iRC3380..the new iRC3100?

[Oze]

GGRRRRR...
I went to a machine yesterday where the customer was complaining of a loud grinding noise.
Sure enough on arrival I could hear the sound of a motor trying to drive stationary gears..we all know THAT sound.
The machine wouldn't make the sound with the right hand door open and would boot quietly to a ready state just prompting to shut the door.
Of course..as soon as the door was shut the motor would try do drive the gear and BBBRRTTT...back comes the noise.
Now for the good part...
I tried to pull out the process unit to inspect for damage to the drums/and or ITB assy.....STUCK....absolutely going nowhere..!!!
I spent two hours on the machine with no joy.
Today I relented and called another tech to the machine coz I needed another pair of eyes/hands. and we spent 8 hours onsite..
We eventually found what caused the issue in the first place...the rubber rib that runs around the itb belt had come off(the belt was still in place and had been working up to this point)and had fallen into the yellow drum unit.
It became wedged between the drum and the blade so tightly that the drum stopped rotating..hence the drum drive motor was trying to turn a seized drum.
To free up the process unit we had to remove the main controller,DC controller,DC drive pcb,all night power supply and the complete ITB/Drum/dev drive assembly and then the process unit popped open.
We replaced the itb assy as well as four new drums....wait...it get's better..
We booted up the copier and were presented with "Load new Black drum"...new yellow drum...etc etc...the machine did not know that it had a set of drums in it.
There are a few techbase articles about this issue so we went through them one by one til we exhausted all avenues.
Meanwwhile I've spent a day and a half on this machine at the expense of my other customers who are struggling to understand why I keep fobbing them off.
So I told the service manager today he'll have to give them a replacement machine and get someone to work on their machine back at the workshop...I've wasted too much time on it already.
As it happens the customer is already pissed at Canon due to the numerous "0212" buffer pass jams that this...and many other 3380i seem to be riddled with.
In a medium humiditiy environment these machines curl the paper so badly that it jams at the buffer pass exit/finisher swing guide entry.
I had only just sorted it this week when BLAM...the machine completely craps itself...the machine is only 50,000K old.
Shades of Irc3100 here I'm afraid.

[Oze]

Oh...btw...I'm venting in that post...so don't feel that you HAVE to come up with a solution for me..just had to blow off some steam
UPDATE:
The service manager is going to look at the machine tomorrow so that I can carry on with other calls...he'll swap the DC controller and the DC driver pcb...stay tuned for more drama.

[mjarbar]

Sorry to hear about that, we have quite a few of these in the field now and don't have a problem with them.

I don't know if its the different climate or we have been lucky with them but we have had many of the parts doing double or triple there intended life and CQ has always been good.

At least you now know more about the machine than is probably healthy

[Oze]

Oh we've had HEAPS of troubles...drums that dump through the machines at low life.....the curly paper issue (the 2880 was fine but the 3380 seems to have this issue)...dev drive clutches that sieze and snap teeth and machines that insist on colour clicking for EVERYTHING....but the itb killing the drum is the biggest to date

[mjarbar]

I'm wondering then if it's the motors and gearing then, the fact that you have 2880's with no problem but the 3380's are the speeded up version (as you know) it's probably down to the fact that the drives can't take the added stress.

If that's the case then its a design fault that can't be sorted by ourselves only Canon at a high level!!!

[SteveO]

I wouldn't say they are as bad as the 3100's. Those are an absolute nightmare as well as the 6800's. i have had the toner dumping issues on a few machines with the resulting E-025 codes. And the ITB making noise. Which i am not sure but i think you have to replace the whole assembly not just the belt. As far as the toner leak issue i haven't seen a fix yet but am trying a temp fix by taping up the gaps around the motors above the sensors behind the Relay PCB to try and reduce toner dropping on the sensors and giving the E-025 codes. I still haven't found a way to extend the life of the drum units. They usually go at 120%. if anyone knows any tricks to extend drum life please let everybody know.

[Oze]

Are you using Gen drum units or after market?
We've had SELDRUM units dump....sometimes as soon as you fit them.

[Oze]

The machine in question is STILL down btw.
The service manager came out and inspected it and reckons that at some point in the disassembley/reassembly we've plugged a 24v harness from the fax kit into the main controller
I just sighed....2 techs....both double checking each other....I just nodded.
The machine is back at the workshop waiting to have a main controller swapped in.

[Irish]

Hi Oze.. You have my simpathys man.. Every now and then you get one.... You just got to breath deep and go slow ... Hang in there .. There out to get us and we need all the good techs we can get.... BUT ... I dont think anything could ever as bad as the infamous 3100 puh......

[Oze]

Cheers...
The latest word on this machine is that after 5 techs pooled our combined knowledge....Canon are going to D.O.A the machine as it has less than 15,000k on it.
EVERY part was swapped...complete process unit with drums and itb...main controller...both DC boards...all sub boards...and still the machine asks for drums.