Strange sound from Roland SC-540

[Superior7]

Hey all...so we purchased a used Roland SC-540 last summer and have been running it will little to no issues for over a year now (we replaced the magenta head successfully about a month ago) last week while running a cleaning the printer made a really strange "grinding" noise and kicked the battery backp. I shut everything down, reset the battery backup and had no more issues. No error codes or anything. So today while running a print it again made the strange grinding noise for a few seconds...no stopping of print no issues no error code. It continued on as if nothing had happened. The thing is I can't tell if the sound was related to the carridge or if it was more electronic sounding?? Anyone have any input at all?? I am mostly looking to see if anyone can suggest what I may end up dealing with later on if an error code does show up?

TIA

 

[WalkerP]

Is it when the carriage is moving or when cleaning? Could be the axis motor/bearings if when the carriage is moving. Pretty common and easy to replace. If it's when the pumps are running it could be the gears slipping.
If it happens again try to video it.

 

[Superior7]

I'm starting to worry it might be something electrical....again today it kicked off while printing and also shut down the computer I have running it....

 

[Ragnabrok]

When does the sound happen? if it's while the heads are moving, and is a LOUD buzzy/grindy sound it could be the scan motor or servo board. if it is when the machine is running a cleaning, and its a higher pitched whine, one of the pumps is over torquing the pump motor. Neither one of these should cause the power to click off, if a surge protector is being used, you should probably change it.

 

[BIG EASY DOES IT]

I'm starting to worry it might be something electrical....again today it kicked off while printing and also shut down the computer I have running it....

Shut down the power to the computer? Or just blue screen of death not responding? I don't know how a printer could turn a computer off. Sounds like electrical problemsto me probably from the breaker box. Start to print and it drains the electrical on the breaker and the computer shuts off maybe?

 

[Snydo]

Shut down the power to the computer? Or just blue screen of death not responding? I don't know how a printer could turn a computer off. Sounds like electrical problemsto me probably from the breaker box. Start to print and it drains the electrical on the breaker and the computer shuts off maybe?

I agree, sounds like brown power to me. I would look for brown or burnt wires coming out of your breaker box. I would put the printer on its own breaker.

 

[Superior7]

When does the sound happen? if it's while the heads are moving, and is a LOUD buzzy/grindy sound it could be the scan motor or servo board. if it is when the machine is running a cleaning, and its a higher pitched whine, one of the pumps is over torquing the pump motor. Neither one of these should cause the power to click off, if a surge protector is being used, you should probably change it.

Yes it's on a surge protector...that is what I meant when it tripped the breaker; meaning the surge protector and computer that is also hooked up to surge protector. I will look into getting that tested and probably changed out then! Thanks for the input

 

[Logoadv]

I would not want to have anything but the printer plugged into a single surge protector. I haven't measured it, but the power draw from the printer is probably fairly substantial. We also run automatic heat press machines and commercial embroidery machines that take 220v in our shop, so we had to wire everything with machine placement in mind so that each got its own circuit.

 

[El Barto]

The power draw from the printer is negligible. The power draw from the heater is huge. I plugged our sc540 into a UPS with the printer in the battery side and the heater in the surge protect only side. Worked like a champ. In the sj740 the printer and heater share a PSU, so it was impossible to use a UPS with it.