Faulty Encoder Strip?

[Kevin Flowers]

Phil
looks like it is the encoder, they do get a lot of print dust on to them so a good clean with a non solvent cleaner may cure the problem, also use a can of dry air on the sensor to check that its clean as well. I seem to remember someone turned one up side down but would not guarantee that.

Kev

[Gary Birch]

quote Kevin Flowers:

Phil
I seem to remember someone turned one up side down but would not guarantee that.

Kev

We have had ours upside down on one of our versacamms for over 3 years now. It has a locating hole at one end but a good nip on the screw grabs the strip when upside down.

Cheers

Gary

[Stafford Cox]

That looks like a classic encoder strip fault. Be careful with the Roland/Uniform ones as I’ve seen them literally fall apart in my hands before, but, clean it front and back with a soft cleaning wand and, for want of a better description ‘gob on it’. Don’t use head cleaning solution as it’s far too aggressive. If you find there’s an area that won’t clean properly with my previous solution, try using a bit of IPA (Isopropyl Alcohol) on it and see how you get on.

Get in touch of you need help.

Stafford

[Simon Worrall]

Be careful there is no water in the isopropyl, this strip is made photographically and water will take the marks off.

[Phill Fenton]

Thanks for all the advice.

I have now looked carefully at the area where the encoding strip sits and noticed quite a few grains of dust/dried ink sitting on and around the movable ribbon that connects to the head. I used a small PC cleaning vacuum tool to clean up the area and remove all the loose particles and the machine is now back to running perfectly. The fact that loose particles were sitting on the moving ribbon probably explains the fact the the fault was intermittent. I suspect these particles were being flicked onto the encoder strip from time to time by the action of the ribbon moving.

[Graeme Dingwall]

OK stupid question time!!

What does the encoder strip actually do or control?

Graeme

[David Rowland]

as the head moves a light passes thru a strip, goes from blocked to unblocked and that gives the mainboard information of where the head is and what speed it is travelling at. More importantly helps keeps the dots in alignment as the printer doesn’t really know where the head is if it didnt use the alignment strip as a position marker.

[Stafford Cox]

quote Graeme Dingwall:

OK stupid question time!!

What does the encoder strip actually do or control?

Graeme

Essentially it’s a clear plastic strip with lots of black markers on it. On the back of the head assembly is an optical sensor that counts the markers to determine where abouts on the carriage the is. The problem Phill had is that the encoder sensor was reading a collection of markers as one and skipping over them effectively, which is why you see the gaps in the print.

Stafford

[Graeme Dingwall]

Cheers guys,

I know a little bit but always like to build my knowledge, it always helps when problems occur.

Graeme

[Graeme Dingwall]

Hi Guys,

Looks like i’ve been hit by a faulty encoder can someone have a look at the pics and confirm for me i also got the carriages disconnected fault but they were connected. Could it be something else?

Thanks in advance 😀

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Attachments:

[Stafford Cox]

Hi Graeme.

Sorry, but I really can’t tell from the pictures. Can you email some hi res photos to me please?

stafford@nds-services.co.uk

[Graeme Dingwall]

Sure Cheers Stafford on it’s way now. 😀

[Stafford Cox]

Is the repair you did to your printer still going strong Graeme?

Stafford

[Graeme Dingwall]

HI Stafford,

Yeah seems to be working fine not had a problem since 😀

Ohh any sign of the cutting strip i’ve not got it yet?

Cheers
Graeme

[Stafford Cox]

Really!!? That was ages ago!! Sorry, I’ve been on holiday for 3 weeks, I’ll chase it in the morning and let you know….

Stafford