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Roland VG540i Read this before buying

Spiderx1

New Member
I just bought a VG 540i a month ago. So far very disappointed. This is the 4th VersaCamm I have owned plus 2 plotters. I have always been very happy with the product. A friend of mine kinda warned me about it, I did not listen. I should have done more research as to my applications. Thought I had, not so much.

First off if you are primarily doing Heat Transfer Material for your own applications or to print patterns for others this is not the machine for you. The durability of the TruVis inks on HTM is very very dependent on the brand of material you use. Some may wash out the inks in as little as 5 washes other last around 20-25 then begin to fail, this is washing with your jeans not the gentle cold water inside out wash. Stick with EcoSol inks for best results all the way around.

Secondly if you use the machine sporadically, Design print, edit the design, print etc. This is not the machine for you. It is an INK HOG. I am approximately 1,000ml of waste ink in 28 days. Every time you touch the machine, if asleep, it will do a cleaning. Design print, edit design it sleeps, then touch the function button to do a sheet cut and it cleans, open the ink bay door it cleans. Close a material lever it cleans, jog the home position it cleans. IMHO if I just want to do a sheet cut it should not clean, or I want to shake the white ink, yes I know white ink has issues, and open the ink bay it should not clean. I realize that due to the rapid drying characteristics of TruVis ink and white ink it is going to do more cleanings, but really, to do a sheet cut or open a ink bay door. Ok increase the incremental cleaning, the ones you cannot control that happen even when the cleaning is set to never, but don't do additional cleanings just for a sheet cut or opening an ink bay door. If Roland would redo their logic on cleaning they, me, could save a ton of ink on unnecessary cleaning. Seems that their response to print head issues has been, we will just clean clean clean. I am running Firmware 3.1, latest as of 10/31/2018.

Thirdly White Ink, If you are looking for opaque white you will not get it with this machine, unless you do 4 layers with drying between. 2 Layers in High quality still is very translucent. I print CMYK then white in reverse for inside windows and it looks pretty good, if done in HQ and a lighted background, such as the room light is on behind the sticker, applied to entry way with lit room behind.

I have spoken with Roland, their answer was get a tech to look at it. I did, he took videos and reports. Roland answer is functions as designed.So much for cheaper to run as far as ink cost. Not in my case. If you want to print white on clear, especially white only or thinking of printing white on a colored vinyl for some reason this probably will not work for you, at least have test prints run by a dealer.

Maybe we will get a new ink that works better for HTM and a new Firmware that reduces the excessive cleaning and allow you to do everyday functions other than print without a cleaning, after all it was happy sleeping, let a sleeping dog lie.
 
I replaced mine (sg540) with mimaki cjv150 - it does auto cleaning every 48h and 'refreshing' every hour but my 2L waste ink container is only 1/2 full and I have my machine for more than a year.
It does not have cleaning 'triggers' like the the truevis, it also doesn't do any cleaning while powering up or shutting down and I never had clogged nozzles so far.
I don't use white so I have no clue if it's opaque or not but the standard ink is SS21 witch is mild solvent not eco-solvent, so it should be more durable (and a bit smellier too)
 

Tizz

New Member
I believe these excessive cleanings are due to the new heads they're using in the TrueVis lineup and have read a number of threads on their ink usage.

Never had any probs with the DX4 epson heads on my old SP.
Looks like a Mimaki or Epson solvent next.
 

Spiderx1

New Member
Still no answer from Roland, even the dealer cannot get an answer. Several other Roland techs at the NBM CLT show said, it should never clean just by opening an ink bay door. There is not a sensor there, WELL there is and it does. They had me doubting myself for a bit, came home and opened the door and the cleaning started. Everyone says should not do all these cleanings but no answers or fixes.
I have an appointment for a Demo at Mamaki tomorrow. See what they offer. Shopping if anyone has suggestions.
 

Solventinkjet

DIY Printer Fixing Guide
Back in the day Roland machines would excessively clean if it detected you were using 3rd party ink. I'm not sure what ink your are using but if it's 3rd party I would suspect that to be the case.
 

Spiderx1

New Member
Back in the day Roland machines would excessively clean if it detected you were using 3rd party ink. I'm not sure what ink your are using but if it's 3rd party I would suspect that to be the case.
Nope, the machine is brand new, only 1 month old, just long enough to dump, now 1200ml of ink in the drain. I only use Roland inks on all of my machines. Always. Thanks for the thought though.
 

CanuckSigns

Active Member
Yeah, I am looking at the Epson Solvent, or the Mamaki UVCJ series, seems like all have issues. Just between ink down the drain and excessive time to do small task, doesn't work well for me.

It's true there is no such thing as a perfect printer for everyone, you need to look at what types of printing you do and evaluate what machines foot the bill.

We used Roland printers for 12 years with no issues at all, then we got the VG 640 and all hell broke loose, the printer was down more than it was working. I was lucky that I had an excellent dealer who bought the machine back from me.

The Epson S80600 ticked all the boxes for me, so it's what we ended up with, and for the last year I have been very happy with the machine.
 

premiercolour

Merchant Member
Wrong answer. When using third party ink without chip will trigger excessive cleanings. To be exact, every three feet of print, there is one cleaning. Try use Roland Eco Sol Max ink without chip. It will do excessive cleanings as well.
 

premiercolour

Merchant Member
Back in the day Roland machines would excessively clean if it detected you were using 3rd party ink. I'm not sure what ink your are using but if it's 3rd party I would suspect that to be the case.

Wrong answer. When using third party ink without chip will trigger excessive cleanings. To be exact, every three feet of print, there is one cleaning. Try use Roland Eco Sol Max ink without chip. It will do excessive cleanings as well. As long as new generic chip is included in the third party ink cartridge, there will not have excessive cleaning. Buy from dealer who knows the product.
 
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