(posting here to not clog up a troubleshooting thread)

quote:

Originally posted by 313ZD:
Had a 400 making grainy spots where random toner was being slung around. Upgraded firmware set sim 147 'set operation mode' to a 1 and replaced K dv unit, no return.

Had a 500 doing similar but the more pronounced problem was grey banding from front to rear (not lead to trail) when printing K only, not process black. Everyone and their brother said it was the K drum, swapped with the Y, still had the problem. Replaced transfer belt, no return.

It would REALLY BE NICE if Kyocera would give detailed descriptions on how **** works on these machines so we can quit guessing!!! HELLO! ANY REPS LISTENING????

Ricoh has VERY detailed descriptions on how charging is done, transfer, toners sensors and how they relate to different service modes. How to check service mode voltages and relate them to over or under toning, cause and effect.

Granted Ricohs work a little different with respect to Vsp, Vg, etc, It would be nice if we could access sim XXX sub X and tell that the hell was going on with each color developer, bias, etc and what changes do. Sim 147 has all kinds of useful modes for 'setting for toner applying operation', they are kind enough to give you initial settings and a setting range. Unless I missed the decoder ring at the end of class what the hell does any of this mean?

A detailed description of what everything in sim 147 would be nice since you are suppose to set 'set operation mode' to 1 after flashing firmware 8.0 and above. Ok...WHY?! Tech support or my regional rep telling me this doesn't help explain the cause and effect of the action other than, 'we said do it'.

Am I the only one that thinks the current batch of service manuals aren't worth wiping your ass with? I digress, it may simply be the Japs not wanting us lowly technicians being privy to this information. If so they do us all a disservice (at least those of us that are more than parts swapping monkeys). I'm sure this rant will piss off certain reps that lurk here, sorry, tired of guessing how to fix the current line of color product due to lack of information.

I chuckled when Keith McManus said the Kyoshiba 750 manual was overwritten. Toshiba has some of the better manuals as far as I'm concerned. You can actually sit down and read work flow within circuit board and understand where problems are likely to originate instead of replacing multiple boards and crossing your fingers. No disrespect to Keith, I wish I could spout off half of what he knows without having to gather my thoughts beforehand!

Okay, I'm done

Z

I agree completely.

I had a 250ci throwing donuts everywhere even when U464 AC mag was at -10, and I couldn't convince my boss to try new developers, so I found that U464 AC mag changed some numbers in U140 (dev bias). I started playing with those numbers, but nothing would change. I stumbled upon U119 (set drum) which took 20 seconds and wanted a machine restart. Somehow setting the drum finally applied dev bias.
U140 in the service manual lists what everything effects, but doesn't describe what changing these numbers might do. Although I doubt I'd trust them if they did mention it: I've had falcon 2s do the opposite of what the manual said in U101 (dev bias).

Now I've got a 500ci spitting out donuts, but +5 AC mag does better than -10, and -10 was supposed to reduce them at the risk of faded colors. Replaced developers and same thing. I still have no idea what AC mag is, why these machines use AC and DC for dev bias, and how donuts even form magically.

Yesterday I worked on a 2550 that occasionally misread nothing on the glass as 5.5x8.5. U099 looked like it might have something to do with it, but I couldn't figure out exactly what to change or how the machine interprets those numbers. In the manual, the purpose is: "To adjust the sensitiveness of the sensor and size judgement time if the original size detection sensor malfunctions frequently due to incident light or the like." Sensitiveness and incident light. Obviously. Why didn't I think of that.
I just guessed and set the level from 170 to 100 and it seemed better.

Why do I have to go to the KM-4230 or Ai2310 manuals to learn about cleaning drawer size PCBs? Why do I have to go to the LDC-650 manual to understand the fax symbols that U670 Protocol List gives me?

I have a hard time understanding Vsg, Vt, Vg, etc. as well as all of the electromagnetic stuff in modern imaging units, but I'd love to have explanations in the manuals for all of these settings we have access to. Something like "You should really leave this alone. In the factory, setting this high did XYZ while setting it low did ZYX." So that if we ever come across something bizarre like XYZ, we can try fiddling with that setting instead of shotgun replacing parts or messing with all settings until something works.

Granted, there might be a better way of solving the problem. It might be just masking the real problem, like adjusting the center line on the doc feeder when the real problem is the center line on the paper drawer. But I already have the original settings (thank you U000 usb support) if I later find the real fix.

Oh, and how about a real list of CFxxx codes and their definitions. And maybe a real way of diagnosing how the main board isn't booting up instead of getting the same code for bad board, bad memory, bad hard drive, bad connection to the panel, etc.