Printing Crooked,Contour Cut Not Matching Print.

[Phil Swanson]

Need help. Hours away from tech service.

My Roland SP300 is printing crooked. When it is done printing, the contour cut is where it's supposed to be and misses the print by inches.
I have actually had the print go completely off the vinyl and on to the printer.

I tried adjusting the optical eye for the cutting and printing and it seemed to fix it but then it started again.

I found out that if I shut the machine down and start it again it will work for a while but then suddenly will be way off again for no reason.

The plot cutting seems to work perfectly which leads me to believe that the encoder strip is OK.

Anyone ever hear of anything like this?

 

[BIG EASY DOES IT]

Encoder issue maybe? Not sure where it is on this machine. Encoder strip is a thin strip of metal with tiny slots/holes all accross it. Very tiny slots/holes. If some of these were clogged you could possibly have issues like this. The encoder strip tells the printer where the carriage is in the printer.

 

[Phil Swanson]

Encoder may be a possibility. Mine is a piece of clear plastic with tiny lines on it, I've tried cleaning it but it didn't change anything. Also the plot cutting is working OK and I believe that the plot cutting uses the encoder strip.

 

[C5 Service&Repair]

Post a picture of the printing. Cutting doesnt use the encoder strip. IF the cutting is in the correct places and the print is in fact moving, then it is the encoder strip and sensor are bad.

 

[Phil Swanson]

OK. Thanks. I"ll try to get a pic today.

 

[Phil Swanson]

OK, after cleaning the encoder strip 3 times it's back to normal.
I finally wiped down with alcohol eyeglass pads several times. It must have had something stuck on it that finally came off.

The second time I cleaned it it was printing horrible, totally unusable. So I knew that I was changing something and was praying that I didn't ruin the encoder.

Next thing that I'm ordering is a new encoder strip, encoder reader, and all of the mounting hardware. If the encoder strip ever does go bad ( i.e. it breaks ) your dead in the water for any kind of printing.
( which ALWAYS happens in the middle of a rush job!!)

THANKS, everyone!

 

[player]

OK, after cleaning the encoder strip 3 times it's back to normal.
I finally wiped down with alcohol eyeglass pads several times. It must have had something stuck on it that finally came off.

The second time I cleaned it it was printing horrible, totally unusable. So I knew that I was changing something and was praying that I didn't ruin the encoder.

Next thing that I'm ordering is a new encoder strip, encoder reader, and all of the mounting hardware. If the encoder strip ever does go bad ( i.e. it breaks ) your dead in the water for any kind of printing.
( which ALWAYS happens in the middle of a rush job!!)

THANKS, everyone!

Pretty much anything that goes bad you are dead in the water. Maybe you should buy a spare printer...

 

[Phil Swanson]

HA! I like that one! Maybe I'll buy one of everything....