KeepItPrinting.com

[Troy Jollimore]

Our operator wasn't paying much attention, but sometime over the last year or so, the quality of output (or would that be input? ) from our OCE TDS600 Premia scanner has been sub-par. The scans are sharp enough, but there are 'dots' throughout. These are few in the center, but thick on each side. Sometimes these will come out thinner or thicker on the same scan. The weird thing is that on the OCE controller display, the dots are so thick that you can't even see the image. The resulting print doesn't look like this, though. It's readable, but like a watermark. It's almost like a 'moire' background, but not quite. The pattern isn't consistent, and it's much thicker.

The tech has been in to take care of any ambient printing issues to make sure things are running right. New drums, springs, etc. later, the print quality is pretty good again. Though grey-scales have 'lines' through them. The tech thinks a new light bulb will fix things with the scanner, but I have my doubts. Any thoughts?

It's either a repair, or an OCE PlotWave 500 or KIP 7700 in our future... I'm a bit disappointed. I know companies that have had their OCEs for DECADES...

[gjames]

Not much to them. Lamp, Glass and White Reflection Roller.

If the Roller is White and Clean and the Glass is clean and the lamp is good then it should work fine.
_________________
"The bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten." - Benjamin Franklin and John Ruskin

[Troy Jollimore]

This one doesn't even have a reflection roller that I could see. The only other (high priced!) issues could be the power supply or the camera/board. I'm going to try getting them to replace the bulb. If not, then we'll probably pick up a new one. $700 for the bulb replacement, the other two parts are in the thousands...

[mark in vegas]

When they replace the lamp, if they don't do it on their own, ask them to clean the inside of the glass.
_________________
Regards,
Mark
RVN 68-69
It's so nice to be insane
No one asks you to explain

[Troy Jollimore]

They would anyway, but I've also found a spot that results in a line down our scans. So it's a necessity.

[louiedxb]

Make sure the reflector inside the glass, CCD and lens are all clean first before replacing any parts.

[Troy Jollimore]

Had checked that a couple of times. Reached up in and cleaned the CCD with a QTip, and made sure the big mirror at the bottom of the unit and the glass were nearly spotless.

[tech2tech]

On these older scanners I have found that cleaning the optics (which you have done) and updating or reinstalling the scanner firmware (If at the current version) resolves the issue 95% of the time.
_________________
"If you mess with a thing long enough, It'll break"

[mark in vegas]

If the lamp doesn't have ends that have turned black the lamp is probably OK. I've never seen a lamp cause lines in the gray areas. The "reflection roll" is the gage roller referred to below. I made the mistake of using canned air on the optics, once. Left all sorts of debris up inside the optics path.

Try this

1 “TL intensity adjust”
Carry out this test after replacement or reinstallation of:
- scanner exposure lamp or
- CCD unit or
- gauge roller or
- glass plate
or if uneven background (strokes of 60 mm (CCD chip) or 300 mm (CCD
PBA) appears.
The light intensity is adjusted to the optimum setting regarding quality of all
parts in the optical system as e.g. lamp and CCD’s.
Check:
No check.
Correction:
1 Carry out SDS test 41, WARM SDS.
2 Carry out SDS test 10-7-01.
Note: If “Test failed”is indicated:check and correct the light path and carry
_________________
Regards,
Mark
RVN 68-69
It's so nice to be insane
No one asks you to explain

[Troy Jollimore]

Color me surprised. The tech installed the new lamp (the operators and the tech never informed me he was in doing the work), and that seems to have cleared up the issue. The 'on-controller' image still shows some flecks, but way less than before. The resulting prints are almost perfect. The lamp itself is WAY brighter than before. I had nothing to compare it to, so it seemed fine.

Of course, a couple of days later, I was greeted with a call. The OCE is down with a blinky light. The printer/scanner can't connect with the controller. The controller just sits and blinks the power button light at you. No code or anything that I can tell, and I can't find ANYTHING online about it. Frustrating!

PS: At least it was easily repaired. Replaced the power supply in the controller PC with one from an older HP mini-tower I had. Works, once again!