Roland VG-640 TrueVis - Eats Ink like no other

[DravidDavid]

Just wondering if any VG 640 TrueVIS owners have experienced the insane ink consumption. We came back after Christmas holidays and it had filled the waste ink tank. It wants to circulate and dump ink every time you do something remotely interesting in the menu or if it's been sitting for 30'ish minutes.

Anyone else getting similar results?

 

[-Fusion]

My VG540 goes through a cleaning cycle every time its turned on and that drives me nuts because I have to reboot after every error. I have been getting 2-3 feed/scan errors a day. Also it randomly will pause between jobs and start a cleaning cycle. This could be normal, but it's annoying to me.

 

[CanuckSigns]

Yup, we've noticed the exact same thing, brought it up with our tech who has brought it up with Roland, no answer as of yet.

 

[DravidDavid]

We had our vendor talk to Roland and they pushed a firmware update or something that the tech installed. No change. Our side has also brought it up with Roland. 5X sounds about right too. I wouldn't mind ink cycling if it was just ink cycling and the occasional clean, but the constant dumping has costs upwards of 250 per bottle emptied which averages out to be about $70 a week in waste ink costs.

 

[trik]

We have the vg-540 and yes it seems to clean a lot. My tech says they have brought it to Roland and says all they need to do is a firmware upgrade. Hopefully soon!!! Is someone on here from Roland who can address the issue?????

 

[oksigns]

I don't have any of these issues on my XR-640 running the latest firmware.

 

[ChaseO]

I don't have any of these issues on my XR-640 running the latest firmware.

Do you have white ink?

We have the same problem with our XR-640 (Soljet IV). I've got ALL automatic cleanings turned off yet it still self cleans 4-5 times a day. On top of that it circulates the ink (necessary evil since we have white) and shows "now processing" another 10 or so times a day. Basically every time I need to use it I have to wait 5 minutes for it to stop pissing around. I've started tracking how much ink it dumps and it's about 5x more than our XC-540 which also has all automatic cleaning features disabled.

I've asked our tech, Roland, and on here and have yet to find an answer.

Just another reason I'll be looking elsewhere for our next printer.

My new XR uses an insane amount of ink for cleaning. I honestly believe it has wasted more ink in the 5 months that I have had it on than my old SP has in 5 years.

 

[oksigns]

I don't run white ink just for that reason and I don't do enough white ink printing to justify the maintenance.

I turned off automatic cleaning because my XR-640 tends to just do a light cleaning cycle during print jobs.. it is already at a good frequency; THAT and the circulation routine is already so frequent I reserve my cleaning for a manual job once a week.

 

[tim99]

I don't notice it some days on the VG. maybe 1 or 2 cleanings in an 8 hour time frame. but then they are other days. like today it does its cleaning, i turn it on it cleans again, load the material, cleans again, run a 4' cut job, cleans again. given most of these are quick cleanings its still dumping ink into the wast tank

- VG540 duel cmyk firmware 2.1

 

[oksigns]

Yeah the difference compared to the older models is insane. Such a waste - and I don't care if it's "for the good of the printer". I can manually clean my printers just fine as needed.



Did turning off the automatic cleanings actually disable it? Mine are off yet something overrides the setting. (Roland gho$t in the machine)

Short answer, yes. The machine will still do a normal clean if it has run a lot. It appears to be based on how much material has been run through the printer. Outside of cleaning, it will always do a circulation routine.

 

[DravidDavid]

We have the vg-540 and yes it seems to clean a lot. My tech says they have brought it to Roland and says all they need to do is a firmware upgrade. Hopefully soon!!! Is someone on here from Roland who can address the issue?????

If it's anything like our VG-640, a firmware will do nothing. We had ours upgraded before Christmas and it still dumps in like crazy.

 

[petepaz]

sent this to our vendor about our truvis
just my opinion but it seems like mechanically roland took a step back on this unit.
Printing is great and actually it sets up faster than the other units but there are a few things that seem to be
Similar to older versions of their machines.
To manually clean the print heads there is not a lot of room to get in there, similar to our vp machine.
(the xc & xr give you more room to fit swabs in there)
the ink drain is the size of one of the small containers from an old unit.
the button configuration is the same as the vp, where you have to go through menus to find things.
Instead of having a separate button for more common tasks, like test print/cut and sheet cut.
Also the set up for cutting after lamination (where the machine has to find the crop marks)
Is very sensitive, you really have to have it in the exact spot or it won’t work.

their reply:
The faster the printers get, the faster the ink has to dry, thus the more maintenance is needed.

You will have to clean the heads weekly on this printer. Also clean the wiper and the wiper tray when the machine asks.

The wiper wipes sideways.

Also, Upgrade your firmware, a new firmware addressed the crop mark issue.

As far as the buttons, and drain can, the less buttons and stuff, the more economical the printer is to make.

That’s how it is so they can compete with the other Printer manufacturers.

Thanks

Here is the firmware.

 

[Hollywoodsigns]

The ink tank seams fuller than any other printer because of the Cleaning Fluid that also goes through the print heads as well as the ink during cleaning cycles. I have had mine for just over a year and going through Ink is the 1 thing I have not had problems with. Lets not talk about all the other problems however.........

 

[Jim Schneck]

The ink tank seams fuller than any other printer because of the Cleaning Fluid that also goes through the print heads as well as the ink during cleaning cycles. I have had mine for just over a year and going through Ink is the 1 thing I have not had problems with. Lets not talk about all the other problems however.........

....please share, what problems have you had in your one year of ownership?

 

[Hollywoodsigns]

IT is a long list so I will try.
First off it was laying so much ink it was not drying fast enough to even use the take up real,
Crop mark sensor would not read the crop marks. (there is an aftermarket filter to put over the sensor)
Take up real stopped working had to get a new motor.
went daily coming into work with Red Lights flashing. Never found out why as it would shut down for its own protection. Firmware fixed but we had to shut main power of at night.
still can not print at night because we need to tap an ink pouch at least once every 2-3 hours as it thinks it is out of ink.
If you do not print White at least once a week it takes about 2 hours of cleanings and test prints to get it back
There is a little piece of metal that protects the print head that just snaps on. Mine broke the clip and started to hit the media clamp. Roland said i had to get a new head(non warranty) My supplier took on off a dead head and snapped right on.
Now I am having problems with Print cut using crop marks. Starts off great but slowly the cut gets off worse and worse the further away from the original origin point.

There where a few other small thinks that I can not remember but that is the just of it.

Like I said before, My suppler (Pacific Coast Sign Supply) has been great, Out normally same day or next and he has helped out a lot. And Firmware has fixed a lot as well

 

[Mainframe]

One thing I noticed with my VG 540 is when I cut a lam print with crop marks, I have to remove whatever media I had on the machine and slide those holder clamps all the way out. I caught them hitting my material and knocking it just a little making my cut off a bit. Didn't take much to knock it off, those holders are really big. As long as I take them out of the picture my cuts are dead on.

 

[Jim Schneck]

IT is a long list so I will try.
First off it was laying so much ink it was not drying fast enough to even use the take up real,
Crop mark sensor would not read the crop marks. (there is an aftermarket filter to put over the sensor)
Take up real stopped working had to get a new motor.
went daily coming into work with Red Lights flashing. Never found out why as it would shut down for its own protection. Firmware fixed but we had to shut main power of at night.
still can not print at night because we need to tap an ink pouch at least once every 2-3 hours as it thinks it is out of ink.
If you do not print White at least once a week it takes about 2 hours of cleanings and test prints to get it back
There is a little piece of metal that protects the print head that just snaps on. Mine broke the clip and started to hit the media clamp. Roland said i had to get a new head(non warranty) My supplier took on off a dead head and snapped right on.
Now I am having problems with Print cut using crop marks. Starts off great but slowly the cut gets off worse and worse the further away from the original origin point.

There where a few other small thinks that I can not remember but that is the just of it.

Like I said before, My suppler (Pacific Coast Sign Supply) has been great, Out normally same day or next and he has helped out a lot. And Firmware has fixed a lot as well

Ouch...that's quite a list of difficulties. We have had a unit for a little over a month, and have experienced few problems.
-We had the red light and unit beeping one morning. It was a one time occurrence.
-With the vinyl loaded in the machine, a bulge will appear next to the left and right pinch roller. We advance the material a bit to correct this but over time that's a lot of material waist to correct something that really shouldn't be happening.

Prints great, dries fast and is a lot faster than our old SP540.

 

[CanuckSigns]

IT is a long list so I will try.
First off it was laying so much ink it was not drying fast enough to even use the take up real,
Crop mark sensor would not read the crop marks. (there is an aftermarket filter to put over the sensor)
Take up real stopped working had to get a new motor.
went daily coming into work with Red Lights flashing. Never found out why as it would shut down for its own protection. Firmware fixed but we had to shut main power of at night.
still can not print at night because we need to tap an ink pouch at least once every 2-3 hours as it thinks it is out of ink.
If you do not print White at least once a week it takes about 2 hours of cleanings and test prints to get it back
There is a little piece of metal that protects the print head that just snaps on. Mine broke the clip and started to hit the media clamp. Roland said i had to get a new head(non warranty) My supplier took on off a dead head and snapped right on.
Now I am having problems with Print cut using crop marks. Starts off great but slowly the cut gets off worse and worse the further away from the original origin point.

There where a few other small thinks that I can not remember but that is the just of it.

Like I said before, My suppler (Pacific Coast Sign Supply) has been great, Out normally same day or next and he has helped out a lot. And Firmware has fixed a lot as well

We had similar issues to you, plus a few you didn't list. Roland flew tech's out here multiple times to try and figure out what was happening, never could figure it out. They ended up swapping out the machine 2 times and the issues continued to happen, in the end our dealer bought the machine back from us for what we paid for it, and we bought an Epson, haven't looked back since!

 

[ewded]

TrueVis ink is thicker thus needs more cleaning I think this is why they gave the extra 50cc for ...free? Just accept your fate, roland slaves XD

 

[Mainframe]

I have a hard time believing anything ewded posts, now he is heckling me? I am in the US, I am slave to NO ONE! I have never heard of Roland buying back any machine, doesn't sound true. My VG 540 runs too well for me to even worry about. I highly recommend these machines, they print bright, sharp durable prints in a third of the time my VP did. I have a friend that runs his 3 shifts, all day, and all night! He has been doing it for a year now, he said the machine is built for this type of production.

 

[ewded]

Hey Mainframe, why on eart would I lie? I'm not talking about VG-s I'm talking about SG. And I'll suggest anyone looking for a new printer to avoid Roland and especially truevis sg. At least in my country service is poor.

 

[CanuckSigns]

I have a hard time believing anything ewded posts, now he is heckling me? I am in the US, I am slave to NO ONE! I have never heard of Roland buying back any machine, doesn't sound true. My VG 540 runs too well for me to even worry about. I highly recommend these machines, they print bright, sharp durable prints in a third of the time my VP did. I have a friend that runs his 3 shifts, all day, and all night! He has been doing it for a year now, he said the machine is built for this type of production.

Roland did not buy back my machine, the dealer did, if it was up to Roland I would still be limping through production while they drag their ass coming up with all kinds of possible scenarios why I'm having issues and having me send them hundreds of peck reports.

Kudos to my dealer for stepping up to the plate and making the right decision, dispite Roland refusing.