check printhead CLEANER path

[meat1820]

I will try that when I get home from work. I can tell ya right now if I do that, manually, we'll be able to over travel the service station and the cleaners will hit the heads. If I swing that plunger up into position and do it then everything will line up perfect and the cleaners will cap the heads.

[davidzuts]

OK so pull the plunger up and cap the printheads and then turn on the plotter and tell us what happens. Does the plunger move to the front of the plotter or just stay in the up position. I looked at a spare I have in the office and the plunger has its own motor as does the cleaner tray. If the plunger is not going into the capping position then there is something wrong with that part of the service station.

[meat1820]

alright,, I moved everything into position, capped, plunger up. turned on printer, initialize, plunger moves to front, carriage goes left, carriage goes to station and stops 1/4" short and plunger DID NOT go up..

I do believe we are getting somewhere here David,,,, you are correct, that plunger motor could be bad.

I ordered another encoder strip for this boat ancor anyway. I have never changed it in the 5 yrs I've had it.

[meat1820]

David,,,, if the plunger motor on the service station moves the plunger forward to the front, it should be able to run in reverse, correct, being a DC stepper motor? If it is getting it's signal from the board for example to run forward (A,B,C,D-A,B,C,D) etc,,,  reverse signal from board would be (D,C,B,A-D,C,B,A- etc, 

I don't think I am getting a signal from the electronics board to plunger motor to send plunger back to capping position.

If that is the case, that explains why the carriage stops 1/4" short. the carriage is being told to stop within a certain count of lines from encoder strip so it doesn't slam into the end of the right side because the plunger is not there.

I am going to order another service station anyway, I don't know how old this one is.

any stepper motor I know of here at work, if it runs in one direction it will run in the other.

Rich

[meat1820]

I got my new service station delivered today. Install in printer, power up, initialize and get SAME ERROR....

Switch power off check printhead CLEANER path.

So now I have two good service stations and a board communication problem. This plotter is not getting a signal from board to tell the service station plunger to go up to printhead capping position. Do I need a whole new electronics module?

[meat1820]

anybody????  no idea huh,,,, OK... guess I'm on my own.

[davidzuts]

To be honest it is difficult since the system worked before you had the drop detector issue. That said if you have the service manual I would perform the service tests contained in chapter 4 where you start up in special mode. If the tests pass then in my mind the issue is probably the encoder strip. This is the item which the carriage reads to get to the correct position for all it actions. If there is a defect in the strip, then the carriage may not go to the correct position which I think is happening to you. Using that same manual I would look for the instructions on removing the strip and then using a magnifying object I would check the strip to make sure all the lines of present and not blocked out by any foreign matter. If any of the lines are missing or deformed then it could be the issue and the strip will need to be replaced.

[meat1820]

That's what I am hoping for David,,,, the strip and not the board. I've got a new encoder strip ordered, when that comes in I'll install that and get back here with the results. fingers crossed

[meat1820]

is this a bad encoder strip?

[meat1820]

and this,,,,