding.

The VP540i has 4 heads, twice as fast, wave thing to eliminate banding, auto environment control, belt drive not cables that stretch... but nowhere as reliable as the SP.
 
Jim Hill

Jim Hill

New Member
player said:
I didn't like the 2 colours in one head.

Another thing is it's impossible not to have some type of banding.

The VP540i has 4 heads, twice as fast, wave thing to eliminate banding, auto environment control, belt drive not cables that stretch... but nowhere as reliable as the SP.
Click to expand...

A Roland Tech who I used to take with each time we met once told me that in his opinion the SP two headed printers printed then the four headed printers.
The two headed printer were not as fast but the quality was better. I never used the newer four headed printer so I never really compared the two printers for quality.
Jim
 
P

player

New Member
Jim Hill said:
A Roland Tech who I used to take with each time we met once told me that in his opinion the SP two headed printers printed then the four headed printers.
The two headed printer were not as fast but the quality was better. I never used the newer four headed printer so I never really compared the two printers for quality.
Jim
Click to expand...
the quality of print is great on the VPs. The durability in my experience is not.
 
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