Roland Sp540 Not printing, (replaced head, ink is in tubes, dampers have ink in them)

[amernausia]

My printer has been out for about 3 weeks now, at first I thought it was the pump cause it was not pulling ink.
I replaced the pump, and it started pulling ink. Now its just not printing at all. I did the empty mode and filled the ink in again.
Now it seems ink is stopping before it goes through the print heads. No ink is going into the waste bottle. I have done numerous powerful cleans, and manual cleans.
I don't know what else to do.
When i Test Print, it prints nothing at all.

 

[player]

edit to quote

 

[player]

My printer has been out for about 3 weeks now, at first I thought it was the pump cause it was not pulling ink.
I replaced the pump, and it started pulling ink. Now its just not printing at all. I did the empty mode and filled the ink in again.
Now it seems ink is stopping before it goes through the print heads. No ink is going into the waste bottle. I have done numerous powerful cleans, and manual cleans.
I don't know what else to do.

Does anything print at all when doing a test print?

Is it possible you cracked the manifolds removing and replacing the dampers?

Is there ink around the dampers?

Did you get any on the head circuit boards?

Is there ink in the dampers?

Do you know how to check the main board for blown fuses?

 

[Ragnabrok]

A clog, or incomplete seal somewhere. Since there is only one pump, all the seals are dependent on each other. The usual suspect is the cap against the head. Take a look while running a medium clean, are the heads roughly centered on the caps? If they are off noticeably to one side, it wont make a proper seal.

Although the dampers have ink in them, the seal against the head manifold could be an issue as well. It's a bit harder to rule out, but one way is to hook a syringe up to a cap drain line, and pull. There should be a strong vacuum. If you hear the hiss of air moving you might be able to hear where it is leaking in.

 

[amernausia]

Does anything print at all when doing a test print?

Is it possible you cracked the manifolds removing and replacing the dampers?

Is there ink around the dampers?

Did you get any on the head circuit boards?

Is there ink in the dampers?

Do you know how to check the main board for blown fuses?

It's possible.
There is ink around the yellow and black dampers when I pull it off the head.
No, there is no ink oon the head circuit board.
There is ink in the dampers.
I dont know how to check for blown fuses.

 

[amernausia]

A clog, or incomplete seal somewhere. Since there is only one pump, all the seals are dependent on each other. The usual suspect is the cap against the head. Take a look while running a medium clean, are the heads roughly centered on the caps? If they are off noticeably to one side, it wont make a proper seal.

Although the dampers have ink in them, the seal against the head manifold could be an issue as well. It's a bit harder to rule out, but one way is to hook a syringe up to a cap drain line, and pull. There should be a strong vacuum. If you hear the hiss of air moving you might be able to hear where it is leaking in.

Thank you!
I'll try this.

 

[player]

Thank you!
I'll try this.

Be careful. If you pull too hard on the syringe you can pop a membrane in the head thus blowiing the head for good. Easy to kill your head, be careful.

A mechanic's stethoscope is helpful to hear the air leak.

 

[player]

For checking fuses you can search for images of the main board. Be sure to put both power switches off. Unplug the power. Turn main switch on to drain residual power. (Not sure if I believe this, but do it anyway). Then use a meter to check the fuses.

 

[Anointed]

My printer has been out for about 3 weeks now, at first I thought it was the pump cause it was not pulling ink.
I replaced the pump, and it started pulling ink. Now its just not printing at all. I did the empty mode and filled the ink in again.
Now it seems ink is stopping before it goes through the print heads. No ink is going into the waste bottle. I have done numerous powerful cleans, and manual cleans.
I don't know what else to do.
When i Test Print, it prints nothing at all.

I know this is old post but I'm having same problem. Please did you find and fix the problem? Please If so, how?

 

[Flippnswtichez]

I am currently having the same issue

 

[Sean@CedarHouse]

I've worked on Roland printers for over 10 years. 90% of the time, it's an ink flow issue. Meaning the head, especially if newly replaced, needs to be primed. Use a syringe to pull ink through the captop from the pump side until you get some ink flow, then do a medium clean until the test pattern comes out perfect.

Electrical issues, while not impossible are not common unless you tear into your printer without unplugging it.

So, I would replace caps so they are fresh and the lines are soft. Draw ink through them (you should feel some reasonable resistance) Do a clean, test print, clean test print etc. If you don't get a good test print after doing this 5 or 6 times, pull ink again. However, you should see something after the first or second cleaning, even if it's just a few lines.

Hope this helps

 

[Jim Hancock]

And always pull gently!

 

[Anointed]

I am currently having the same issue

It's been raining in my town and so I've given it a break until sometime this week I will try and check the pump and the board and see if there are in working order. I will keep you posted if i find a fix and I hope likewise.

 

[Anointed]

I know this is old post but I'm having same problem. Please did you find and fix the problem? Please If so, how?

I am currently having the same issue

Hello, just following up how you went with your printer...

 

[Anointed]

I've worked on Roland printers for over 10 years. 90% of the time, it's an ink flow issue. Meaning the head, especially if newly replaced, needs to be primed. Use a syringe to pull ink through the captop from the pump side until you get some ink flow, then do a medium clean until the test pattern comes out perfect.

Electrical issues, while not impossible are not common unless you tear into your printer without unplugging it.

So, I would replace caps so they are fresh and the lines are soft. Draw ink through them (you should feel some reasonable resistance) Do a clean, test print, clean test print etc. If you don't get a good test print after doing this 5 or 6 times, pull ink again. However, you should see something after the first or second cleaning, even if it's just a few lines.

Hope this helps

Hi Mate, thanks for your advice. I'm back again working on my printer. I've tried pulling ink from the caps lines and didn't get any ink through any of the lines. However, there were ink in the dampers. I felt some resistance from the black and yellow lines. However, the red and yellow lines had air leak and no resistance. Please what does this mean or what do you suggest I do from here? (I have not changed the caps yet as I want to see if there may be other parts that I may need and order them at the same time).

 

[Anointed]

I've worked on Roland printers for over 10 years. 90% of the time, it's an ink flow issue. Meaning the head, especially if newly replaced, needs to be primed. Use a syringe to pull ink through the captop from the pump side until you get some ink flow, then do a medium clean until the test pattern comes out perfect.

Electrical issues, while not impossible are not common unless you tear into your printer without unplugging it.

So, I would replace caps so they are fresh and the lines are soft. Draw ink through them (you should feel some reasonable resistance) Do a clean, test print, clean test print etc. If you don't get a good test print after doing this 5 or 6 times, pull ink again. However, you should see something after the first or second cleaning, even if it's just a few lines.

Hope this helps

Hello again, I'm not sure how the cap top works but I'm unable to pull or flush any fluid through the K, C, M. from the end of the cap top lines. When I put cleaning fluid on top of the K, C, M caps it just sits on top. However, when I put the fluid on the top cap of the Y, the fluid runs through and come out of the end of line. I took out the top caps and put a syringe to the end line of each cap and siphoned each line and there was a strong resistant for K, C, M except for Y. I even tried to run cleaning fluid from the syringe to the line to the cap top but the fluid wouldn't go out of the syringe. Please any suggestions...

 

[Sean@CedarHouse]

Hello again, I'm not sure how the cap top works but I'm unable to pull or flush any fluid through the K, C, M. from the end of the cap top lines. When I put cleaning fluid on top of the K, C, M caps it just sits on top. However, when I put the fluid on the top cap of the Y, the fluid runs through and come out of the end of line. I took out the top caps and put a syringe to the end line of each cap and siphoned each line and there was a strong resistant for K, C, M except for Y. I even tried to run cleaning fluid from the syringe to the line to the cap top but the fluid wouldn't go out of the syringe. Please any suggestions...

Sorry for the delay. One thing you can try is to take the caps off (careful not to loose the springs), remove the tube off the bottom and then squeeze them out. If you pinch them you might hear dry ink crunching inside etc. see of you can get flow through the line. You should just replace them though. Without the caps having clean flow through them your machine can't prime the print heads and your not going to get a print.

They aren't that expensive and they do degrade over time, consumable part, so keep some on the shelf. How to:

Hope this helps.

 

[Anointed]

Sorry for the delay. One thing you can try is to take the caps off (careful not to loose the springs), remove the tube off the bottom and then squeeze them out. If you pinch them you might hear dry ink crunching inside etc. see of you can get flow through the line. You should just replace them though. Without the caps having clean flow through them your machine can't prime the print heads and your not going to get a print.

They aren't that expensive and they do degrade over time, consumable part, so keep some on the shelf. How to:

Hope this helps.

Thanks a lot for your response and the video. I will be placing order on Ebay. It's just that I can't get the parts here in Australia but in China. So I wanted to make sure I get all the parts at the same time as it takes about 2-3 weeks to receive items from China with the current covid-19 situation. I will keep you posted. Thanks again!

 

[Anointed]

Hi Mate,

I finally replaced the cap tops with brand new ones and also the dampers and performed x3 powerful cleaning and did a print test and no ink was printed on the paper, "BLANK WHITE". I opened the capping area of the machine and found that the new replaced caps does not even have a single drop of ink on each of them C,M,K,Y. Please see attached pics..

Please any further advice would be greatly appreciated?

Thanks again
J

 

[Sean@CedarHouse]

Hi Mate,

I finally replaced the cap tops with brand new ones and also the dampers and performed x3 powerful cleaning and did a print test and no ink was printed on the paper, "BLANK WHITE". I opened the capping area of the machine and found that the new replaced caps does not even have a single drop of ink on each of them C,M,K,Y. Please see attached pics..

Please any further advice would be greatly appreciated?

Thanks again
J

You need to syringe the ink through the cap. Put a syringe on the pump side of the cap. (The black hose end that attaches to the pump.) Draw ink until you get flow into the syringe. once you do, run a power clean then test. Do this until you get a clean test print.