• I want to thank all the members that have upgraded your accounts. I truly appreciate your support of the site monetarily. Supporting the site keeps this site up and running as a lot of work daily goes on behind the scenes. Click to Support Signs101 ...

Question Is it worth saving my Roland ?

A

adrk

New Member
Hello pals,
I have a worn VP-540i from which, according to my Roland technician, the motherboard died, 2 or 3 weeks ago. Since then, it is sitting without automatic cleaning or so.
Given it was a spare and pretty worn device and the fact an used motherboard is around $2000 - for what I could find outside suspect listings on AliExpress -, I wonder if it is worth trying keeping it alive or put it to the trash.
Won't all the ink system be clogged and need to be renewed too (EcoSolMax CMYK) ? Is there a risk of incomptible motherboard (firmware, revision, etc ?). Is it possible to change it myself without needing an outside "official" Roland assistance ? What about wiring and such ?
Thanks !
adrien
 
D

damonCA21

Active Member
Motherboards are easy to change, there is no soldering, the wires are either push fit flat cables or clip in ones. You can easily do it in less than an hour with just a screwdriver. They are all the same so no need to worry about firmware. If it has been a couple of weeks without use though the heads may be clogged by now
 
WBS

WBS

New Member
If you have a printer you should have plenty unless your selling your products too cheap, if its not making money its not worth having, farm your prints out
 
D

damonCA21

Active Member
OK so if you have a printer that you have already paid for, and it costs £2000 to fix, you are saying it is better to just scrap that and spend £15,000 on a new printer?
 
Zoogee World

Zoogee World

Domed Promotional Product Supplier
netsol said:
we still print much of our product on a circa 2004(s) roland sc545-ex

obviously increased speed would be great, but, i don't like the idea of being locked out of setup menus
Click to expand...
If you did want to upgrade, I'd recommend trying to pick up a VS-i model, they are quick, good quality and easy enough to service yourself. Only real downside is the 1 head setup. However, as long as you treat it right, it will treat you right. It's our most used printer. We still have our old work horses, 2x SP-300V's, and a newer SG-300, but the VS-300i can still print circles around them, so comes in handy when we need to get things done quick.
 
WBS

WBS

New Member
Yes I am
With a new machine you should get at least 3 yr warrantee, which will cover at least 2 heads at 2500 each plus service and the confidence of printing with out issues, yes you might have an issue but it will get fixed with out you having to worry and lets get on with making money with it. Lets face it if you can not make at leaset 30,000 a year from a printer why would you get one, I can understand in yr 1 you will be learning and not make this but after that, they start to earn money if used right, 90,000 to 100,000 in three years surly you can afford to keep upto date with a new machine every 3 years?
 
D

damonCA21

Active Member
WBS said:
Yes I am
With a new machine you should get at least 3 yr warrantee, which will cover at least 2 heads at 2500 each plus service and the confidence of printing with out issues, yes you might have an issue but it will get fixed with out you having to worry and lets get on with making money with it. Lets face it if you can not make at leaset 30,000 a year from a printer why would you get one, I can understand in yr 1 you will be learning and not make this but after that, they start to earn money if used right, 90,000 to 100,000 in three years surly you can afford to keep upto date with a new machine every 3 years?
Click to expand...
It depends really on what your business is. Yes if all you do is print then you should be making that much, but people often have them for other reasons as part of another business. I don't make that much from printing as it is a secondary part of my other businesses, but is still worth doing and keeping the printer going
 
WBS

WBS

New Member
you only will know what is best for your business, I run a few printers and cutters, but I only have them if they make enough to pay the bills, I have had older machines with out too much trouble, but I have found the eventually they will cost you more than they are worth, In my business keeping them new and up to date with genuine inks is a must and a lot less hassle
 
C

cornholio

New Member
WBS is right IMHO. If you print for a living, dump it. Especially this model, that is notorious for mainboard failure. (There are posts here on how people try to replace network devices(SMD parts on the PCB) or resolder the boards and be without a working printer for months... really? If you can wait to print for months, outsource the prints. It's cheaper.)
I have my degree in electronics and i repair those printers for a living. I could have a couple of old printers like this from customers for myself, but i don't need them, because keeping them alive is too costly. (Ink throughput and parts like caps and wipers and so on)
I do have a 20+ year old Summa cutter in my basement, that i use once every two years or so... but this device doesn't need any attention.
 
A

adrk

New Member
Hello guys, thanks for your answers and the debate which is very intersting to read, as always on this forum !
We will dump the Vp-540i and keep working on our Vs-540i alone, which is enough to keep up our load.
 
U

unmateria

New Member
If the motherboard fried, u have lots of tickets for a printhead-fried raffle. I wouldnt mantain any dx4 or dx5 printer right now, and i would choose just mantain the other printer you have, like you said. I would just try to replace all the big transistors and fuses that usually breaks on these printer mainboard if the problem is that everything works, but nothing is printed. If it doesnt work after that, u just lost 20€ on transistors and some hours soldering them
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top