Roland Sp540v no menu display

[Kendo]

I'm not getting any response to pressing the Menu button - the display shows unintelligible gobblygook and a peizo warning sound eminates continually from behind the control panel whilst it is printing (perfectly) The 'Print Test', 'Base Point' and 'cut' buttons function normally.
The high pitched peizo alarm sound seems to be linked to the media moving across the platten (feed motor problem?)
Has anyone come across this problem??? -Kendo

 

[joeshaul]

How do the beeps sound that occur when you send a job to print?

Was there anything noticeable that occured before this started happening? Power outages, clumsy workers+drinks, static shock, etc?

Since there's a buzzer on the panel board, I'm thinking your panel board is either damaged, your main board is sending it bad data/voltage, or the cable is loose. I'm just an owner with a bit of general electronic troubleshooting under my belt, so curious to see what someone else might come up with.

Artbot seems to have a bit more technical experience on the printers, so if he doesn't chime in, might want to pm him and ask kindly to check this thread.

 

[Kendo]

Thanks Joeshaul,
2nd question first - there were no outages, spills etc and I don't think static was a problem becuase it started with my first print of the day.
However, I was about to print a lot of yellow and I knew the Yellow ink was low, so after I'd pressed the 'Go' button in Versaworks and before the printer responded, I hit the Menu button, thinking that I might have been quick enough to access the "ink remaining" to check on the Yellow.
This didn't work becuase the printer was receiving the file and about to start printing. I don't know if this 'triggered' something unusual.
The printer started up fine and printed for a few minutes when suddenly the high pitched alarm started up. It sounds continuously in time with the head moving accross the media. ie there is a fraction of a second pause in the alarm sound when the print head moves all the way to the right and the media moves fractionally forward before the next head pass. The alarm sound also pauses momentarilly when the media inches forward over the heater on completion of the printing. Ie; it is sounding continuously, but pauses for that fraction of a second when the media moves forward.
On the Versawaorks screen, the 'Print Ready' message alternates with the message "Menu state".
The message display screen shows a mixture of letters and meaningless heirogliphics but he various controls work fine (without the screen telling you what you have requested) Weird hey?

 

[joeshaul]

How about the LEDs on the front for Setup, Power, Heater Config, and Busy? Do they randomly light up, or shift intensity?

The LED's, Buzzer, and LCD are controlled by 3 IC chips on the panel board, there are 3 more IC's that control the switches. The ones that control the LCD display are located along the left side of the display, I would visually inspect the copper traces and see if there's any kind of issues along there, mainly looking for any kind of corrosion/debris/cracks. The one that controls the buzzer is right next to the sheet cut button and setup LED, it controls the buzzer and all the status LEDs. I would probably also look closely at its copper trace to see if there's possibly anything awry. There should be a similar chip to the left of the buzzer chip, but that chip controls the power switch, sheet cut switch, the pause button, and the heater control, which I'm assuming all still work.

It seems kind of strange that three IC's would all go out, but there could be something obstructing a common path to those three. If you don't feel safe working with circuit boards, I'd suggest just handing it over to a tech to resolve, as improper poking may make a bad situation worse.

 

[Kendo]

Thanks joeshaul, that's excellent info....the LEDs light up as per normal with the heater LED flashing as it heats up etc.
I can do a test print, a sheet cut etc as normal.

I'll pull the covers off and visually check the IC's as you've mentioned. I'm happy to remove & inspect the IC Boards but I'm not confident to do anything more than this for the reasons you have suggested. I do know a great tech. who has removed and tested the transistors on the Main Board plus replaced capacitors and the F2/F3 fuses more than once. He has saved me a fortune in Roland call-out costs. (All they want to do is sell me a new Board and hope that fixes the problem - if not hey'll sell me something else!) I'll post a report after my inspections. Thanks again for your assistance.

With power 'on' at the machine, the buzzer sounds for a few seconds when the sub-power button is pressed - then it stops while it goes through the normal quick clean and media width checks and waits for instructions from Versaworks. As soon as the 'print' button is pressed in Versaworks, the buzzer sounds continuously until the print is complete and the printed area moves towards the front heater bar. As it gets to the heater bar, the buzzer stops momentarilly with each incremental 1/8 inch movement over the heater bar. When the media rewinds and stops, so does the buzzer. During all of these processses various meaningless letters, numbers and heirogliphics randomly jump around on the display panel.

 

[Kendo]

I removed the Control panel ICB and inspected (with the aid of a magnifiying glass) the copper traces. I can't find any obvious problem - corrosion, debris, cracks, dirt - the only visual thing I have noticed is that whilst I can read the printed details on the chip, this chip appears 'duller' that all of the others on the board. The others have a certain 'gloss' appearance. I don't know if this is co-incidental or if it indicates that it may have been overheated or something.
I'll take the board to my circuit board tech. and ask him to check the actual peizo buzzer as well as the relevent chip. I'll post an update when I have his answers.

 

[Kendo]

The printer is still printing perfectly but the buzzer is now sounding in a totally random way. 'Joeshaul' has suggested that a intermittent and faulty voltage may be being output from the buzzer or display-control chip and this sound perfectly logical.
However, it appears that, unlike the Main Board, this board has been made by a different process, wherein the components are glued to the board and flood soldered on the rear. This makes the replacement of a component a hell of a lot more difficult and in some cases near impossible. The Buzzer can be disconnected BUT... that isn't really the answer. A new Control Panel board from Roland will cost around $580 but I believe I can import one for approx. half of that. For the benefit of others with a similar problem, I'll update this when I resolve the problem.

 

[Kendo]

I replaced the Control Panel Board and the peizzo alarm no longer 'sounds' but within a few days the LCd screen stopped working. I suspect that a problem exists on the Main Board but for the moment the printer is working perfectly (except that the LCD screen is dead) so I'll tackle that another day.