What's the trick?

[Jimbo1]

Well after having worked on Ricoh equipment for over ten years, then almost exclusively Kyocera for four and almost a year sabbatical for family reasons, I am being offered a Field Supervisor position in a large territory. They are Savin (Ricoh) machines.
I have been in three interviews for this position, which interestingly They sought Me out, and was really delighted when in the second interview I debugged a 60 page per minute machine and discovered it was virtually identical internally to what I had been familiar with.

My question to my colleagues out there is what in these new generation machines can I expect in the way of bugginess and such.
Is there firmware as good or better than it used to be?
Do they run any cleaner?(Please God....please!)

Just whatever insights you can give I will appreciate.

And thanks for putting up with my rantings all this time....on Rants and Raves.

[knightfall]

Re: What's the trick?

not sure what you would call new generation but the latest models like all copiers have the good and bad, bugs are always out there.
The firmware are as like they were SD card.
I believe you should have no problems doing this job again having 14+ years gives you a certain ability that doesn't go away with time just needs to be re-honed. Just read the manuals and bulletins and you should have no problems.
Good luck in your new job.

[Jimbo1]

Re: What's the trick?

Thanks man. Got that impression but always good to check in with people doing it.
From what I have seen they made have made some smart changes to the engines in places but you never know what they may have done to firmwarte and software.

[RRodgers]

Re: What's the trick?

I've seen A LOT of prob's with the fuser section on the 60ppm machines. Updated parts and firmware seems to help quite a bit.
GL and enjoy.

[Jimbo1]

Re: What's the trick?

I've seen A LOT of prob's with the fuser section on the 60ppm machines. Updated parts and firmware seems to help quite a bit.
GL and enjoy.

Yeah I was shown some stuff about that. Was real happy to see most of that engine as I remembered it.
The guy i am replacing is moving up to Service Manager and bugged the machine by placing a piece of electrical tape over the corona housing. Found it in ten seconds.
Thanks. The windshield and I are about to bond again.

[Tonerbomb]

Re: What's the trick?

Haven't had the sc 555 codes on the MP 6002's yet. As with all new Ricoh's the frimware will continue to roll out for the 1st year or so. Some of the bigger changes are the print drivers and the new gothca's in them. You'll be ok! Good luck !

[blackcat4866]

Re: What's the trick?

Congratulations Jimbo. I hope it's what you're looking for. =^..^=

[10871087]

Re: What's the trick?

Good techs are good techs, you'll do fine.

[blackdog]

Re: What's the trick?

Congrats to you Jimbo. I've been in the office machine business for over 30 years, 25 of which on my own. Worked on everything imaginable, typewriters, adding machines, cash resistors, IBM MagCards, PC's, been an exclusive dealership in "the glory days" when mfg. were on the dealers side and rewarded as such. So all in all I can't think of another job I'd rather be doing and if I had my druthers to do it all over again I would not get into this business in todays current business climate. I wish you all the best and hope you are rewarded well for your efforts and expertise.

[Jimbo1]

Re: What's the trick?

Congrats to you Jimbo. I've been in the office machine business for over 30 years, 25 of which on my own. Worked on everything imaginable, typewriters, adding machines, cash resistors, IBM MagCards, PC's, been an exclusive dealership in "the glory days" when mfg. were on the dealers side and rewarded as such. So all in all I can't think of another job I'd rather be doing and if I had my druthers to do it all over again I would not get into this business in todays current business climate. I wish you all the best and hope you are rewarded well for your efforts and expertise.

Oh I have been free lancing the past year and even worked on ink jet printers.
Never ever thought I would worry with those things but people will actually pay you to make them work.........

Thanks for the support...there are a great bunch of techs on here...

[Ollie1981]

Re: What's the trick?

Mono

The low-mid volume mono is pretty much the same as it was, they are basically newer variants of the 1013, 1018 and 1027. Downsides in my opinion? They are more "plasticcy" than they used to be, also the LN variants of the MP171 and MP2000 are a pain in the backside with print drivers (requiring a DDST driver and manual setting up of the port etc).

Hardware wise, same old same old. A lot of the parts are the same and a lot of the issues are the same as they were on the older boxes.

The 60cpm-90cpm mono boxes - practically identical hardware wise to the old kit. They have brought the thicker style heat roller out of retirement for the 90cpm machines. Apart from that, very little different.

90cpm plus mono .... much better now than the 2090/2110. Toner supply system still a pain in the backside but doesn't have as many issues as the Bellini, no clutches any more (I think the only one in the machine now is in the toner bank!!) and only 2 PMs to do, 500k and 1000k. Be very very careful with updating firmware on this one though as if you update either system copy or engine to pro level without updating the other at the same time then you're in for some trouble.

Colour

Low-Mid volume a lot better but the engines now are different to the 1224c/3224c and 3228c (Model U and Model J) that you may be used to.

Appollon/Athena machines are mostly easy to work on but there are now a ton of different drums available based on what generation machine they are. Some drums are compatible across generations/model ranges but require a bit of "modification" to fit (somebody posted up a cross reference table on here if I remember that details what fits in what and what modifications are required)

Most of the time it's just a corner that needs cutting off the RJ45 type connector but sometimes a pin needs swapping in the harness too.

Most of the fusers are a pain in the ass, most are belt-type fusers (except the MP4000/5000) the earlier higher cpm machines have an induction heating system (with a coil/thermopile system external to the fuser in the machine)

The new fusers are a complete clusterf**k requiring a quick blow fuse to reset some fuser errors and have a horrible pressure driven sleeve thing. How this is an improvement on the old fuser I don't know.

High Volume, the MPC6000/7500

HATEFUL HATEFUL F**KING THINGS!!

The 3260c was a pain in the ass, they managed to make them worse, enough said!!

[Jimbo1]

Re: What's the trick?

Mono

The low-mid volume mono is pretty much the same as it was, they are basically newer variants of the 1013, 1018 and 1027. Downsides in my opinion? They are more "plasticcy" than they used to be, also the LN variants of the MP171 and MP2000 are a pain in the backside with print drivers (requiring a DDST driver and manual setting up of the port etc).

Hardware wise, same old same old. A lot of the parts are the same and a lot of the issues are the same as they were on the older boxes.

The 60cpm-90cpm mono boxes - practically identical hardware wise to the old kit. They have brought the thicker style heat roller out of retirement for the 90cpm machines. Apart from that, very little different.

90cpm plus mono .... much better now than the 2090/2110. Toner supply system still a pain in the backside but doesn't have as many issues as the Bellini, no clutches any more (I think the only one in the machine now is in the toner bank!!) and only 2 PMs to do, 500k and 1000k. Be very very careful with updating firmware on this one though as if you update either system copy or engine to pro level without updating the other at the same time then you're in for some trouble.

Colour

Low-Mid volume a lot better but the engines now are different to the 1224c/3224c and 3228c (Model U and Model J) that you may be used to.

Appollon/Athena machines are mostly easy to work on but there are now a ton of different drums available based on what generation machine they are. Some drums are compatible across generations/model ranges but require a bit of "modification" to fit (somebody posted up a cross reference table on here if I remember that details what fits in what and what modifications are required)

Most of the time it's just a corner that needs cutting off the RJ45 type connector but sometimes a pin needs swapping in the harness too.

Most of the fusers are a pain in the ass, most are belt-type fusers (except the MP4000/5000) the earlier higher cpm machines have an induction heating system (with a coil/thermopile system external to the fuser in the machine)

The new fusers are a complete clusterf**k requiring a quick blow fuse to reset some fuser errors and have a horrible pressure driven sleeve thing. How this is an improvement on the old fuser I don't know.

High Volume, the MPC6000/7500

HATEFUL HATEFUL F**KING THINGS!!

The 3260c was a pain in the ass, they managed to make them worse, enough said!!

Ha.ha thanks for the primer Ollie.
Oh I am an old Bellini tech and spent time standing outside customers pl;aces beating vacuum hoses against the wall trying to get the toner clumps out. major fun with that coil in there too which sometime would actually back out and wind itself around the bottom of the machine.

[Ollie1981]

Ha.ha thanks for the primer Ollie.
Oh I am an old Bellini tech and spent time standing outside customers pl;aces beating vacuum hoses against the wall trying to get the toner clumps out. major fun with that coil in there too which sometime would actually back out and wind itself around the bottom of the machine.

Pretty much all the Bellinis I looked at were at one particular big account. We lost the account about 2 or 3 years back and I didn't see another one for a long time. There's only two I know of still out there I have to look at and one of which is used ridiculously lightly for a high volume machine (the last two calls have been for "light copies" which is simply down to the fact that the developer doesn't get agitated enough doing 200-300 copies per month)

I used to carry all of those toner pipes and fit em if they started blocking. I don't know about you but I found that once they started blocking up, they'd do it regularly after that. Fun times! I don't miss them machines, practically every every 90cpm plus mono I see now is a Katana and they are, to be fair, a much better machine in almost every respect.

Don't get me started on the MPC7500 range though, I was press ganged by a former manager into taking calls on these things without doing the proper training course. Now I won't touch them with the sh*tty end of a stick. Even if you have experience on the 3260c/5560c approach these with caution. The dev fill/TD sensor initialisation procedure is an absolute pain and very easy to mess up. There are issues with toner scattering, it's generally ridiculously labour intensive to work on and the Fuser is horrible.

In other words, if your boss rides your ass about calls per day and parts spend, run do not walk away from the Venus. The best thing you can do with them is take every single one in the world, load then into a rocket and fire them into the sun.

[Jimbo1]

Re: What's the trick?

Pretty much all the Bellinis I looked at were at one particular big account. We lost the account about 2 or 3 years back and I didn't see another one for a long time. There's only two I know of still out there I have to look at and one of which is used ridiculously lightly for a high volume machine (the last two calls have been for "light copies" which is simply down to the fact that the developer doesn't get agitated enough doing 200-300 copies per month)

I used to carry all of those toner pipes and fit em if they started blocking. I don't know about you but I found that once they started blocking up, they'd do it regularly after that. Fun times! I don't miss them machines, practically every every 90cpm plus mono I see now is a Katana and they are, to be fair, a much better machine in almost every respect.

Don't get me started on the MPC7500 range though, I was press ganged by a former manager into taking calls on these things without doing the proper training course. Now I won't touch them with the sh*tty end of a stick. Even if you have experience on the 3260c/5560c approach these with caution. The dev fill/TD sensor initialisation procedure is an absolute pain and very easy to mess up. There are issues with toner scattering, it's generally ridiculously labour intensive to work on and the Fuser is horrible.

In other words, if your boss rides your ass about calls per day and parts spend, run do not walk away from the Venus. The best thing you can do with them is take every single one in the world, load then into a rocket and fire them into the sun.

[Alex22]

Re: What's the trick?

There is a few difference when the technology is change.But the way that they use that term is difference.That why we don't understand the new technology and i think you don't leave that job because you can get experience within few days when you use that machines.