How good are on-board diagnositcs?

[turkeyfoot]

Im going to be repairing other kinds of copiers after 8 yrs.

How often do you feel that the machine tells you everything you need to know when the operators are no where to be found? Remember when everything was a hex number needing conversion to english? How do you cut down on the time to check every conceivable function when the operator just "wants it fixed" and doesnt tell you everything thats happened since your last service call? How can you avoid running 200 pages (a time killer) before you get to a point of knowing a cassette is reliable (operator told you its jamming from x).

I have no idea what you guys deal with but have a feeling I've been spoiled.

On Oce' m/c's you can navigate intuitively thru screens that provide almost all you need to analyze a stutation.

There are extra diag wires to every pba and every device.

I can do output tests for all clutchs, solonoids, lamps, led array and motors stressing them seperately or stacked together.

Every single sensor has a counter that cumulatively counts every delay, jam or time it doesnt actuate.

Theres a counter for sheets fed from each drawer/feeder and the ratio of jams to feeds as in 3:5500.

There are counters for every supply item replaced ie; master, developer, toner, roller cleaner, conveyor belt and cleaner brushes etc.

There are histograms to show how many times a fault in the selected area occured and the date time it happened. The idea is it can show escalating problems or moment in time related to paper/operator than machine malfunction.

It shows whether there was a hard stop (fatal error) operator recoverable (operator clears jam) machine recoverable (power off/on) or just a warning. The display catagorizes paper feed/ adf feed and system errors.

I have so much confidence that I can catch a problem, identify it as a minor problem requiring no time checking it out or something that is happens with a frequency thats unacceptable. It weeds out the drama an operator gives you when asking whats happened.

The only thing it wont do is tell you where an image problem is occuring. But I can print test patterns in grey, black or patterns in duplex or simplex and any size.

When the call is finished the error counters are stored and then zeroed out so the next call shows what happened since you left.

Now thats for the old style sevice mode, the new one I connect via ethernet and access an electronic logbook that shows every area that Venlo has deemed isnt living up to standards and its updated to reflect product issues. If a belt or master has x number of copies its flagged showing when it will need replacing. If there are excessive errors on any part of the m/c like sensors or motors timing out it shows up. So apart from the immediate problem the tech is given a snapshot of the system showing other potential problem areas. On newer products Venlo gets a release from the customer and the entire m/c history can be uploaded for remote viewing.

Basically I can walk up to the machine fix it without any input from the customer and know it will stay that way......until the next call

So, how well do your machines work for you? Ive never seen others provide the same level of diagnostics, worked on Canon, Tosh and Konica.

[zico21]

As the service manager for a Ricoh dealer I can tell you that the information available to the tech while not as extensive as your experiencing, is very useful. I'm always harping on our Techs to determine "what the machine is telling you", especially in terms of jam history.

Because I'm so ignorant and lack real experience on the current equipment I'm probably more dependent on the diagnostic information provided by the copier than our field techs, but I'm convinced that this is more efficient than the "old school" observation of running test copies to solve jamming problems. Besides keeping running totals of jams by sensor location (both late and lag jams) Ricohs keep a more detailed list of both the last 10 original jams and last 10 engine jams. Looking at this information can tell you a lot about you are dealing with you.

I had to laugh the other day when I went to lunch with one of our Techs at Wendy's and my order of fries was delayed. The counter person said it would be a few minutes as another worker was trying to solve a little problem with the fryer. My co-worker remarked to me " what is the fryer telling him!".

[mjarbar]

the Canons tell you the error code and jam codes, the newer models will let you select the jam and will tell you where the jam was with a little picture of the feed path and associated photo-sensors.

Apart from that will tell you little else.