ROLAND VS540 printing random marks in artwork

[Chuck Taylor]

Hello, we have ran this file successfully on a few occasions, but last night our Roland kept inserting these random marks in the artwork.

Has anyone ever had something like this happen to them before, or what could this be a sign of? We had the head replaced about a year and a half ago and it's been running like a top, but this is something I've never seen before.

Thank you in advance for your response to this question.

 

[damonCA21]

The black channel on the head is getting bad signals making it turn on when it shouldn't. There are a few possible causes, most common is the long cables from the print carriage board to the mainboard, It could also be the short head cable, the print carriage board or a transistor problem on the mainboard. Try replacing the cables first and see if that fixes it

 

[manlyon]

I would also clean the encoder strip (as the black patterns seem to follow the shape of the letter). I recently had this problem with magenta only. Cleaning the encoder strip has fixed it for me.

 

[Chuck Taylor]

The black channel on the head is getting bad signals making it turn on when it shouldn't. There are a few possible causes, most common is the long cables from the print carriage board to the mainboard, It could also be the short head cable, the print carriage board or a transistor problem on the mainboard. Try replacing the cables first and see if that fixes it

Thank you for this information -much appreciated. I have new ribbon cables on order and hoping this will resolve the issue.

 

[Chuck Taylor]

I would also clean

I would also clean the encoder strip (as the black patterns seem to follow the shape of the letter). I recently had this problem with magenta only. Cleaning the encoder strip has fixed it for me.

Thank you so much for providing this information - I have spoken with a local tech and have new ribbon cables on order. Hoping this will resolve the issue.

 

[Roland Certified Tech]

VS Block Printing. Replace long cables per the RSB.
Really get a new Roland.
The VS was not the pride and joy of Roland Line.

 

[Chuck Taylor]

VS Block Printing. Replace long cables per the RSB.
Really get a new Roland.
The VS was not the pride and joy of Roland Line.

Hello, and thank you for your response. Much appreciated! We are going to replace all four of the long cables while they're in there, as if one went, I'm sure the others are not far behind. We've actually had this machine since 2012 and have been extremely happy with it. As we are only a couple years out from retirement, new equipment is not an option for us at this time, we'll just have to find a way to keep this one going... fingers crossed

 

[Roland Certified Tech]

Yep, replaced long cables today on a VS and problem resolved. However, you may need the Print Carriage Board as well, to the newer version depending on s/n

 

[Chuck Taylor]

Yep, replaced long cables today on a VS and problem resolved. However, you may need the Print Carriage Board as well, to the newer version depending on s/n

Interesting - hopefully this will be all we require as well. Our tech from Spicers (Canada) indicated that it's getting harder to find parts for these now. Sincerely hoping it's nothing more than the cables. Do you happen know at what serial number these machines are no longer upgradeable to the new print carriage board? Fortunately, for the time being we are still able to print using one side of the material, it's a bit of a waste of vinyl but we are still managing to get order out this way. Thanks again for your expertise and feedback - much appreciated!

 

[Roland Certified Tech]

have the old price carriage board:
Serial Numbers: Below
VS-640 : ZAI3073
VS-540 : ZAI1842
VS-420 : ZAI0658

 

[Chuck Taylor]

have the old price carriage board:
Serial Numbers: Below
VS-640 : ZAI3073
VS-540 : ZAI1842
VS-420 : ZAI0658

Thank you for this info. Our VS-540 was bought in Canada in 2012 through All Graphic Supplies (now Spicers Canada) and the S/N starts with VAX, so I'm assuming it would not accommodate the new board

 

[Roland Certified Tech]

You can replace the long cables regardless of the cut carriage board.
The cut carriage board was redesigned because the cropmark sensor potentiometer would unadjust itself.

 

[damonCA21]

You can also use the normal board, set the potentiometer then use a drop of superglue on it to keep it in place

 

[Chuck Taylor]

You can replace the long cables regardless of the cut carriage board.
The cut carriage board was redesigned because the cropmark sensor potentiometer would unadjust itself.

That's interesting... could explain why our labels tend to screw when we do a print, lam and cut, and sometimes it even screws on just a print and cut.