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Roland SC 540 printing crazy

NoBull Graphix

New Member
I have had this machine for 3 years. All new heads,cap tops,1 year ago. New encoder strip and new sensor as of yesterday. Can not get this to stop printing blue wavy lines. Adjusted the sensor 100 different times. Cleaned bottom and top of heads.Cleaned the machine top to bottom. Put dryer sheets on the back of machine. Have 4 humidfiers running. (only at 35% in the room) i am lost at this point.

barkers.gif
 

sfr table hockey

New Member
When did it start doing that? All of a sudden or over time?

If you changed heads and it started then, I would re check the cable ribbon, both ends, and make sure its in propper or head rank not set.
Check them anyway as it could be a data issue.

Photo is really small to see but it looks too wide spread to be lint dragging and when that happens it is more right after the print image before and after.

Seeing encoder strip was replaced, that should be fine and I assume you did that to try to fix the problem.
 

NoBull Graphix

New Member
it had overspray. (All the cables were cleaned 1 at a time.) So I replaced the strip and sensor. Since then I can not get it to stop. If printing bi-directional it only occurs when it is printing accross the media not on the return pass. On a 4 pass it happens on the 3 or 4 th pass. I am losing my mind. At this point I think I have a bad head. Going to switch cables today to rule that out. PLEASE HELP......
 

kffernandez

New Member
it is quite possibly an electrical problem anywhere starting from the head towards the head boards. a cable swap will at least give you a starting point for your troubleshooting.

btw, what does your nozzle test prints look like?

kelly
 

kffernandez

New Member
there is always an underlying reason why the machine produces a poor output.
just relax, step back a bit, and troubleshoot it step by step. if you have the right parts, and tools for the job, you will eventually figure it out.

kelly
 

NoBull Graphix

New Member
If i only print 20 inches it works just fine. I can move basepoint over to 21 inch mark and hit print and works. I cant print 54 inch.
 

kffernandez

New Member
you could have messed up your linear encoder when you installed it. take a flashlight and see if there's dust/lint/ink/marks on any part of it. i have a feeling it's somewhere in that 21" mark you mentioned.

kelly
 

Aldir

New Member
When you changed the printhead, did you input the voltage parameters into the service mode (this come as a code printed on a label either on teprinthead itself and o nits package). For me it really looks like a printhead problem and not as an encoder problem, because as long as I could see only Cyan is afected by the misprinting.
Can you send us more pics and preferably bigger ones?
 

NoBull Graphix

New Member
The company put the heads in. I only replaced the sensor and encorder strip. Just put the old strip back in and now printing just a shadow of the design in cyan only. All other colors are clean.
 

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kffernandez

New Member
after the fact that the bad prints shifted towards the black print head when the cable swap was done allows us to rule out the cyan head as the culprit.

putting back your old linear encoder hasn't contributed much to your troubleshooting process since you replaced it with something that you already thought was not working properly. only by checking your 'new' linear encoder for any dirt, lint, ink, smudge, etc will you be able to identify if there is anything wrong with it. [and btw, you might want to do that for your 'old' encoder as well just to know why it's printing badly.] the best way to look at the encoder is to remove it from the machine, and go through it using a magnifying glass like artbot does. :)

kelly
 

woolly

New Member
as you said it had some overspray i thought static.
then you say it is poor print for 21" then ok would make the main ribbon cables suspect.
 

NoBull Graphix

New Member
New Fuse and all new print cables, The test prints to the right are at first. Switched cyan cables with black and you cansee what happened then. All cables are tight. I even put old cables back on cyan thinking maybe there were bad, same result. I think it is the head board......but ive been wrong a bunch this week already..
 
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kffernandez

New Member
that looks like an electrical problem now. check the cable starting from the head board towards the problematic head.

if you keep that up, you will either blow a fuse or blow your components in your head board.

kelly
 
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