UGH. New Problems.

[grafixemporium]

Coming off the heels of this thread dealing with my dirty encoder strip problems...

I think I just opened a new can of worms. Just my luck. We finished the last bus in fleet of shuttle buses today, so I decided to crack open the VP540 and give it a good cleaning. I cleaned the encoder strip again... which didn't really seem to be that dirty. Vacuumed out some debris. Wiped everything down. Put it back together.

Now I can't get a clean print. This is a new problem... or at least a new symptom. I've never seen this before.

Sorry for the terrible pictures, but hopefully you can get an idea of what I'm dealing with. In a nutshell, my prints look like polka dotted crap.

After running a flood fill test print, I'm getting some banding in the black. The is a little deflection in a few of the nozzles, but it's not really that bad. Everything is firing.

HELP!

Andrew

 

[grafixemporium]

Here's my test print. I know the black is not perfect, but it's been like this for a while. It's no worse than it was yesterday.

 

[sfr table hockey]

I assume it was the same media used on both test prints? Was it a piece of media you have had sitting around for a bit and you did the test prints on that. Almost looks like contaminated media.


Some also look like what you get when the heat is not high enough but cleaning things should not have knocked the heat out of wack.

Did you do a head soak with cleaning fluid by any chance? But even is you did after the fill test print it should have cleared the head from solution and not be residue left in the heads.

 

[grafixemporium]

I assume it was the same media used on both test prints? Was it a piece of media you have had sitting around for a bit and you did the test prints on that. Almost looks like contaminated media.

Come to think of it, that's exactly what it looks like. I tried printing on some really crappy static cling material a couple of years ago and my prints looked just like this. Unfortunately, I ran these tests on some short scrap rolls of 180cv3 and ij35c. Same issue on different media.

 

[HulkSmash]

This happened to us once because when we cleaned it, it knocked an O ring lose, cause air to get in the lines. This might be the issues. Make sure all your lines are tight and sealed.

 

[CS-SignSupply-TT]

Careful not to OVER torque and break a stem

 

[sfr table hockey]

Have you made sure the heat is working propper and that you did not bump something and disconnect.

 

[petepaz]

Have you made sure the heat is working propper and that you did not bump something and disconnect.

i had a problem like that once and it was a heat issue. we printed some material i had to lower the temp for and forgot to put it back up. looks like the ink is not penetrating/soaking into the vinyl

 

[grafixemporium]

I have never adjusted the heat settings. I'll check to make sure it's heating up properly.

 

[Vital Designs]

Has the environment changed where the printer is located (Humidity/temp) It looks like 2 separate issues though. The blotchy print sure looks like a heat/humidity problem but the banding could be starvation. Make sure the black damper has ink in it. If there is an air leak the test print may often look good but when you start laying down solids it shows up.

Run a solid black square and when you see the banding, stop the print and immediatly do a test print(make sure no cleaning takes place). If any nozzels have dropped that could indicate an air leak.

Run an environmental match.

 

[grafixemporium]

Sorry to hijack my own thread... I'm running prints on a friend's SP540i. Does this thing support RIPC? The profiles aren't installed with his Versaworks and his software is up to date.

 

[cdiesel]

Andrew, looks to me like you're not getting ANY heat. Is it?

 

[grafixemporium]

Yes, the heat is definitely on. Aside from the printer feeling hot, I'm not really sure how to tell if it's heating to the correct temp.

 

[grafixemporium]

OMG... using a friend's SP540i with non ripc profiles. Printing a full Sprinter wrap. Sooo sloowwww.