PC600 problems AGAIN!

[Phill Fenton]

I’m sorry to hear about this Gavin. As I said once before I had the same problem you described when printing some safety signs. I never resolved the problem, but discovred selecting individual groups and printing one at a time solved this particular problem. This suggested to me that the problem was to do with the file size. However I have also printed much bigger files without having this problem. At the time I put it down to some kind of corruption of the file I was printing from.

I’m sorry I don’t have an answer for you. Do you have any other software you could use to print from? Perhaps the problem is software related and printing from another software source may help.

I think you’ll need to keep pestering Victory and Roland for some answers. The fact that I have had a similar problem suggests that it is an inherent fault somewhere – so others must have experienced it also. I would be surprised if Roland don’t have some idea of what the problem could be. If Victory are no longer being helpful – try contacting Roland direct.

[Phill Fenton]

quote WP_Graphics:

Also, when the machine is just switched on with vinyl in it does everyone’s make quite a distint quite high pitched noise almost like a fan belt squeal when not even printing

Yes mine does – I don’t think it’s anything to worry about and not related to this problem

[Robert Lambie Robert Lambie]

hi gav ive just logged on mate.. ill check out the pictures.

i think i remember the last time you told us about the catridge pick up noise or somthing like that. did i not say somthing then. i cant remember 😕
im not saying i gave you the solution, just more i do know of this problem and im sure i have overcome it with somthing simple. again i maybe wrong mate. ill ask andrew from my work what he does if somthing like this happens. hes the one using the machine daily.

all this said. if the roland technicians cant help and victory cant then why not ask for your money back. your perfectly within your rights.
these machines are priced around the same price as a small car… if it wouldnt start or drove funny we would want an exchange or money back..
these reps seem to forget this…

again though, im not using the pc600 but the pc60…
but 9 out of ten problems i have hit i have persisted and overcome them. its normaly somthing “we” are doing wrong or just a function not enabled or somthing like that. lack of experience / knowledge is all our downfalls most of the time…
i know this isnt helping you any and the price of the ribbons is a mind cruncher when problems like this happen. grin and bare it mate or tell them you want a refund.
can i just take this opertunity to say somthing here…
£5000 is alot of cash to lay out and hit problems… simple, silly ones most of the time. it may just be, being not able to get the colour we want or somthing contour cut right.. everything is a learning curve with machines like this.
far harder than running a plotter, and more exspensive into the bargain. we are trying to make a living using these machines. we have to start some place. so we buy in the machine to learn, practice and grow condident with what we do. the pc600 is not the best or most profitable machine on the market. but it has the cheapest initial outlay & is ideal for a small company trying to get into digital printing.. this is probably the reason why its probably so popular.
other machines such as the edge probably run better and are more profitable. but at the same time have there own downfalls.
£17000 is alot upfront before you make a coin. but in the long run worth it, maybe.
my point is if we lay out this kind of money and hit simular snags like we see above. how do we cope? £17000 is a hell of alot of cash to dabble in somthing with the hope of high returns.
many companies do lay out the hard cash, market the machine proper
and get the right returns… many dont, and go down the tubes…

if you get your money back gav. dont rush into the next machine inline.
think about exactly what amount of digi printing you did everyweek. not in a good wee! an everage week.. this normally always increases over time, but time costs you money also… 🙄

[Timmy Mallet]

I can’t comment about a PC600 as I dont have one, but here’s my 2p’s worth. I have had a problem with some software on my cutter and traced it to the port settings in windose. My machine runs of a serial port and some software seems to control the port and some don’t, so I set the port up in windose control panel ( speed, parity, flow control etc.) which sorted a problem with one of the software packages I use.

Hope this helps…..

Timmy.

[Fat Bob]

hi Gav

Not got the machineyou have put have seen a few. I would say that from the way you
describe the fault that it is the machine at fault and not software. it sounds that the
machine is jamming and the scream is the belt slipping. these machines are usually running stepping motors so they just reset themselves hence the diferent registration point. This is proberly a cartridge jamming as its changed. Your recourse is with victory
as they supplied it. I have dealt direct with roland in the past and found them ever so
helpful but then thier only 30 miles away from here and I have gone to them and placed things on the counter and asked them to sort things out before now.

If you can do without the machine for a while box it up and send it back for repair and tell victory that any jobs that come in while its out of service will be outsourced to them and you will only pay material cost see what they say. Im sure they would not want bad publicity. I wonder if one of THE signmags want to start doing a consumers page.

Or would they not be very happy slagging off their advertisers 😆

Hope your problem gets sorted let us Know Cause WE care….FB

[WP_Graphics]

Cheers Guys,

Thanks for the great response!

Rob – yes, I have thought that if I do get my money back would i buy another PC600…? The answer – due to the problems – is probably not. I see that you can get a gerber edge for under £10,000 in America which is good but then again, I was pushing it to spend circa £6K on a colourcamm. I have looked at the solvent inkjets which would be good for larger prints but again, I have got to ask myself will this make me money, the current answer is I’m not doing enough digi’s to justify having a digital printer, I would much prefer a larger plotter…

FB – cheers for that , they run stepper motors do they…? Tell me, WTF is a stepping motor? 😕 😀 😀 😆

It does sound like some kind of jamming but the “jamming time” lasts for the same amount of time that it would normally take the printer back to the origin point if it wasn’t jammed.

I’ll let you know what victory say.

Rob – If I demanded my money back, am I perfectly entitled to this or can there be anything that victory can do to stop this from happening? I may add, this machine was an ex-demo from victory themselves that they only had for around 6 months…

Ga

[Martin Pearson]

Gavin contact your local Trading standards office, they will be able to tell you exactly what your rights are and what to do.