Roland Cammjet 500 / ECOSOL MAX ink / Colorchoice RIP Help

[Robert Lambie]

So "all" test prints running from the machines own setup prints perfectly?
only prints running from your software has problems?

[Jakob Rasmussen]

Hi Robie

"all" means the 6 line colors that it does standardprint. It looks like they are ok, and i also managed to print 4 color swatches from photoshop and corel draw perfect earlier on.

BUT after it started to print black, but now they also come out Brown (red), black(blue), Yellow (yellow) and Back (green).

[Jakob Rasmussen]

Hi again

In General, i am also very interested in hearing from everybody, who has experience with this combination of printer and inks, as i have heard both pros and cons about it, but for me it has worked flawless until now, the only think i can complain about is the speed of the printer, but time is to of an essence for me right now, so its ok.

Can anybody tell me about the difference between the FJ-500 and the CJ 500.

I am also interested in changing for a compatible bulk ecosol ink, if any good is on the market, pls. advise.

Thanks again guys.

[Predrag Vucicevic]

Hello,

I was surfing on net, trying to find answers how to make cammjet running with eco solvent ink?!

I saw here post about CJ 500 using this ink, can anybody tell me do I need to make some changes on machine or I can just fill up with eco solvent with regular daily maintenance?

Thank
Predrag

[Chris Wool]

as i understand it the cammjets fj500 cj 500 were never intended to have solvent type inks in them and were not built with it in mind.

solvent inks inc eco solvents will eat your pipe work and other main components they can be converted but unless you are very handy would have to be done by a engineer a lot of expense.

chris

[Predrag Vucicevic]

Hello Chris

Do you know how to convert? I haven’t found any upgrade data’s about it, but would like to try.

[Chris Wool]

quote :

but would like to try.

you will trash the printer.
i doubt if you will find the information you require as was never considered to be done by a none engineer.
best advice is to buy a proper solvent type printer and sell yours as a good working printer.

chris

[Predrag Vucicevic]

I have red one post where was sad that CJ500 is using eco solvent. Do you have idea how?

[Chris Wool]

2 or 3 firms offered the conversion on new machines at a quite high price before the soljets came out.

chris

[Mark Elvidge]

quote Jakob Rasmussen:

Hi again

In General, i am also very interested in hearing from everybody, who has experience with this combination of printer and inks, as i have heard both pros and cons about it, but for me it has worked flawless until now, the only think i can complain about is the speed of the printer, but time is to of an essence for me right now, so its ok.

Can anybody tell me about the difference between the FJ-500 and the CJ 500.

I am also interested in changing for a compatible bulk ecosol ink, if any good is on the market, pls. advise.

Thanks again guys.

Fj500 is 8 colour pigment or 1×4 pigment and 1×4 dye print only. uses the epson 980 heads.

cj500 is 6 colour pig or dye and is print and cut uses the epson 9000 heads.

[Mark Elvidge]

quote Predrag Vucicevic:

Hello Chris

Do you know how to convert? I haven’t found any upgrade data’s about it, but would like to try.

i was heavily involved in the R&D of these conversions for a company here in the uk about 6 years ago.

The conversion from a cj500 to a solvent based machine is not as involved as you may think. However there are a few key steps to follow.
these are based on using the lyson solvent ink, others may vary.

ink plates in the ink tank tray need replacing with solvent resistant ones.

heaters need fitting to inside of front and rear apron. this is the hardest part due to wiring.

the waste bottles are moved forward to near the pump, aids in flow from pump to waste and also makes pump changes easier.

possibly upgrade dampers to latest ecosol max ones. (this wasnt available then).

I stress that NO other parts were changed on these machines. it was the same head, pump, ink tubing etc.
the pump pipes were changed to clear afterwards to help see blockages but also because old pumps could be re-used with new pipe.

i had 2 machines running daily and i managed to work in a maintenace program that kept the machine running problem free on the same heads for 18 months.

i have a few photographs that i can post if anyone interested in the conversion.

[Predrag Vucicevic]

Hello Mark,

thanks for reply. Real machine I want to convert is Roland Cammjet 70. In few document I found out, that CJ 500 is same as CJ 70 so I replayed on this post.
Have you ever don conversation on this model? Do you know any deference between this models? Which type of printing heads CJ 70 pigment use?

[Peter Yip]

sorry to bring back this old post. but i was wondering where can you get the heaters from ? as i am very interested to install a heater on our printer to speed up the drying time…

[Michael Antrum]

Hi Guys,

I may be able to help out with a few answers here:

The original SC500 was sold with no heater kit and with SOL-ink which was designed to print onto coated vinyls and media.

Then Roland launched a new ink that would work on uncoated materials called ECO-Sol. There was an official Roland upgrade kit for the SC500 for it to take Eco-Sol Max ink. However, it was never really marketed properly in the U.K. as it did not work that well in terms of print quality. Those of you who remember Eco-Sol ink will recall that it was not very durable and took ages to dry. As a result many people did not hear about the upgrade kit.

When Eco-Sol Max came out, however, the upgrade kit worked far better, but unfortunately, by this time Roland Japan had decided to discontinue making the upgrade kit – so there were very few left. I ended up buying a load from Roland Australia who seemed to have done most work with the kit. I don’t know if they have any left now…

The Upgrade kit consisted of a heater kit, new firmware and profiles.

Now the CAMM Jet CJ500 was the same machine as the SolJet SC500 (painted a different colour) so you could put the same heater kit and firmware in it and make it into an SC500.

At the same time comapnies such as AIT, Granthams, B&P & Victory were converting these machines to true solvent and giving them names such as Resolve, Jetsolver, Eco-Jet etc. These firms may still have heater kits available, but they often involved drilling and wiring heaters with mains transformers etc – so fitting one of these kits is not for the faint-hearted. A sub-division of Lyson inks called Tiara also made heater kits but they went bang a few years ago.

So if you look hard you may find a heater kit today – but I think you’ll need to look hard.

Jakob, you problem seems to be ink contamination and I would suspect the pump or capping station assembly is not allowing the ink to drain away correctly so the inks are mixing in the shared cap heads. C,Y,M and Y,Lc,Lm share the two cap heads, and the ink will mix if it is not being cleared into the waste tank, thereby mixing your colours in the heads.

If I remember rightly the FJ500 was a Hi-Fi Jet which could be configured with C,Y,M,K,Lc,Lm,Orange, Green ink or 2 x C,Y,M,K depending on your needs and were heavily used in the fine art market for their exended colour gamut.

Predag, you really need a heater system to make your CJ500 work with Eco-Sol Max, or indeed any other solvent ink.
The CJ70 is a totally different animal, it was purely a water based machine and I think any attempt to convert it will be… shall we say ‘fraught with difficulty’. The CJ 70 was Roland’s first inkjet, and was pretty crude – head alignment was done with shims ! The heads would drop apart very quickly too. The CJ500 however, is a more suitable candidate for open heart surgery. The CJ500 & SC500 used the same head as the Rockhopper I and Jetster I which were widely sold as Eco-Solvent machines.

Hope you enjoyed the history lesson 😀

Best Regards,

Mike

[john lowe]

hi i was wondering if you might have some info for me on my fj52 jetsolver i have been using lyson ecosol inks but have had nothing but trouble with drop out and drying up , i use epson 3000 heads and normal dampers
so my questions are will any other heads work and is the ink at fault
have you heard of triangle ink ? is that ok i could go on and on any help on this subject would be great

[Michael Antrum]

First of all the Lyson ink seems to work as well as any other, so I don’t think changing the ink will specifically make much difference.

All of the machines that use these type of inks and heads by their very nature need a lot of TLC to keep them running – but when you get the trick of them they are not hard to keep going.

However, it sounds to me like you have some problems with the machine that need to be resolved.

If you have changed the heads and dampers recently, I would now point you in the following direction.

1) Change the capping station. These are not expensive. I think Roland charge around £ 50 for them. However, the capping station has breather pipes in it, and also a very simple valve that operates when the capping station is pushed to the right. If these breather pipes block up or the valve doesn’t seal properly you will get drop out. You also need to ensure that the Flushing position is set correctly or the heads may not seal against the caps properly when pumping ink.

2)Ink lines. The ink lines in the machine are narrow (and they need to be) On machines that have got a few miles under the belt I have seen lines that have a coating of ink on the inside, effectively constricting the flow of ink. Pulling flush through the lines and leaving it overnight is a good way of clearing this out.

3) The Epson heads are the right heads, but were never designed for this type of ink – so do not last like heads designed for solvent use. When this type of ink was originally put into these machines it was always envisaged that they would need to be changed regularly – but it wasn’t much of a problem as they are cheap.

4) Main things to keep in mind with this machine:
Print regularly, even when you don’t need to. If the machine is not going to be used for a while put flush in
Keep the capping station and wiper blade clean
Wipe the heads with flush regularly.

Best of luck

Mike

[john lowe]

Hi Mike
Thanks for the reply good info its a bit of a problem living in Spain, anyway i have the printer up and running now but i still have a fault when i use bidirectional printing, it only prints nice in one direction even when i make the adjustments it seems to far out to adjust the machine has a new main board could it be the linear decoder if so can i turn it upside down or something sorry about this but the engineers here don’t even seem to know as much as i do for instance he said it was impossible to run impossible in this machine and there is no such thing as a jet-solver.

Regards
John Lowe

[Michael Antrum]

Hi John,

Don’t mess with the encoder. You don’t need to. You tell me that you have a new main board. It is likely that when the new main board was fitted it wasn’t set up correctly.

There is a bidirectional calibration in the service mode of the machine. You need to set this up first. The setting for this forms the basis of the bi-directional adjustment in normal user mode – So if the service mode is not set up the normal user mode will not give you enough of a range to set the bi-directional adjustment correctly.

Enter service mode and set up the bi-directional adjustment under ‘Head Adjust’ first. Then you should be able to set up the normal user mode adjustment with no problems,

Regards,

Mike

[john lowe]

Hi Mike
Thanks for the reply but i should have said i have been trying to set up bi direct in service mode and there is no where near enough range and the return print is fuzzy to. Sorry i should have made it more clear plus i always change all my own parts and the reason for the new main board is the old forgot to unplug the machine , could it be the head carriage board, its a bit too deep for me.

thanks again mike,

Kind regards
John Lowe