Distorted printing

[Tom Delaney]

Hit the same problem as about a year ago (and the same one you had a while ago Frank...). I thought it was the ribbon cable gone fluky again - so a call to Epilog. Ian (the unfortunate he was) got the call and I explained that I had switched directions of the cable,,,, etc...

He explained that sometimes the encoder strip gets funky and I should clean it. I had just done so but he asked I do it again with three drops of dishwashing soap in a glass of distilled water (I have a well... so I know / hope it is almost the same thing!), rinse with cleam water and let dry. He explained that the reason flipping the cable SOMETIMES works is not the cable but the connection on the little PCB board at the top of the printhead works loose and flipping the cable will reseat it. He sent me one of both and I replaced both and it went away. Now we know - flipping the cable simply resets the seats (it can happen at either side) of the cable, not fixes the cable!

[Bill Cunningham]

I had just done so but he asked I do it again with three drops of dishwashing soap in a glass of distilled water (I have a well... so I know / hope it is almost the same thing!), rinse with cleam water and let dry.

Unless you have a pretty unusual well, it's nothing like distilled water.. Distilled water contains nothing but water, no minerals (iron, sodium, etc.) Collected 'steam' would be much closer.. think 'moonshine still' just distilling water..The reaon for the distilled water is to prevent droplets of water drying out, and leaving a mineral deposit (sorta like shower scum) on the clear strip..

[Joe Pelonio]

Now we know - flipping the cable simply resets the seats (it can happen at either side) of the cable, not fixes the cable!
That's not always true. Note that the cable has 6 wires and the plug 3. When you turn it around you are using fresh wires, so if one of the 3 used originally has a slight break in it, turning it around will help until the new one arrives.

[Frank Corker]

Touch wood I haven't had any problems with mine. I do however spend considerably longer cleaning my machine now then I did when I first got it, because the cleanliness of your machine helps to keep all that fine dust level, down.