SP-300 Colors are all skewed off

[blake2415]

Hello.

First, I'm new to this printer. I have the SP-300 with FlexiSign 8.1 and running on Windows 7 x64 bit.

I had an unbelievable deal come up getting a very nice SP-300 here to my shop... could't turn it down at the price.

The unit works well, does nearly perfect print tests. However I have a few issues, the major one being I can't get the colors right.

Oranges turn out Red, Medium Blue's turn out blue shade of Grey, and blacks turn out a dark brownish grey, etc. I'm sure that I've not properly set up my system. Is there anyone here that could share with me the profiles/settings you are using to get reasonably close color prints?

The other issues I'm having are some prints have slight banding. The heads are firing ok from the print test.. nearly perfect actually, but I can see banding unless I use a very high quality mode that takes forever to complete.

The final issue is I'm getting some random and occassional blackish smears across the print, usuually all in one place often to the left pinch roller area. I suspected the heat was too high for printing and the vinyl would buckle but I got it again after lowering the print heat.

I'm new with this, so any answer is probably going to help me.

Thanks,

Bill

 

[Bigdawg]

Profiling is your problem. I don't print from Flexi - I use Versaworks, so I can't tell you how to fix it. But that - in a nutshell - is why your color is messed up.

 

[TresL]

blackish smears = head strikes??

 

[rozankan]

FlexiSign and FlexiSign Pro are extremely versatile tools for controlling Roland devices, and SA International has training tools on their website to maximize the results from their software.

You mentioned in your post concerns about controlling color and having the right profiles for different media.

Another option to possibly consider is the Roland VersaWorks RIP software which includes profiles for the current Roland media line as well as several generic media profiles. Roland VersaWorks is available exclusively through our Authorized Dealers. Roland VersaWorks RIP Software for SP-300 is $ 995.00 List Price, Part Number: RVW-SP300.

http://www.rolanddga.com/dealers/

We believe that Roland VersaWorks and bundled media profiles establishes a benchmark for color quality so that even if you use third party media or other RIP software, you can have a better idea of the capabilities achievable from your Roland device.

Feel free to PM or call our Technical Support Department at 1-800-542-2307 and Press "1" for additional information related to your VersaCAMM.

----------------------
Robert Ozankan
Senior Product Manager - Color Products
Roland DGA

 

[blake2415]

Yep, Profiles are probably a big part of my problem. I've tried a number of combinations and some have done better than others. I was hoping someone might be using a similar setup and might just tell me what profile to try.

I agree, I thought head strikes too, so I'm going to watch it closely when I print from now on. That was my first thought but turning down the heat maybe isn't far enough.

Regarding the software, I did check out versaworks but I couldn't find a demo for it. I really don't want to spend $1k on it only to find it doesn't get me any further than flexi or my primary software EasySign. If I could get a fully working demo on Versaworks I would try it and would even buy it should it solve my problems. I used the colorrip software that came with the unit and didn't like the user interface. I'm concerned that versaworks might be built too similar to it.

 

[CentralSigns]

Did you hand clean heads. You know swabs and all. I get banding when they are dirty. RGB color files maybe? That would make big color differences.

 

[blake2415]

I did do a manual cleaning, replaced the wipers, etc. Today I did a large print and it was mostly ok except that part of the image was a tombstone in grey.. it turned out light violet. The border was black, it turned out a blueish purple, about 60% the way to solid color.. in other words dark but still too light to even be a dark purple.

I've tried about a half dozen profiles and they do shift the colors but none have ever given anything close to black where black is called for.

Any suggestions on which profiles to try? I did use a few with Flexi and a few of rolands profiles but I may not be doing this correctly.

Thanks for all the suggestions.

Bill

 

[blake2415]

Update:

Hello folks! I'm really confused now. I'm still hoping someone here will realize what I'm doing wrong and help me out.

In keeping with the suggestion earlier that a profile was at fault, I spent the better part of all day and night trying different flexisign profiles and never being able to get a decent black or Cyan.

My flexisign is borrowed and it's on a registered dongled laptop that I had to give back to a buddy. I can get it again tomorrow night but I won't end up buying it unless I can make it work. ANyhow, I had concluded that maybe I had a bad head since blue /black is never right. BUt as a test I printed a JPG image using the Windows Versacamm driver and it blew me away.. it was perfect. SO I installed the old COLORRIP and tried one of my images that flexisign couldn't print and it printed it first time correctly.. but with one exception. It had tons of white lines in the print.. like a bad head.. all colors. I printed a test pattern and all jets are firing.. less than 1% were missing. I noticed the colorrip was in a very very fast mode and I didn't see any printer options other than a single Versacamm sp-300 driver for color and one for cut only. As I recall, the color driver was a low resolution version.

So I wonder why I had all the missed lines???? The jpg image I printed was artlike quality, so I'm pretty sure the head is ok. However, it did print very slowly.. so maybe it's filling in for some glitch in the head that isn't actually a dead section of the head.

So there are two problems... 1. Why flexisign can't get the colors even close.. even a little...

and 2...
Why the white lines in colorrip???? Could I be dealing with maybe a pump issue in that it is fine for a print test but can't keep the ink flowing in the case of the very fast print of the colorrip mode?

Again, any help would be appreciated.

Thanks!

Bill

 

[DigitalBBQ]

Dude, you not going to get any of the profile working correctly on your flexi sign software, unless you have spectrophotometer.

Spend another $800 buy an i1 Pro, and use that to read your SWATCH color from flexi profile maker ( comes with the PRO version of flexi )

That's all there is to it.

A $800 solution for you, and you can use any inks, any density, any time, any day, profile it yourself in less than 1 hour using the i1 pro.

Color will be correct the first time you print. Just spend another day or two learning the functions of the profile making, and you are set.

No one can help you only spectrophotometer since it knows color, and it can read color better than your eyes can. It read color and translate into code for color that rip software understand, and that is how you fix your color unmatch problem.

No one want to spend the money on spectrophotometer, and for those who knew what to do; they are already called, "Professional"

 

[designflow]

I had a similar problem with mine printing from flexi. It lays to much ink and the profiles are not correct. Once i got versaworks everything worked out so much better. Versaworks is the way to go to fix your problem.

 

[blake2415]

DBBQ, I agree with you. I'll look into that. But before I do plunge $800 or more in it I would sure feel better getting at least 1 thing to print correctly then contour cut. I was considering flexi but frankly I hate the editor on it. My regular program is EasySign and it has the best vector editor I've ever used. But it's printserver isn't up to the ease and features of Flexi.

DesignFlow, I was thinking that already. I wrote to Roland a few minutes ago to my friend there Jesse. I asked him if there is a demo available that will give me 30 days of full use so I can make sure it works for me. I didn't like ColorRip so Versaworks hopefully uses a better interface with more and clearer options. I tried to find a demo of Versaworks but still can not give it a try.

So you had the same problems, huh? Actually that's encouraging to me. I want this to be my glitch.. not the printer.

Thanks!!!!!!!!!!!!

Bill

 

[blake2415]

Update:

I did get the versaworks installed and then found I had to switch #7 on the mb dipswitch to on. Versaworks then found the printer and all seemed fine until it told me it did not recognize the inks I"m using... (non roland inks are in the unit).

SHeesh...

 

[CentralSigns]

Are you designing in RGB and printing it with the CMYK the printer uses. That will give a huge color shift. Before i spent a small fortune I would look at that.