SC-540 Roland setup to use as vinyl cutter

[BrettKaiaua]

Hi, my wife has just bought an old working Soljet SC540 which she just wants to use as a vinyl cutter. It has no inks in it and hasn't printed anything in a couple of years and when she turns it on to use it as a cutter it stops at the "cleaning" screen, then flashes the numbers of all the inks that are missing. She can't get past that screen. Is it possible to bypass it and just have it on so she can do cutting on it? I couldn't see a setting in the service manual that would do it. thanks!

 

[Gabil]

Load it in service mode where cleaning procedure skipped during boot up.

 

[BrettKaiaua]

Load it in service mode where cleaning procedure skipped during boot up.

thanks for that, I think there might be another problem though. When I plug the printer in it goes straight to cleaning, ie. it bypasses the sub power button. When it's on and I press and hold the sub power button it powers down for about 1 second and then comes on again and starts straight into cleaning - so I can't power up or power down with the sub power button, which means that I can't boot it into service mode.

 

[ProPDF]

Hi, my wife has just bought an old working Soljet SC540 which she just wants to use as a vinyl cutter. It has no inks in it and hasn't printed anything in a couple of years and when she turns it on to use it as a cutter it stops at the "cleaning" screen, then flashes the numbers of all the inks that are missing. She can't get past that screen. Is it possible to bypass it and just have it on so she can do cutting on it? I couldn't see a setting in the service manual that would do it. thanks!

Whoever you got it from could have unplugged it during a flush or ink change being done and there is no way to bypass it besides let it finish trying to clean/pump. You need to get some dummy bulk ink cartridges plugged in the back of the machine with bulk ink chips to make it think it has ink so you can use it as a cutter. I forget but even empty ink cartridges might work just MAKE SURE the chips are on the cartridge or you will RIP off the sensor inside the machine and be in to a several hour job tearing the back of the printer off and replacing the sensor tabs. It's a real pain.

Here are some of the cheapest parts links. Sometimes on eBay people will sell empty cartridges for Roland machines you could just put chips into.

Buy 12pcs of these
https://www.sign-in-china.com/produ...ridge_for_roland_inkjet_printer_machines.html

Buy 2 pcs of these (That's 12 chips one for each cartridge.)
https://www.sign-in-china.com/produ...eco_solvent_max_chips_6pcs_set_cmyklclm_.html

You can buy the above parts on eBay also for a little bit more.

 

[Gabil]

thanks for that, I think there might be another problem though. When I plug the printer in it goes straight to cleaning, ie. it bypasses the sub power button. When it's on and I press and hold the sub power button it powers down for about 1 second and then comes on again and starts straight into cleaning - so I can't power up or power down with the sub power button, which means that I can't boot it into service mode.

Hmm... turn off the printer, open printer’s chassis cover, disconnect cable from “CN8” slot of servo board and run the printer again. Just curious what will happen...

 

[binki]

I think if use use a cleaning cart and it is empty it will work.

 

[BrettKaiaua]

Whoever you got it from could have unplugged it during a flush or ink change being done and there is no way to bypass it besides let it finish trying to clean/pump. You need to get some dummy bulk ink cartridges plugged in the back of the machine with bulk ink chips to make it think it has ink so you can use it as a cutter. I forget but even empty ink cartridges might work just MAKE SURE the chips are on the cartridge or you will RIP off the sensor inside the machine and be in to a several hour job tearing the back of the printer off and replacing the sensor tabs. It's a real pain.

Here are some of the cheapest parts links. Sometimes on eBay people will sell empty cartridges for Roland machines you could just put chips into.

Buy 12pcs of these
https://www.sign-in-china.com/produ...ridge_for_roland_inkjet_printer_machines.html

Buy 2 pcs of these (That's 12 chips one for each cartridge.)
https://www.sign-in-china.com/produ...eco_solvent_max_chips_6pcs_set_cmyklclm_.html

You can buy the above parts on eBay also for a little bit more.

thanks very much for that, we'll give it a go!

 

[BrettKaiaua]

I think if use use a cleaning cart and it is empty it will work.

ok, the guy we bought the printer from says he might have some empty cartridges for it by the end of the week, so they must have another printer that uses the same cartridges, he's going to send those to us when he has them, so hopefully that will sort it.

 

[BrettKaiaua]

Hmm... turn off the printer, open printer’s chassis cover, disconnect cable from “CN8” slot of servo board and run the printer again. Just curious what will happen...

thanks, I'll give this a go if the cartridges don't work, my wife is trying to keep me from taking anything apart, she's spent too many years with me surrounded by printer parts and book spines, and is trying to keep me out of her vinyl cutter! I've assured her it's safe, but she's very protective. This is her dream cutter if we can get it working.

 

[ProPDF]

thanks, I'll give this a go if the cartridges don't work, my wife is trying to keep me from taking anything apart, she's spent too many years with me surrounded by printer parts and book spines, and is trying to keep me out of her vinyl cutter! I've assured her it's safe, but she's very protective. This is her dream cutter if we can get it working.

Don't touch the board unless you enjoy chasing ghost

 

[BrettKaiaua]

Don't touch the board unless you enjoy chasing ghost

I'd like to get this sorted as painlessly as possible, so will try to avoid it then.

 

[Gabil]

I'd like to get this sorted as painlessly as possible, so will try to avoid it then.

That cable will disable the ink tank board thus technically should prevent system from initializing it during the boot.

 

[BrettKaiaua]

That cable will disable the ink tank board thus technically should prevent system from initializing it during the boot.

thanks, I'll give it a go if I can't get around it with the cartridges.

 

[woolly]

just a few things to help you on your way
the carts are colour slot sensitive by the small bumps sticking out of the case different arrangement for each colour. the cart physically wont fit in the wrong slot. you may be able to file them off but never tried, and of cause you need 12 of them, i think it will probably work with carts but they must have or think it has ink. on the back of the cart is a thin blade that sticks out when the cart is empty of ink, this triggers the levels, as you have no desire to make the printer print you can slice about 3mm of the tab to make the printer think it has ink.
the printer will still want to do cleans etc. you might be able to reduce those in the menu. next problem may be driving the cutter the original was colourrip rip from roland and can drive it just as a plotter with out problems. unfortunately the colourrip was a XP program we still run ours on a win7 pro computer just fine never tried win10 yet,
there is half a chance that a standard roland cutter driver may just drive it on its own with out the rip.
a little unorthodox but well worth a shot as it is a high class cutter system just not the fastest but fast enough.. best of luck.

 

[BrettKaiaua]

just a few things to help you on your way
the carts are colour slot sensitive by the small bumps sticking out of the case different arrangement for each colour. the cart physically wont fit in the wrong slot. you may be able to file them off but never tried, and of cause you need 12 of them, i think it will probably work with carts but they must have or think it has ink. on the back of the cart is a thin blade that sticks out when the cart is empty of ink, this triggers the levels, as you have no desire to make the printer print you can slice about 3mm of the tab to make the printer think it has ink.
the printer will still want to do cleans etc. you might be able to reduce those in the menu. next problem may be driving the cutter the original was colourrip rip from roland and can drive it just as a plotter with out problems. unfortunately the colourrip was a XP program we still run ours on a win7 pro computer just fine never tried win10 yet,
there is half a chance that a standard roland cutter driver may just drive it on its own with out the rip.
a little unorthodox but well worth a shot as it is a high class cutter system just not the fastest but fast enough.. best of luck.

thanks! that's very helpful. I'm just waiting on the cartridges, and then we'll start looking into the software side, I think she'd preferably like to cut straight from illustrator, but we'll look into all that if/when we can get it going.

 

[ProPDF]

just a few things to help you on your way
the carts are colour slot sensitive by the small bumps sticking out of the case different arrangement for each colour. the cart physically wont fit in the wrong slot. you may be able to file them off but never tried, and of cause you need 12 of them, i think it will probably work with carts but they must have or think it has ink. on the back of the cart is a thin blade that sticks out when the cart is empty of ink, this triggers the levels, as you have no desire to make the printer print you can slice about 3mm of the tab to make the printer think it has ink.
the printer will still want to do cleans etc. you might be able to reduce those in the menu. next problem may be driving the cutter the original was colourrip rip from roland and can drive it just as a plotter with out problems. unfortunately the colourrip was a XP program we still run ours on a win7 pro computer just fine never tried win10 yet,
there is half a chance that a standard roland cutter driver may just drive it on its own with out the rip.
a little unorthodox but well worth a shot as it is a high class cutter system just not the fastest but fast enough.. best of luck.

All carts will fit all slots. Do not cut the top tab off or the cart will not enter the machine fully. If you get into the service menu you can convert the machine to a SC545EX and run it on versaworks for free on windows 10

 

[BrettKaiaua]

All carts will fit all slots. Do not cut the top tab off or the cart will not enter the machine fully. If you get into the service menu you can convert the machine to a SC545EX and run it on versaworks for free on windows 10

thanks. Hopefully it will all become clear when I have all the parts. I'm a bit dated when it comes to software, I still have XP on one my computers! And Windows 7 on a laptop, and Windows 10 on another laptop, so between them I should be able to hook something up.