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Strange JV33 160 Capping Station Issue

thewood

New Member
I've noticed a few times recently during my morning printer maintenance that the test draw shows several missing nozzles. The problem has been remedied so far by an Ink Fill or two.

I also noticed that if I printed jobs overnight (leaving the printer on) that my test draw is great the next morning. It's only when I leave the printer off (with the main power still on) overnight that I come back to missing nozzles.

During troubleshooting (with the printer on but idle) I observed the capping station lining up properly with the print head. But when I powered down the printer, right before the green light on the power button faded, the whole carriage moved to the left leaving a .125" gap between the printhead and rubber seal on the capping station. I've repeated it several times, and every time it's the same thing: right before the printer powers down the carriage moves to the left causing the capping station to move left and down.

Any ideas? Could a misaligned capping station cause this? I've adjusted the capping station position on the JV3 but never on the JV33.
 
I had a similar issue with my jv33. Turned out the print head was ever so slightly tilted.

When's the last time you replaced the capping station?

~Chris
 

thewood

New Member
I can't say for sure since I only noticed the gap between the print head and the capping station yesterday. But the problem caused by this was what prompted my co-worker to change the capping station.

I will remove and reinstall the capping station to make sure.

Thanks for the input, Chris.
 

SightLine

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Why shut if off with the green button? We never do. You do want to make sure the heaters have their timeouts set though. Ours (the same with our old JV3 as well) has been on for literally years with no problems or ill effects.
 

4R Graphics

New Member
When you power down with the green button the heads moves just a small amount to the left I noticed this on my JV33 as well however there is no gap between the head and capping station on my printer when powered down.

i think you may need to adjust the capping station.
 

thewood

New Member
Why shut if off with the green button? We never do. You do want to make sure the heaters have their timeouts set though. Ours (the same with our old JV3 as well) has been on for literally years with no problems or ill effects.
Interesting, i don't think I've ever heard of anyone leaving their Mimaki on all the time. You set the heater timeout in the printer's setup menu, right? Will the printer still do periodic cleanings (sleep cleanings) if it is on?

When you power down with the green button the heads moves just a small amount to the left I noticed this on my JV33 as well however there is no gap between the head and capping station on my printer when powered down.


i think you may need to adjust the capping station.
That's what it is looking like. Thanks for weighing in 4R.
 

SightLine

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Yes - it still does its periodic cleanings when left on..... Like I said - I have always left ours on for years with no issues. Also - and this is only something I've read of many times regarding electronics but I have not checked into it in depth.... I've read that it is very often less stressful on electronics to leave some things on all the time. Each time you power something up there is an initial electrical surge as the capacitors, etc are charged up. Not sure if there is really any weight to that though.

Regardless - it is just fine to leave the machine "on" all the time as far as I know. I have actually always thought that was the proper thing to do since doing so keeps the head firmly parked over the capping station. Even our older JV3, when we had that - In 6 or so years it was only ever actually turned "off" for a few minutes for a manual cleaning or at most a couple of hours to replace a head or something. If it is shut off you can freely move the head carriage and it does move a tiny bit to the left when you shut it off. I had always worried that a small amount of air would get in the capping since the capping seal was not nearly as firm with it powered off. The last time I shut our JV33 off for more than a few minutes was when we moved about a year and a half ago. When the JV33 totally loses power, what is its default state when power is restored? On.... Even totally loss of power is rare for ours though since its run through a truly gigantic battery backup.
 

thewood

New Member
Thanks for the reply SightLine. I'm going to address the capping station alignment when I catch a break in the action. But I'm still interested in leaving the printer on. What do you have your heater timeout set at? 10 minutes? What about the standby time? I've done some overnight printing the last couple of days (leaving the printer on) and have came in to perfect test draws.

Thanks again for your input.
 

thewood

New Member
Does anyone have instructions for adjusting the capping station on the JV33? I've searched through the JV33 Bible but haven't found anything.

I remember monkeying around with the capping adjust on the JV3 years ago. I got it so out of whack that the machine gave me an error and essentially froze up. I had to have a tech walk me through the steps to reset the capping station. I definitely don't want to go through that again.
 
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