Colorspan 72UVX... why, you little...! (strangle, strangle)

[Ddave72]

The continuing saga of a temperamental old flatbed...

EPISODE V: THE V/P SYSTEM STRIKES BACK

Foo. One bl%dy thing after another with this one, innit?

The ol' dog has sat mostly idle for the past several weeks, xmas slowdown etc. Ran an occasional job, but not a lot. Nothing at all since xmas, til yesterday, when SURPRISE! a PROBLEM!

First, since it hadn't run in a while, I did a double-purge & clean to blow out the cobwebs. That was fine, but had a vacuum error... pressure too high, running between 6.5-7.0" h2o. Should be around 5.0" h2o according to dox (except user manual page b-15, which bizarrely claims 7.25-8.25, wtf?)

As one does, I shrugged and ignored it. Printed off my job, which ended up with a few "quality" issues. Hmm, guess it needs a fresh round of calibrations... after all, it hasn't run much in a while.

YIKES! The bi-di test was a big, sloppy uncured mess... thought I sorted out the issue with K not curing off?! (see previous post somewhere) And there is definitely too much ink laid down. Xhead test amazingly showed fully within spec, but still too much ink.

Some web snooping later, and I have come to the conclusion that my V/P system is f%ked. Likely restrictor, filters & all that happy cr@p.

QUESTION: anybody got a procedure for dealing with this? The dox are kinda quiet on the subject, other than "call yer tech." And where's the best place for parts?

As always, any advice, anecdotes, or snide comments will be welcomed.

Cheers, Ddave72

 

[Ddave72]

UPDATE: just ran another bi-di test... although K still is not curing off, and the ink still seems pretty heavy, at least the calibration is still w/in spec. So hey, I got that going for me at least.

 

[eye4clr]

Call Mike and/or Ryan at California Media Services. They know these machines better than just about anyone. And they do good phone support too.

 

[Ddave72]

Thanks for the tip, Eye4clr... I will definitely be in contact with them. Plus, they have the restrictor I need, and at a much better price than what I found earlier today!

 

[Blues]

Please help
I have problem with colorspan 72 UVR
have error :
CODE 0203E001
Media feed Encoder Error
anyone know?
Thanks for help

 

[omgsideburns]

If it's not curing... did you flush the head with the solachrome flush before letting it "relax"? Or has it just had ink sitting in it? I know sometimes if there is some of the flush in the head, there will have a hard time curing fully.

The vacuum system is pretty simple to check. Take the black cover off (the thing that has the regulator adjustment sticking out). There is a little copper nipple that gets clogged up. You'll see a weird H shaped vacuum tube assembly behind the regulator valve, it's in there. Inside the fitting, it's blocked off except for a tiny hole. This hole gets clogged real easily.

The other thing that can happen is the contacts on the pressure switches get carboned up.. they are a piece that can be purchased online.. there is a model number on the side of it. The way to test for this is to knock on the unit when you're having a drop or rise in pressure and see if it starts working again. Cost of the nipple, filters, and the switches can be had well under $100.

There are a lot of other things going on in that machine, but most of it is simple to figure out.. ask if you have any questions.