PC600 printhead not picking up

[Phill Fenton]

I’ve had the same problem before John. I think you’ll find the alignment has gone out slightly (i.e the carriage is slightly left or right of where it should be when trying to load the cartridge). Switching off and allowing the carriage to start again from the beggining should resolve the problem.

[John Singh]

Thanks Phill

I’ve switched it off quite frequently but it doesn’t really help but what you say may be true as when I got the printer I didn’t realise the guy had put the little ‘transit’ grub screw in place to stop the printhead moving in transit. So when I first tried to print the printhead ended up banging against this screw :thumbdown:

Do you reckon I should get an engineer out to realign?

[Phill Fenton]

I’m sure it will re-align itself after a few runs John. As I said I recognise this as the same problem I have had on occasion and it had always resolved itself without any manual involvement from me. I can’t remember doing anything in particular to resolve it but I do recall being very concerned when it happened to me. Check the carriage isn’t loose at all allowing any free play left to right. The white plastic screw mechanism should line up with the centre of the cartidge when it goes to pick it up. The screw action then "Winds" the cartridge onto the carriage so if it isn’t perfectly aligned left to right the screw starts slipping when it tries to wind the cartridge onto the carriage. You should be able to see this happening

[Phill Fenton]

Try this:

With the power off – manually slide the carriage left and right across the machine a few times (there should be no resistance – the carriage will slide freely) – then switch back on – allow the carriage to return to base and try again.

[John Singh]

Thanks Phill
I’ll give that try

[Katie Connor]

What’s the next step if you turn the power off and move the carriage to the left and right and it still won’t pick up a cartridge? 🙁

[N Corkhill]

I have had this problem too, all I did was changed the cartridge shell and it worked.