Strange Problem! Vertical Stripes on ALL heads CMYK Roland VS 640

[kristhetrader]

Hi there all,

I am puzzled now. I NEED your help! I am unable to fix this one after having tried ALOT. I've seen all kinds of issues on this printer and I was always able to fix them, changed heads, board fuses blown, cabling, etc, etc.

But never seen this one. There are some phantom stripes on all 4 CMYK heads as follows from the picture.

Problem happens with any quality setting, High Quality, Standard, Bi-direction, Uni-direction...

Althoght not seen well on the picture, the phantom stripes are there as marked in blue rectangle. The distance from 0 where the problem happens is around 1200mm.

First I thought it as a linear encoder issue, which I cleaned. Cause it happens at the same position relative to all 4 heads and on all of them! Made no difference.

I've setup again in Service Mode the linear encoder and it threw NO ERRORS at all. I will try and replace the encoder strip, but I feel it won't make any difference at all.

I'm very much puzzled now. Printer is pretty much useless like this :-(

ANY IDEAS HERE? Could this be the encoder PCB? :-(

Thanks for your help!

 

[Jim Hancock]

Try removing the encoder strip from the printer and clean it with a microfiber cloth and acetone until it is squeaky clean and there is no ink on the cloth when pulling it through the cloth. Then redo all the calibrations, including Initialize the limit. Acetone removes ink from the encoder much better than alcohol. In addition, as the encoder is a strip of graphics film, depending upon the water content in the alcohol, the emulsion on the strip can be softened and possibly damaged. The encoder strip is impervious to acetone and will not be damaged by it, but more ink will be removed than with even 100% alcohol.

 

[kristhetrader]

Try removing the encoder strip from the printer and clean it with a microfiber cloth and acetone until it is squeaky clean and there is no ink on the cloth when pulling it through the cloth. Then redo all the calibrations, including Initialize the limit. Acetone removes ink from the encoder much better than alcohol. In addition, as the encoder is a strip of graphics film, depending upon the water content in the alcohol, the emulsion on the strip can be softened and possibly damaged. The encoder strip is impervious to acetone and will not be damaged by it, but more ink will be removed than with even 100% alcohol.

Cheers Jim, will give that a try. I also have an old spare encoder strip, will give it a try too.

 

[Gino]

I don't know the proper identification, but it seems like your inks are starving for a bit and not firing 100%.

 

[Roland Certified Tech]

100% damaged or dirty linear encoder scale.

 

[kristhetrader]

I don't know the proper identification, but it seems like your inks are starving for a bit and not firing 100%.

Hi Gino, thanks for this observation, but that happens ALWAYS at the same place on the carriage, so not particularly an ink issue, this really points more to the encoder strip.

 

[kristhetrader]

100% damaged or dirty linear encoder scale.

Cheers, will; just order a new one rather than try to spend time cleaning it... Funny thing is I have replaced the strip about 6 months ago already

Thanks again to all!