Start-up: cutter causes abrupt stop of carriage, 18:01 error

[kspl]

Z3200 24"

When starting up the printer, either from back or front panel switch:

- The carriage travels to left and picks up cutter

- The carriage travels to right and trys to pull cutter past where the cutter's track ends, resulting in an abrupt stop.

- Then the printer throws an 18:01 error.  

I'm not sure if the carriage is supposed to engage the cutter during power-on sequence, but if it is, it's trying to pull it too far to the right when it does. 

Any ideas?

Thanks!

[davidzuts]

First off I assume the error is 86:01. What you need to do is remove the right side cover which is very easy and then remove the cutter from the plotter. You will need a torx 15 bit and you can find instructions on the net. Now fire up the printer and see if you get a different error. Most times this issue is caused by the encoder being dirty causing the carriage is mis-read its position or there is an obstruction on the right side which does not let the carriage move all the way. If you clean the encoder, just use a lint free cloth dampened in plain water and be very gentle with moving the cloth over the encoder. If you rub to hard you could remove the fine lines in which case the encoder will need to be replaced.

[kspl · Accepted solution]

It turned out that, when installing the tensioner while replacing the belt, I got it upside down.  The carriage was striking a piece on that, rather than getting its position when it struck the silver rod on the left.  So, the carriage thought it was further left than it actually was.

That's why it was picking up the cutter (which it would have shed had it been able to travel all the way to the left), carrying the cutter all the way to the right and slamming it into something over there.  

I rotated the tensioner 180 and now everything's fine.