Need Help CJV30-160 test print all wrong, prints randomly off to the side

[DevoAustralia]

Hello !

Hoping someone here can help with a problem that the tech is finding hard to get back to me about. My awesome printer is 6 years old-ish and has used maybe 2 cartridges of ink in all those years so it hasn't been used much at all.

Last year it was printing parallelograms instead of rectangles and blurring some of the finer details so I sent some samples to Brisbane and the tech there reckoned the head needed replacing. Fair enough I thought even though it's done bugger all work it's been a long time. After the head was replaced it sat for a while before I used it and nothing printed. Brand new head completely blocked so I did nozzle washes and head cleans until it cleared up a bit but was still nowhere near working. Tech came back, ooops, the pump needed replacing. It has a new capping station and now has a new pump.

The profiles were not good at best but had somehow disappeared, okay, helpful techie installed some new ones and I finally got a print or two out of the machine.

Sits for a coupla months doing it's automatic turning on and flushing itself, as it does. Went to use it and again it needed head cleans and nozzle washes. The other head with the same amount of non-use lasted 5 years without trouble and now I am about to throw the machine ! The test print is nothing like I remember it being and it seems the colours are in the wrong sequence as well.

Also it has gone back to printing parallelograms instead of rectangles which used to mean the encoder is dirty / faulty or the sensor. I turn the machine off at the wall and back on again and sometimes that makes a difference but not every time. ut apparently these issues are related to the head now ?

The tech is 4 hours away and doesn't miss me on the Invoicing so I thought I'd try ewe guys first instead and see if I can become the tech I never wanted to be hahaha

Thanks for looking and thanks in advance for any ideas you may wish to share

Kind Regards

Devo

 

[ewded]

Hi Devo,

Leaving an eco-solvent printer lick itself for months and wondering why all the nozzles are blocked is like 15 y olds having unprotected sex and wondering how they got pregnant. These machines are meant to be used once a week at least, if you use it less than that you don't need this printer, it'd be much more economic to outsource your print jobs.

 

[DevoAustralia]

Hi Devo,

Leaving an eco-solvent printer lick itself for months and wondering why all the nozzles are blocked is like 15 y olds having unprotected sex and wondering how they got pregnant. These machines are meant to be used once a week at least, if you use it less than that you don't need this printer, it'd be much more economic to outsource your print jobs.

hahaha at the 15 year old analogy .. I totally get that and would agree BUT it's been fine doing what it's been doing for the last 5 years without a drama EXCEPT when I've had the head replaced by an expert, then it's all gone belly up.

Are the nozzles blocked ? They seem to be working ... the problem would seem to be in the brand new pump failing ( but if one takes away the bottle, the ink pumps onto the floor ) or the capping station, which swallows up the fluids left on it, the dampers which I have yet to check, the scale which I have yet to clean, or the ink not getting to the damper, which I also have to check.

For the last 5 years I have left it for months and fired it up and it's worked like a charm every time. I used to believe in the "it has to do at least one job a week" theory, especially with my last Mimaki ( JV2 ) that didn't have the licking mechanism, it had to run daily but back then I was busy printing. Same as the T-Jet DTG machine I had for years, but the CJV30 has previously had none of those dramas because it can lick itself, and it's done given itself a good lick too !

I have downloaded a Service Manual from China that I haven't printed out yet but looks like it was written by the same people who produced the Operator Manual which was supplied when I bought the machine so I don't hold much faith in that being able to solve the immediate problems. Hopefully there will be some gems hidden in there

You are right of course, the amount that I don't use it, it's a complete waste of resources. Unfortunately, knowing that doesn't get the thing running. If it was a reasonable charge for a service call, I would "get the guy" to come fix it. If I had more work in a failing economy for signmakers, it would work all the time !

Thanks for your input though

 

[ewded]

It wasn't meant to be a preach, just an advice.

It looks like the magenta is missing completely on the left side.

Try to do an overnight head soaking (start a maintenance cleaning when the head moves out of the way so you can fill up the capping station with cleaning fluid, then unplug the machine from the wall and push the head back to its location so it touches the liquid) to recover some of the nozzles.

If I were you I'd change the ink tubes and dampers before trying to print as ink particles may have settled down in the tubes earlier, and now that you let it clean itself they may come loose and cause problems. Until then I wouldn't do any hard cleaning.

 

[DevoAustralia]

It wasn't meant to be a preach, just an advice.

It looks like the magenta is missing completely on the left side.

Try to do an overnight head soaking (start a maintenance cleaning when the head moves out of the way so you can fill up the capping station with cleaning fluid, then unplug the machine from the wall and push the head back to its location so it touches the liquid) to recover some of the nozzles.

If I were you I'd change the ink tubes and dampers before trying to print as ink particles may have settled down in the tubes earlier, and now that you let it clean itself they may come loose and cause problems. Until then I wouldn't do any hard cleaning.

Hi ewded,

Yeah it's the missing magenta that bothers me, I've never seen that before.

Thanks for the advice, sounds like a good idea to me. I'll order the dampers and tubes this morning and get the soak happening for the whole day, not like the machine is busy doing anything

Thanks

Kind Regards

Devo

 

[Neil]

Where are you located Devo?
I've got a CJV30 I do all my own maintenance. Not uncommon seeing things like that magenta dropout and nozzles missing. Don't get a tech out, they just throw everything at it all at once.
Send us a PM and we'll see if we can nut it out.

 

[DevoAustralia]

Where are you located Devo?
I've got a CJV30 I do all my own maintenance. Not uncommon seeing things like that magenta dropout and nozzles missing. Don't get a tech out, they just throw everything at it all at once.
Send us a PM and we'll see if we can nut it out.

Hi Neil,

I'm in Hervey Bay, 3 to 4 hours north of Brisbane

I will PM you later in the day and thanks Neil !

Bit of an update:

Had all sorts of error messages come at me, ie 170 HEAD LOCK, LINEAR SENSOR, BATTERY REPLACE ... so ...

I removed the encoder sensor and cleaned it by blowing air into it with a blowbrush ( not compressed air lol ) and cleaned the scale with Isocol, put it back together.

Did the Battery replace thing ... turned it off at the wall and disconnected the plug, replaced the CR2032 battery on the board, waited, turned it back on again in sequence of wall switch, white switch .... made no difference

I then tried to syringe the dampers and ink tubes and now they are full of air coz I didn't know about the solenoid .... clamped off the drain tubes and then filled the capping station with cleaning fluid and moved the head back over it so it can soak and not dry out ....

Called the techie yesterday and he's gunna talk me through some things apparently coz the battery error message won't let me past it to do anything. There must be a way of interrupting the boot to get past it but at the moment I am ignorant of such a machination ...

He charges for travel ( rightly so ) but I don't think I can trade a repair visit for tattoos as he's a cleanskin lol

Devo

 

[Neil]

All good mate, sounds like he's onto it.