A Digital Printing Network
Printer stopped in the middle of a job
Eegads!! I'm printing my first ever banner on Imprintables banner material with my SP-300V. The substrate must have buckled a tad as I have a "dirty" area where the ink has smeared. Not sure how that happens so any feedback on that would be accepted! BUT, my printer stopped after that and was doing something with the printheads. They are parked on the righthand side. The printer says it is "now processing" but I'm not believing it. It's said that for a good 10 minutes.
Is it going to start again or is my 75% finished banner ruined and I'm going to have to start over? Darn! The BUSY and SETUP light is lit. the banner material is free to come off the back, nothing is holding it. OK now it's quiet and no lights. I don't think that bodes well for it to finish.
And I was so proud..............:-(
Lynn
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by DanielTF3 on -
You'll have to manually switch off the machine and start all over from scratch. Make sure that the media is aligned using the flanges to prevent your media being printed on whilst going off in a tangent. Also run a basic normal clean along with a test print to make sure your print heads are firing okay.
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Permalink Reply by Steven Jackson - Admin on -
are you going through a router or switch? Is the printer connected directly to the computer or through something else?
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Permalink Reply by Lynn Snell on -
The printer is connected directly to my laptop through USB plug.
I'm closing our store right now but will try to print it again after switching the machine off and then on again. The media didn't look like it slipped any but it must have developed a slight raised area near the right edge for the printheads to smear the ink as it did. I'm using the small media clips - is that OK? And no flanges as the previous owner and the tech that came out said there were "junk" and caused problems. They are the clear ones and don't look as substantial as what I use on my Summa cutter. I do have those metal clips on the round poles securing the media from drifting in the back though.
It looked so good too. I can't tell you how impressed I was with the banner until it stopped!! Oh well, hopefully the next one will look even better!
Lynn
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Permalink Reply by DanielTF3 on
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I'm guessing that the panel is still flashing with the notice saying that its "Processing..." If this is the case switch the printer off from the back of the main power cord.
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Permalink Reply by Lynn Snell on
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You are SO right!
After turning it back on, it says to Press the Power Key to Clean. Well, I know that I have to press the power button to turn it on. I guess it just runs it's own clean. I'll run a nozzle check to see if all looks good when it's through.
Thanks!
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Permalink Reply by DanielTF3 on
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Its kinda funny how those blokes who told you that the flanges were junk. The whole sole purpose of the flanges are to keep your media straight. I've done prints longer than 5m and had no issues at all what-so-ever with the fanges. As from personal experience i would recommend the flanges and the adjusting of the metal clips. The guy would of said that they were junk because he was probably tighten the clips too close to the flanges causing it to become stiff when in motion. All you need to do now is just run a basic clean and print test to make sure that your print heads are firing correctly with no bars missing. And also try to makse sure you do a manual clean during mid next month to ensure that there are no excess ink on your print head.
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Permalink Reply by Lynn Snell on
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Thanks. It's printing now but I should have rotated it 180 degrees so that I would be printing the side that didn't print first. Then if I had problems again, I at least could piece the two halves together - there is a good dividing point! Or I could hang them side by side. It's only marketing for our own shop - so I can deal with it being not quite right. It's for summer camps so time is running out!!! Hopefully, there will be no mishaps this time.
Lynn
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Permalink Reply by irving donaldson on -
Welcome to large format digital printing. You happened to have two faults in one job. 1st - smear means that your print head was striking media. Your material started to buckle and if it continued it would have separated the cutter from the printhead. The head strike would cause a motor error and the machine would have to be restarted - job lost. 2nd job stops printing but states still processing means you lost connectivity and it will clear the buffer and never continue days later - the first time you just pray that it will continue since it usually happens near the end. Ensure all your connections are connected and you do not have any power saving features to include screen saving features that are engaging on long jobs and you leaving machine idle- but printing.
As for joining the two halves - you might be judged by your publically viewed work (we all do it) so you might want to consider putting your best foot forward.
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Permalink Reply by Lynn Snell on
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All's good. I printed it again last night with just a slight smudge at one side. Don't know why the banner material is raising (can't be by much as I sat there and watched the entire banner print and didn't see a thing) but I'll try printing next time with the flanges attached and see if that makes a difference. The banner was only about 42" long so it wasn't a monster.
As to the 2 halves, trust me, no one is more a perfectionist than I am and if it wasn't up to snuff, it wouldn't be shown to the public. In this particular case, it wouldn't have mattered if one half was grommetted and hung and then the 2nd half was grommetted and hung right next to it. No one would have questioned why the split as they would not have known it was not to be split - picture on one piece and details on the other side -- in fact, this would be a good way to mix and match banner pieces for different time/day/events. I wouldn't have sold this to a customer like this if they were expected ONE banner, but for me to use like this would have been just fine. No harm done to my reputation! :-)
Since this is the largest project that I've printed so far, I wonder if my laptop did not go into power saving mode when printing the first banner (I was close by but not standing right on top of it to see if that did happen) and lose connectivity. But doesn't the printer itself have memory enough to store a job in it's queue? I'll be sure to turn off power saving on this laptop for the next time.
Thanks for all the help offered last night. It did help me to know what to do and reassure me that I was OK! I'm starting off slow and will only take on projects for myself for awhile until I get more experience under my belt.Lynn
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