jv33 printhead not genuine

[Brilliant Grafix]

Hello again,

Just a little introduction regarding this subject. I bought a mimaki JV33-160 from a printing company a few months ago. The machine is fine, we tested it along with the mimaki technician and everything was great, so I went on with the purchase. The technician is working for the company which is the representative of Mimaki here in Cyprus. After a series of events, I find out that this technician is the ONLY Mimaki technician in the country... yes it's unbelievable but its true. Cyrpus is small and somewhat undeveloped.. but how could I imagine there would ever be such a problem. Anyhow, worst part is that he seems to be uninterested in having me as a client. As you can understand he has plenty of clients.. all the Mimaki owners in the country. So since I'm starting my buisiness now, he just wants to get what he can from me for as long as I can last. Long story short... he let my printhead get ruined by sending me either expired ink or sending me wrong ink, or delying way too much, and not telling me how to maintain it properly. Yes I probably could go elsewhere to get ink or be tought how to maintain my printer, but he was my technician, and as proven to be later on.. the only mimaki technician I could have gone to. I spoke to many Mimaki owners in the country, they all say the worst things about him, yet he is their technician because they have no other coice. I spoke with the company he works at and they would only let me speak to the technician. I sent an email to mimaki and they didn't answer my questions.. instead they told me they sent a copy of my e-mail to that company and to speak only to that company which represents them here in Cyprus, the company the technician works at, never directly to Mimaki :/

Ok, I just wanted to say all this so you wouldn't suggest to contact the Mimaki representatives of my country, or mimaki directly. SInce I already tried that, and it got me nowhere. I am in need of a mimaki technician to advise me, to tell me what to do to fix my printer.

As for the topic of this thread. The technician wanted to sell me a printhead for 2000 euro. So I went ahead and bought a printhead for my printer from China. I bought it for 940 euro wich included the transport cost plus 8 dampers.

I then got a Roland technician to install my new printhead. He said that he doesn't know anything about electronic stuff on mimaki printers, but he can change a printhead. The installation went great.. until we switched on the printer. It gives me an *ERROR 202*, which according to the operation manual, it means that the printhead is probably not genuine. The roland technician said that we can probably adjust some paramenters by booting the machine in service mode. We can reach the parameter settings, but we don't know what needs to be changed.

I've contacted the dealer I bought the printhead from, but I got no answer yet.. and I'm having the feeling that I wont get one either.

I can not begin to tell you how many hours I've spent online trying to find out any information that could be of use to me, but it seems that JV33 is not very popular online.

So I come to you guys, hoping to find someone that either knows a bit about that sort of stuff.. or who can just ask his/her mimaki technician.

I'm sorry for wasting your time with my problem, but I'm getting kinda desperate here as you can imagine.

Thank you for reading, and pelase let me know if you have anything.

 

[dwt]

For all the time wasted, It would be cheaper still to order the right head. All that time could be used cranking out invoices, on a long....weekend with the family.

Too often 'saving' money means loosing time.
Hope you find it running soon.

 

[Brilliant Grafix]

something I probably shouldn't have forgotten to mention was that the ID of the new printhead is longer than the ID of the old printhead.
When entering service mode in my printer menu, I am unable to change the ID to what my new printer's ID is because it wont let me input that many characters.

Could this mean that this printhead is not a mimaki JV33 printhead, even though it looks exactly like my old one?

 

[genericname]

Seems like a smoking gun to me.

That doesn't mean the wrong one was sent to you out of spite though. Hell, we were driving ourselves mad for the better part of a day trying to install a new head for our JV3, only to find out it was a JV4 head. It's easy enough to spot, unless you're not looking for it.

Even the supplier swears they didn't have any JV4 heads, so I think we may have eaten the cost on it as they wouldn't take it back. Not a huge problem, since we do have a JV4 as well, but what a headache it was, due to just a little identification issue.

 

[sigmo]

I too am installing a DX5 head and getting the 202 error device construction error. I have bought these heads from the same source before and not had a problem before. Any ideas?

 

[Rooster]

I too am installing a DX5 head and getting the 202 error device construction error. I have bought these heads from the same source before and not had a problem before. Any ideas?

Did you happen to upgrade the firmware between now and the last time you installed a head. Mimaki may have closed a loophole with the regular DX5 heads and switched to the same head type as the JV5.

 

[Case]

I too am installing a DX5 head and getting the 202 error device construction error. I have bought these heads from the same source before and not had a problem before. Any ideas?

What version of firmware are you at???

Make sure you are at 4.0 or later....


Case

 

[Robert M]

DX5 Heads

There are many different DX5 print heads available. They have between 3 to six line head ranks depending on which machine they are intended for. The JV33 and JV5 heads are both DX5 heads but they are not interchangable. As far as JV4 and JV3 heads, they are not the same, but you can put a JV3 head (new one) into a JV4, but not the other way around. For the poster with the JV4 head, send me a pm and I will explain how to tell them apart from the JV3 heads.

 

[sigmo]

Did you happen to upgrade the firmware between now and the last time you installed a head. Mimaki may have closed a loophole with the regular DX5 heads and switched to the same head type as the JV5.

Damn firmware. I did upgrade to the latest. That might be why. Now the question is can I upgrade it back to an earlier version?

 

[RippinPC]

Usually yes, you can downgrade the firmware. I'd try that first.

 

[sigmo]

Any ideas where to get previous versions of firmware? Called Mimaki and I'm not authorized to get those files. Tech support told me to replace the ribbon cables. I think that was a canned response because when the old head is put back in the error goes away. Service manual is no help either. Thanks for the help.

 

[Robert72]

So the procedure could be downgrade the firmware, put the printhead and later upgrade firmware again?

Only if w could do something similar with JV5....

 

[RippinPC]

I'd be surprised if you could upgrade the f/w after that and it still work. I would expect the error to return as soon as you upgraded.
This assumes that the old firmware will work with the head that you have installed.

 

[sigmo]

Well it appears the 202 device construction error is a result of firmware version 3.2 and newer. The tech notice that comes with that v3.2 firmware says the fix is to restart the machine. If after 2 more starts the error doesn't go away it is the head ribbon cable. So one of the functions of the 3.2 release is to check head compatibility. It will prevent the use of compatible heads. Previous version firmware doesn't produce this error. I have previous firmware versions 2.0 & 2.2 but haven't yet tried downgrading to see if it works.

I was testing a JV5 and head compatibility last night and also got the 202 errors. The owner called me today and after installing the correct head also got the 202 error. He fixed it by swapping the two head heater connectors.

Here's the really bad news I got today: Epson has discontinued all DX5 head sales in the US. I keep hoping to get the call back from Epson saying April Fools but it isn't going to happen. The reason is they are being used in non OEM machines and Epson wants to put a stop to it.

If anybody has a hook-up let me know because I think the 75 DX5 heads I have are going to be gone really soon.

I'll post back when I learn more about the JV33 and downgrading firmware.

~Dave

 

[Neil]

Dave, are these yours?
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/NEW-DX5-PRIN...mQQptZPrinter_Accessories?hash=item4cee9cccfe

If so, why are they so cheap?, and will they work on a CJV??
My head is fine (so is my printhead currently) but I would take one as a pre-emptive strike if it seemed necessary.

 

[sigmo]

Yes they are mine. The reason they are so cheap is they come from Epson and are compatible most of the time. The head rank values are 21 digit or 40 digit. Not the 24 used by Mimaki. Not sure about Mutoh or others. There is a compatibility issue with firmware version 3.2 on the JV33. The fix is to install an earlier version which I have. I'm not sure how many different printers they will work on as I'm still testing. Sadly Epson figured out these heads were going in non OEM machines and stopped selling them on April 1st. You can call me if you want to talk more about it - 503-875-5719

Regards,
David Parker
Sigmo Inc.

 

[sigmo]

So I was wrong in my previous post about having to down grade the firmware. Yes the 202 error started with version 3.2 (3.1 on the JV33bs), but all you have to do is reset the machine a couple times several minutes apart. If you need an inexpensive head for your JV33 this is the way to go.

Regards,

David Parker
SIGMO INCORPORATED
Tel: 1-503-875-5719

 

[wickedfx1]

i went and bought a printhead that also wasn't genuine from macpc or something like that for my jv33-160 now my printer wont even boot up, can a wrong head do this, also my new head did not come with the microchip board so i pulled it off the old one and put it on the new one...i lost here anyone had this problem before

 

[sigmo]

Not genuine is probably not the best term. Epson makes the print head for Mimaki. The JV5 requires the Epson head licensed to Mimaki, the JV33 does not. The print head Epson sells to Mimaki is licensed to Mimaki which can be identified by green ribbon connectors and IH47V on the board. Not the board you had to remove, swapping that piece is routine. Epson sells the IH47V head to Mimaki for substantially more than the DX5 head it sells for an Epson printer. The Epson head can be identified by black connectors and a board labeled IF33V. It is extremely rare for a head to cause a machine not to start. I've worked on hundreds and hundreds of printers and that has only occurred once after installing a black DX2 head into an Epson 3000 about five years ago. Hopefully you unplugged the machine before the swap. That can cause problems. I would check your ribbon cables and any other connectors you may have come in contact with. If you install the old head will it start? Did you try flushing the new head before installing it? What exactly did you do?

Regards,
David

 

[wickedfx1]

this would be my second time replacing the head, first time was due to a head strike, this time the head is heavily clogged so i ordered a new head, he new heads are not identical, oem seems to have a green ribbon connector, the new one is black, also replaced the data cable too..after the install i turn on the printer, green button lights up but when i push the green button, nothing happens?