roland printhead meltdown (as in smoke)!

[artbot]

yesterday i was using my old fj50 (has been trouble free for a decade) and it was printing crazy patterns during the head cleaning run (attached a detailed photo history of the meltdown).

i need to replace the burned up head but am concerned that i have a mysterious short loading that ribbon cable and the next head will do the same.

has anyone seen a head burn up? (the board on the back of the print head fry) and do any of these print patterns give away what was going on before it died?

alan

 

[J Hill Designs]

wowzers brain

 

[BobbyFosson]

Do you happen to have the shot count on that head? Or when was it last replaced?

Most of my experiences with printhead blowups are caused by a damaged printhead ribbon cable or ink on the contacts (when customer replaces dampers usually).

Inspect the connections on each of your ribbon cables for any burns or marks. Also, pull out your ohm meter and check each contact for continuity with the appropriate lead on the opposite end.

I personally think it is unlikely that an excess load caused this.

 

[artbot]

new meltdown image (better illustrates).

try this one instead. easier to follow.

 

[BobbyFosson]

When you moved the heads from left to right, did you change the head rank?

 

[artbot]

contacts...

i had just cleaned the heads out of the machine after swapping the postion.

the contacts might have been wet from cleaning fluid on the back of the print head.

that scenario would create to separate issues.

1) print head printing crazy patterns due to bad data (possibly shorting out but not with the heavy load that would melt a head).

2)moisture on ribbon or head causes frying of head while diagnosing the erratic printing behaviour.

when checking the ribbons. is there a target resistance that i should look for or just transpose the ohm from the ribbon that is supposedly fine.

thank you for all your help on this. i use this printer to print etching resist patterns and need to get some aluminum in it asap for a big project.

alan



attached is a pic of an etched aluminum panel using the roland.

 

[artbot]

no i left the head rank as was unswapped. the head rank, in my experience, simply improves printing performance very slightly if at all.

 

[cptcorn]

Awesome! I've just gotten into playing with acid etching.

 

[artbot]

there was a burn mark on the ribbon but that was due to the head failure. i checked the ohms for each of the leads (21 i think) and got .4 ohms for each one consistantly. i'll replace this ribbon but i doubt there is any damage due to the head frying.

as for the age of the head. i seldomly print with this printer. if a head fails (i've only put about 4 or 5 on it in the life of the printer). it is because the printer sat idle for very long or bad head crashes from trying to print on maximum thickness substrates like veneer and .060 aluminum.

still need to figure out if there is a problem in the printer that will fry all heads or just the head was failing. note in the failure history attachment. the erratic behaviour follows the head when swapping postions in box #4. first the KCM is freaking out whilst the lclmY is trying to clear up. then after swap the KCM starts to try to "clear up" whist the lclmY starts freaking out (this is the left head put i the right position).

 

[GTSTech_1]

I have seen this many times in the field. You answered your own question..."the cable might have been wet". The water contact would short the head, and thus the weird streaking pattern in the prints....You would get the same streaking if the cables were not inserted all the way also.

If your getting the same ohm reading on all the contacts then cable is probably ok. Replace head and all should be ok.

My .02

GTSTech_1

 

[izanchor]

Cleaning Head with Eco Solvent Cleaner - Tested Print head Smoke

hi,
Just purchased used Roland CJ-500 converted to Eco solvent. Bought it knowing heads are clog. Tried Flushing it with Eco sol Cleaner, now when I turn the printer on and do some cleaning LH print head starts to smoke. I immediately shot the printer off. Waited few hours and turns back on. Now it wont turn on and see blinking light somewhere on the back of print head and carriage board. Took head out and found the LH cable connecting to Print head are toast. Ordered Print head and new cable. Im hoping that only the print head are damaged.
Need advice if I have to order additional parts. Thank you in advance for your help.

 

[artbot]

in the end, my main board was also toasted. i'd contact macmedia to see if they do board repair on that model. buying new boards is not the way to go.

 

[Jack Knight1979]

Do you mean your head board? The main board too? Surely you blew some resistors. The main board should not be fried.

 

[artbot]

any time, sending off boards for repair, it's best to send both. macmedia is a super honest company. they'll depending on the damage, they'll repair one, both, or neither if they check out as good.

you can often see the damage looking closely, sometimes not.