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strange cadet problem
When I print anything on the Cadet any dark colours come out green!
Even things that I’ve printed lots of times before that have previously come out perfect. Its as though there is only green ink in the machine.when I send the same image to my normal printer it comes out perfect.
I haven’t altered any settings since yesterday when the machine was in good working order
Does anyone have any advice on what I can check or has anyuone had this problem before?
thanks
Stuart
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26 Replies
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I have a friend who had this problem and i believe the ink in teh tubes got contaminated. Do u do regualr head sokes? as this is what his problem was , the black got sucked back intot he other tubes. he had to syringe the contaminated ink out, and everything was hunky dory.
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I’ve not done any maintenance unfortunately. I’ve used it, switched it off, then used it again so thats probably my problem.
I don’t mean to be a dunce but can you talk me through syringing the ink out?
Thanks
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Err not realy as it wasn’t me that did it it was Phill my mate on his machine. i’ll have a chat tommorow with him and se eif he can write it in a word doc which i’ll send you.
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Did the person that installed the machine not show you how to pull the inks through Stuart?
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pulling the inks through is quite easy, but can be messy.
I have only had to do thisonce in the year that we have had the Grenadier.
Use a cramp/ crimper that is supplied with the machine. gently pull the clear tube apart where they are joined in the middle. attach you syringe to the top half of the tubing and start to pull the ink through.
thats it, just watch you dont get any air in the tube/ carts or that can cause printing problems also.
hope this helps.
Andy
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thanks averyone.
I installed the machine myself and didn’t get any guidance/advice as I bought the machine 2nd hand.
I’ll have a go tomorrow so expect some more daft questions!
Thanks again
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Green in your darks or blacks mean magenta is probably not printing properly , do a print test to see everyhing is on track (there should be a button on the machine to do this) do a few medium head cleans or do head cleans on the head that seems not to be printing. (its in the front panel menu – look at your manual or download one to see how to do head cleans)
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quote VectorWise:pulling the inks through is quite easy, but can be messy.
I have only had to do thisonce in the year that we have had the Grenadier.
Use a cramp/ crimper that is supplied with the machine. gently pull the clear tube apart where they are joined in the middle. attach you syringe to the top half of the tubing and start to pull the ink through.
thats it, just watch you dont get any air in the tube/ carts or that can cause printing problems also.
hope this helps.
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AndyNO WAY MATE……………….DO NOT DO THIS OR TAKE THIS BAD ADVICE!
The only thing you will acheive is empting 3 of your carts! (or 5 on a grenadier
You have to syringe directly unattaching the union from the printhead ONLY!!! Picking the colour tube that’s causing the problem !!!!!
Check the lines under the cover are all looking good, cross contamination through the lines is common with vacuum effect, your yellow maybe contaminated magenta for example, do not pull the ink from the pump side, you will empty your 3 colour carts within 3 or 4 full syringes, do it *only* from the printhead, ask an engineer to do this then watch, simple.This way you only suck the colour from one cart, not all three.
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Outline
missed you and your constructive critisisms where have you been (?)Lynn
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quote Lynn:Outline
missed you and your constructive critisisms where have you been (?)Lynn
Prison
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quote outline:quote VectorWise:pulling the inks through is quite easy, but can be messy.I have only had to do thisonce in the year that we have had the Grenadier.
Use a cramp/ crimper that is supplied with the machine. gently pull the clear tube apart where they are joined in the middle. attach you syringe to the top half of the tubing and start to pull the ink through.
thats it, just watch you dont get any air in the tube/ carts or that can cause printing problems also.
hope this helps.
Andy
NO WAY MATE……………….DO NOT DO THIS OR TAKE THIS BAD ADVICE!
The only thing you will acheive is empting 3 of your carts! (or 5 on a grenadier
You have to syringe directly unattaching the union from the printhead ONLY!!! Picking the colour tube that’s causing the problem !!!!!
please explain why this causes threat to emtying 5 carts. im lost… 🙄
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thats no excuse outline, they have the internet on bad girls 😛
Lynn
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quote Lynn:thats no excuse outline, they have the internet on bad girls 😛
Lynn
I’m not a bad girl, I’m good most of the time.
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so what did you do wrong? (allegedly) and where did you spend time at her Majesty’s pleasure
Lynn
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thank you for editing your post 3 times since my post outline… your welcome to of course. :lol1:
what andrew was saying was somthing i did not long ago… and with the phone glued to my ear with support on the other line. i was lucky if i pulled through a couple of mill of ink let alone 3-4 syringes full. even at that it was on one colour with a bit of air trapped in tube, no big deal.
i cant remember exactly the process but from memory the heads were docked and the tube coming out underside of docks was disconnected in middle and syringe attached and a gentle tug saw the air pockets quickly disappear.
im not a whizz at this sorta thing so i try not to reply to these sort of posts and cause confusion with my attempts at replies, but please, if someone is wrong, say i think you are are wrong and then give your reply in “full” explaining why they are wrong. if they are wrong… nothing more or to be rude. -
The original syringing advice given is the correct process.
Based on watching the engineers and the instructions given to me, you syringe the Cadet on the pipe between the pump and the unit below the heads (whatever that is called!) On the later cadets there is a junction in this pipe which can be unscrewed and attached to the syringe rather than pulling the joint apart. The advantage over just using head cleaning cycles is speed and only “wasting” 2 colours rather than 4.
There is a lot of resistance to the syringe when you pull the ink through. This is normal. Watch the colour of the inks in the pipes to gauge how much to pull through.
If you detach the pipe from above the print head, you will almost certainly get air into the manifolds which will need cleaning cycles to clear thus defeating the object of syringing.
Also I would advise not to soak the heads unless the machine is off for an extended period. The difference in pressure between the 2 “connected” ink cartridges can cause one colour to be sucked into the pipe of the other.
Peter
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These printers should never suck in air , I have no idea of how this can come about unless you run a cart dry (there are setting on the machine that will NOT allow this to happen)
I have run a soljet for almost 2 years , and its the same printer in almost all respects and air in the lines is never a problem. As to heads sucking in other inks and contaminating dampers and other ink lines , something is badly awry if this happens. -
After spending a lot of today on the telephone to Victory Design they have come to the conclusion that a pump may be not working.
After many head cleans and test prints I have sussed out that the magenta and yellow colours are not coming through. After cleaning a few times it actually seams to be getting worse – the very first test print had the majority of magenta and yellow dots in their proper place and the last one I did had no magenta and very few yellow dots.
Has anyone got any ideas now or is it time to call out an engineer? I’d like to do it myself if possible as I have a queue of jobs ready to print and don’t want to waste time if it turns out to be a simple job (although I doubt it will be)
Thanks again
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1. Cadet has only 1 pump. If the other colours are Ok it’s probably not that.
2. Have you checked that there is ink in the cartridges – and plenty of it. Earlier Cadet cartridge sometimes failed to release the plastic lug telling the machine that the cartridge is empty.
3. Check if there are air bubbles in the feed pipes. If there are you may have a fault I had of air getting into the manifold due to problems with the O ring seal.
4. If cartridge is OK this now points towards the head mechanism. Soak it overnight and see what happens after a few cleans.
5. If that does not work start cursing quite loudly as you are going to get cained with a large engineering bill.
Peter
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The magenta cartridge is nearly empty so I’ll change it for a new one – I first thought that it may be out of ink but as there was no warning I thought it must be alright.
How do I take the head mechanism off to soak it – I’ll try this too just to be on the safe side?
Sorry for all the daft questions but as I bought the machine 2nd hand I have had no training on the maintenance and the manuel is pretty much useless!
Thanks again
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the pump thing (i think) was our issue. the engineer was out a day later and took about 5 minutes to replace. i recon if i had watched close i could have done it. never mind, it was free and under warranty.
this leqads me to a new note, these machines and lots like it are fairly inexpensive. that goes for new cnc routers, lasers and more… all coming down in price. great machines and well made. however, we seem to forget waranty charges. see whos warranty is high/low. once it expires and you get a problem costs shoot up. 😕 -
Just ran in to my first problem with the cadet.
The magenta ran out while printing and, for some reason, the ink low warning system failed. I inserted a new magenta cart but it was airlocked so i had to do the syringe routine.
I eventually got it to work and when it finally test printed correctly, the cyan started acting up.
Weird i thought as there was no warning with that either. (Warning is on as it alerted me to low Yellow only last week).
The cyan cart wasn`t empty but i inserted a new one anyway. I went through the same routine with the syringe but the difference this time is that the bubble keep coming through the line from somewhere.
It`s as if it is drawing air from somewhere and i simple can`t find where.
I spoke to an engineer who is sending me up a “damper” or “baffle” to replace at the top of the print head on the cyan tube.
I hope and pray this works as i have a horrible little back log of work to get through.
Anyone had any similiar problems to this?.
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Check any joins in the inklines , the damper wont really suck air unless the O-ring is faulty You can pull it off and reseat it – be careful of the membrane , The damper should be about 2/3rds full.
Its most likely at one of the junctions or bits where the ink lines go into something. tighten up any and all connections , trace the airlines buy pulling the cover.
It could also be a split in the lines going thru the pumps. -
quote Rodney Gold:Check any joins in the inklines , the damper wont really suck air unless the O-ring is faulty You can pull it off and reseat it – be careful of the membrane , The damper should be about 2/3rds full.
Its most likely at one of the junctions or bits where the ink lines go into something. tighten up any and all connections , trace the airlines buy pulling the cover.
It could also be a split in the lines going thru the pumps.Thanks Rod, engineer said it might be where it is drawing air and as a last resort i stripped the head covering and there it was, a very unusual split on the white casing of the valve that goes into the head.
No one has ever been anywhere near it yet there is a split. Most likely caused by the same pair of hands who assmebled the machine.
Rod
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Try some silicon sealant on it an see if it will print then may save you some time, money and let the backlog disappear then get it fixed.
Thats what I would try first anyway or some self amalgamating tape brilliant at sealing stuff as it fuses against its self providing an air tight seal.Goop
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That white thing is the damper – its a sort of reservoir not really a valve or filter. Replace it , they aren’t expensive and thats what the tech guy is sending you. Make sure you suck ink into it , it should be about 2/3rds full – its important that the level is correct.
I would actually replace all the dampers considering you had hassles with 2 inks – just as insurance.
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