Repair Your Roland VP540 and Other Expensive Equipment

Intro: Repair Your Roland VP540 and Other Expensive Equipment

I post this instructable for those who are sick of the extreme high price for spare parts that are not suppose to fail in the first place. In this case a friend who ownes a printing workshop called me to troubleshoot his Roland Versacam VP540 printer/plotter.

The machine did not turn on after several sudden stop during a printjob. First i checked the power supply.... 41 volts DC no problem there. Replaced the servo board.... no result. Then i did what is one of the most common probems in failing equipment. Replace major capacitors.

This problem is verry common in a large scale of equipment like flatscreen TV's, computers, fitness equip. audio equip. etc. The cap don't always show leaking or a fysical defect.

If one capacitor shows leaking or is not completely flat at the top..... replace it. Replace all large caps. If one goes bad its verry likely that the rest are not optimal anyway. These are not expensive components so don't try to save money.... otherwise you'l get frustration in stead.

Its also wise to replace the cap with a higher voltage then the original one used by the manufacturer.

On the board the caps shown by the arrows are 220 mF 50 volts i replaced the caps with 470 MF 63 volts.

The repair costs where about 3,- dollars and and 15 minutes of my time, a repacement board is about 1800,- dollars.

I'll try to post more repair tips on a wide range of failing electronics.

Comments

[Britland guy]

Hello here!
I have a print shop and recently bought a vp-540 Roland. Then I shipped it away, and the whole thing lasted 3 months.
I think the power unit bouton needs changing, but when it come on, the head doesn't move.
It was wrapped for very long .
Thank you

[PeterB550]

I have a problem with my versacamm 540. the machine prints and half loses its connection to the computer. I have to shut down and restart the whole VP-540. then the device printed for about 15 minutes and the error reappears.the intervals between the print stop are shortened and I can not even print.prints 2-3 lines and loses connection.Everybody tells me to replace the motherboard where there is a network card.my problem is, the motherboard stands at $ 1,800.Thank you for your advice and sorry for my English.

[batelcho]

Recently I was asked to try to repair VP-540 with the same problem you have on your pictures(and LCD shows -"Now processing"), at first I was digging around for some info about it and some say it's the Realtek network chip and I may say it's a close one because when the problem appear the machine goes offline and you cannot longer ping it, but replacing it didn't solve the problem. Then I started thinking where I had similar problems i.e. starts and crashes after some load .... Notebook GPU, PS3 RSX ... etc.
So I started searching info about all the BGA chips on the motherboard, and what do you know ... Au1100 near the LAN port and over the RTL chip - SoC processor with 10/100 Ethernet Controller ....BINGO.
I did a good reflow (heating that fat motherboard before that of course) with heat-gun at 350°C and tons of flux and for now 1 week printing without problems.
Maybe the problem will appear again because reflow rarely is a solid repair, and the best solution is chip replacement or reballing, but time will tell.
Good luck all :)

[crabrahams]

Get a good connector cleaner (contact chemie 60) and clean all cable connectors. Check the cable connectors for worn out pins. replace the cables to make sure. Check the connectors on the board for dirt and oxidation. Sevice the whole machine and clean all connectors. Check for bad soldering joints and reflow them to be sure. Recapping the board would not hurt. Check the power supply for a stable 41 volts. Good luck...... :)

[Bearded_Teacher]

I am a high school graphics design teacher and we have a print shop with a Roland VS-540. It recently will not power on. The board for the print head's indicator light will come on, but not on the Servo board. any thoughts / ideas???

[IanE47]

that can be reparable go with guy from mac media is $200 at ebay or his own web page good luck

[Renev49]

Hi,

How dit it work out? is the problem solved with the VP540 and does it run ok now?

Gr Rene

[crabrahams]

The machine runs perfectly and until now never failed again.

[Renev49]

Ok, good to hear, thnx for your response. I try to replace the caps tomorrow!

[peduardo1973]

hi... have you tried? solve the problem? waiting for response

[peduardo1973]

i send email. need help from portugal. thank you

[crabrahams]

how can i help you?