Looking for some help fixing my pro 4000-s.
I bought this machine new back in 2017 for printing construction plans. I probably haven't ran 10 rolls of paper through it since then. Most of the ink tanks are the setup tanks that came with the machine other than black which I use the most of. I probably made a series of bad decisions that caused me the problems I am having now. To start with, about a month ago I was in the middle of printing and I ran out of paper. I ended up leaving the machine on and it stayed on waiting for paper for quite some time before the power went out to the building shutting it off.
Last week we moved the printer to our new office a couple miles down the road. Not thinking about it I totally forgot there was a process to place the printer in transport mode. We took it off its stand and placed it by hand on a flat trailer. Didn't beet or bang it around or anything like that. We set it back up in the stand in the new office and left it for a few days before coming back to it.
When I came back to it and powered it up I got the first error code which was EC35-2F3C - Left ink valve motor error (support number : 4801) Causes: Encoder value of the left ink valve motor is not detected. I removed the cover on the left side sub tank and inspected the gears, encoders and the optical sensor and didn't see any problems that stuck out. I also rotated the gears by hand to verify everything moved fine which it did. I then opened the right side to have something to compare to and rotated those gears by hand to inspect their opperation as well. After doing so and powering the printer back on I then got a new code which was EC33-2F3A - Description: Timeout of left or right ink supply choke valve driving (support number: 4801) Causes: The choke valve does not complete driving within the scheduled time.
After getting this second code I noticed when you power the printer up the motor / gears on the sub tank rotate for what seams to be a set amount of time and stop before it throws the code. This made me think the gears are supposed to be in a set position (timed) before the printer turns on at which point it rotates the gears for that set amount of time and looks for certain conditions such as a change in the optical sensor or a specific encoder value. My thought is since the printer wasn't properly shut down it may have not returned the gears/valve to the correct position and when I tried to power it back on it reads that as a bad encoder or optical sensor. Moving the gears on the right tank and powering the unit on to get a new code for the right tank makes me think i moved them out of their correct timing and caused the second code which re enforces my theory, but I may be way off.
I had called cannon support and they walked me through a few things but in the end wanted to send out a technician. I also talked to the company I bought the printer from and they told me that its possible the print head could be causing the issue.
I figured out how to get in the service menu but haven't had the time to dive deep into all the options and see if there is a calibration or reset of some type for the ink tank drive system. If there is not and no one else has any advice, my next step is to test the individual electrical components that make up the sub ink tank system. I have tried to find any timing / install procedures for the sub ink tank but haven't had any luck. I also thought if I could get access to another one of these printers thats working and could take the cover off I could take pictures of the resting position of all the gears and encoders and place mine back in the same configuration and see if that solves the problem.
Any help would be much appreciated.
I bought this machine new back in 2017 for printing construction plans. I probably haven't ran 10 rolls of paper through it since then. Most of the ink tanks are the setup tanks that came with the machine other than black which I use the most of. I probably made a series of bad decisions that caused me the problems I am having now. To start with, about a month ago I was in the middle of printing and I ran out of paper. I ended up leaving the machine on and it stayed on waiting for paper for quite some time before the power went out to the building shutting it off.
Last week we moved the printer to our new office a couple miles down the road. Not thinking about it I totally forgot there was a process to place the printer in transport mode. We took it off its stand and placed it by hand on a flat trailer. Didn't beet or bang it around or anything like that. We set it back up in the stand in the new office and left it for a few days before coming back to it.
When I came back to it and powered it up I got the first error code which was EC35-2F3C - Left ink valve motor error (support number : 4801) Causes: Encoder value of the left ink valve motor is not detected. I removed the cover on the left side sub tank and inspected the gears, encoders and the optical sensor and didn't see any problems that stuck out. I also rotated the gears by hand to verify everything moved fine which it did. I then opened the right side to have something to compare to and rotated those gears by hand to inspect their opperation as well. After doing so and powering the printer back on I then got a new code which was EC33-2F3A - Description: Timeout of left or right ink supply choke valve driving (support number: 4801) Causes: The choke valve does not complete driving within the scheduled time.
After getting this second code I noticed when you power the printer up the motor / gears on the sub tank rotate for what seams to be a set amount of time and stop before it throws the code. This made me think the gears are supposed to be in a set position (timed) before the printer turns on at which point it rotates the gears for that set amount of time and looks for certain conditions such as a change in the optical sensor or a specific encoder value. My thought is since the printer wasn't properly shut down it may have not returned the gears/valve to the correct position and when I tried to power it back on it reads that as a bad encoder or optical sensor. Moving the gears on the right tank and powering the unit on to get a new code for the right tank makes me think i moved them out of their correct timing and caused the second code which re enforces my theory, but I may be way off.
I had called cannon support and they walked me through a few things but in the end wanted to send out a technician. I also talked to the company I bought the printer from and they told me that its possible the print head could be causing the issue.
I figured out how to get in the service menu but haven't had the time to dive deep into all the options and see if there is a calibration or reset of some type for the ink tank drive system. If there is not and no one else has any advice, my next step is to test the individual electrical components that make up the sub ink tank system. I have tried to find any timing / install procedures for the sub ink tank but haven't had any luck. I also thought if I could get access to another one of these printers thats working and could take the cover off I could take pictures of the resting position of all the gears and encoders and place mine back in the same configuration and see if that solves the problem.
Any help would be much appreciated.
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