URGENT - Faulty HP FB750, Leave on or off?

[PrintItBig]

Hi,

We have a HP FB750 which comes up with the message “Encoder strip error” with the option to restart or retry. Choosing either option gets us back to the same error message. Our support company has gone home for the night and we’re not sure if we should turn the printer off overnight or leave it on with the error message showing.

If we switch it off is it relying on the UPS power supply to stop the ink falling out of the heads? If so the UPS won’t last all night.

Or if we leave it on are we running the risk of it doing something stupid like moving the carriage over the belt and turning the lamps on?

Anyone have any advice?

Thanks.

 

[flyplainsdrifta]

to my knowledge, you should be okay leaving it on. have you cleaned your strip lately or is it something that is definitely needing a replacement?

 

[PrintItBig]

Thanks, yes I’ve cleaned the encoder strip with no luck. I think it’s definitely an engineer job.

So is the consensus to leave it on?

Anyone else?

Thanks.

 

[theyllek]

Don't forget to clean the encoder reader and the home flag sensor. It's a little awkward to get to but canned air with a long straw can get in there. Also make sure all the cables are seated correctly.

You can leave it on. When it does it's overnight maintenance it might strand itself in the middle, but I've never had it dump ink out on the belt, or turn lamps on or anything, it just sits there until you come in and acknowledge the errors.

If you switch it off, AND your UPS is plugged in AND you do not loose power you will be fine. Worse case, if it's over the service station, and drops the ink from the heads, you don't have hardly any clean up, and another purse or so will fix the problem. You won't loose that much ink.

 

[flyplainsdrifta]

+1 for the reader. yeah you'll be fine. you can set the auto clean off in the menus if youre worried about ink getting on the belt but i think you should be okay either way. the printer shouldn't automatically be turning on the lamps either. at least in the years ive been running mine, ive never seen it happen.

 

[PrintItBig]

Thanks guys, we’ve left it on. Am I right in thinking that if the printer is switched off but still plugged in, it still uses the mains power to maintain the vacuum in the heads? Or does it switch to the UPS?

Thanks.

 

[flyplainsdrifta]

when it is without power, it requires a current to keep the vacuum in the head so you don't have ink seepage. the battery backup will keep that in depending on the quality of the backup. ours is about 12 hours. depending on yours you may be able to do it overnight but you may have a bit of a time trying to get that back up to snuff in terms of nozzle test. but yeah. good luck with the encoder replacement!! hopefully you'll get lucky with a tech and get one who's very familiar with it. our new techs out here are literally learning these printers on the job so its hit or miss every time in terms of down time. but yes good luck!

 

[PrintItBig]

Thanks. Also, how do I clean / where do I locate the encoder reader and the home flag sensor? Are there any instructions online anywhere?

Thanks again.

 

[Ron the Sign Man]

Link: h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c04688227
User manual for fb750 with cleaning instructions
From the looks of it it is very similar to the fb700
You can do a google for "FB700 service manual" and get the big one in pdf, first link for me.

The encoder reader is a pain in the ass to get to and I'm not sure how to clean it without damaging the encoder strip. Only cleaned mine once when we were replacing the encoder strip. Good luck. Not sure why you would unplug the UPS if you were shutting down the machine.

 

[Olympic Print]

Don't forget to clean the encoder reader and the home flag sensor. It's a little awkward to get to but canned air with a long straw can get in there. Also make sure all the cables are seated correctly.

You can leave it on. When it does it's overnight maintenance it might strand itself in the middle, but I've never had it dump ink out on the belt, or turn lamps on or anything, it just sits there until you come in and acknowledge the errors.

If you switch it off, AND your UPS is plugged in AND you do not loose power you will be fine. Worse case, if it's over the service station, and drops the ink from the heads, you don't have hardly any clean up, and another purse or so will fix the problem. You won't loose that much ink.

This worked GREAT Thanks for the advise.

 

[FrankW]

The Vacuum Pump of the FB has a separate power connector. Because of that, switching off or even unplugging the printer don‘t affect the work of the vacuum pump, and no ink will be spilled. The power connector of the vacuum pump can be seen between the ink boxes. Check that this external power supply is connected to an independent power socket.

If the vacuum pump fails, the heads and ink reservoirs above the heads will run out of ink. When we for example transport a FB on short distances, we connect the vacuum pump to a little UPS, works fine.