roland versacamm sp300 question

[Designs by Stacy]

Hello,
I have a Roland versacamm sp300 that is roughly 3 years old. I have had no problem with the ink drying up when I was using it but now that I am not running it much the ink is drying up. At first it took a few months before I noticed it was drying up by doing the test print. I ordered the caps and replaced them. Now when I do the test print it is drying up within a few days. Can you tell me why it dries up so fast now? When I first had the machine it would go months before it did. I do hear it start every so often and run a cleaning on its own. We use a syringe to get the ink going again.
Any information would greatly be appreciated.
Thank you, Stacy

 

[DRamm76]

Is your machine's main power on at all times? I ran into a situation recently where a local dealer failed to inform their customers to keep the main power on the machine at all times just turn the power button on the main panel off. Reason for this is simple..The machine has a self cleaning feature that runs every 24hours to prevent drying up in the event the machine isn't run very frequently. If you replaced the cap tops it may be worse than initially inspected.

At this point, I would assume you are out of warranty. Most dealers sell service contracts to out of warranty units. People's first reaction is "I'm not gonna pay $1295 to get this machine under a year warranty"..to which my reaction is "then take up religion and hope the big man upstairs blesses you with the ability to avoid needing a new print head"

Email me if you need further assistance

 

[chopper]

By reading the post I see that the machine is on and is running the self cleaning cycles, but the information about having to use a syringe to pull the ink to get the heads going makes me think that your pump is bad or is going bad this was a problem on the earlier machines, what happens is the pump runs but doesn't pull the ink through the print heads on the self cleaning cycles or any cleaning cycle, if I had to guess this is what I would start with
it could also be the dampers they can get plugged with gunk from the ink cartridges, I would change the pump and the dampers and I also wouldn't pay for a service contract way over priced, if you cannot take care or understand your equipment than you shouldn't be using it........
//chopper

 

[chopper]

when you replace the pump make sure you get the updated version so you don't have the same problem again.....
//chopper

 

[Designs by Stacy]

Hi Chopper,
I just had my machine serviced last year and they put a brand new pump on it. I will check out the dampers like you suggested.
Thank you for your help.
Stacy

 

[chopper]

well it was a guess,
but it still could be the case, did they install the new style pump?
//chopper

 

[Designs by Stacy]

Yes they did install the new pump style.
After doing some more reading on this post we feel it might be that we didn't do the alignment with the machine after we installed the clips. I am hoping this is it.
I will let you know if this fixed it.
Thank you. Stacy