Javelin Troubleshooting

Description

The automatic cleaning procedure has been started.

Cause

On the J310 printer, if the 'black button' by the display is pushed when the machine is 'Ready' an automatic cleaning cycle is started.

Solution

If a card is in progress, leave the printer to finish the cleaning cycle.

Description

The data being sent to the printer is corrupted, or the commands are not complete.

Cause and possible solution

• The parallel cable may be faulty, or loose. Screw the PC and printer connectors firmly together.
• The printer driver may be corrupted, re-install the driver.
• The printer memory may be corrupted, send a RESET command from the driver TOOLS.
• The PC parallel port may have another device connected or has been set-up badly. Try connecting to another PC.

Description

The magnetic encoder cannot write and read the magnetic stripe information. The printer tries to encode a card but cannot verify that the data has been written successfully.

Cause and possible solution

• Cards inserted into the feeder incorrectly, the cards should be mag stripe down with the stripe nearest the dark rear cover of the printer.
• The printer's encoder settings could be different to the type of card in use.
• Have these cards encoded OK before? If the cards are new, or the printer has not been set-up before, do the following:
  1. If the Mag stripe is Black the cards are normally Hi Co, if the stripe is brown they are Lo Co.
  2. Ensure the printer is "on" connected to the PC and the display shows Ready.
  3. Go to the printer driver properties, click on Printer then Tools. Click in the Manual Command line and enter &C 1 for Hi Co then click on execute, or for Lo Co &C 0 then execute. The printer will not acknowledge the command, if you get Command Error on the display, you may have sent lower case characters or not typed the command properly.
  4. Test the Encoding from the driver tools, click in the box as shown below and enter some numbers. Place a card in the printer and click Encode.
     
  5. Lift the printer lid, you should see the card move to the front of the machine, and then back. If the encoding is OK the card will stop under the print head. By clicking on Eject Card from the tools the card can be removed.
  6. If the card moves in and out of the printer several times and then gives an error "Encoder Error" the encoding is not OK.
  7. Check that the card has a Mag stripe, and has been placed in the printer the correct way.
  8. Run a cleaning card through the machine and try again.

Description

The printer has sensed that the print head is open.

Cause

The print head may not have been "latched down" after changing the ribbon.

Solution

Close the print head down, insure the ribbon is in the correct and it is synchronised.

Description

The printer has sensed that the card is not moved to an expected position with in printer.

Cause and possible solution

• There may be a physical obstruction in the printer, stopping the card movement:
  • Has the machine had a ribbon jam? And pulled ribbon through the printer?
  • Can you see any ribbon tangled around the rollers?
• On the J310 and J420 machines check that the Cleaning Roller Assembly has been fitted: can you see the blue block with the arrow in the printer?
• When printing, does the card slip when being passed under the print head? This may mean that the transport rollers are "dirty" clean the printer. On the J310 and J420, send a Set-up command from the driver:
  1. Go to the printer driver, Properties, Printer, Tools.
  2. Click in the Manual Command line and enter !SA then click on Execute.
  3. Ensure the printer has cards and is Ready.
  4. A card will be fed trough the printer without printing, then the ribbon will move round several panels.
  5. The printer should show Ready after the ribbon stops. Try printing a self-test card via the Tools.
• Check that the printer is not trying to feed more than one card:
  • On the J300 and J400 the feeder adjustment is via a small "Brass" thumbscrew. Turn the screw half a turn anti-clockwise to reduce the feeder gap.
  • On the J310 and J420 the blue thickness lever can be moved down one notch to reduce the gap. For normal 0.76 credit card thickness cards, the lever should cover the setting 30-mil 0.8-mm.

Description

The printer has attempted to feed a card, after approximately 10 seconds, no card has been fed.

Cause and solution

1. Check the printer has got cards in the feeder, and that they are not "stuck" together i.e. from static.
2. Try placing a single card in the feed rollers, and printing a card. If one card feeds OK the feeder thickness gauge may need adjusting:
   • On the J300 and J400 the feeder adjustment is via a small "Brass" thumbscrew. Turn the screw half a turn clockwise to increase the feeder gap. The "gate" should be set at approximately one and a half card thickness, so one card feeds easily, but not two.
   • On the J310 and J420 the blue thickness lever can be moved down one notch to reduce the gap. For normal 0.76 credit card thickness cards, the lever should cover the setting 30 mil 0.8 mm. Try moving the lever up one setting.
3. Remove the cards from the feeder, when a print command is sent, check that the black feeder roller is turning. If not this could indicate the feeder belt has come off.

Description

The printer has sensed that there is a ribbon fault.

Cause and solution

• The ribbon may have just run out, the roll of ribbon under the print head will be empty. Replace the ribbon, see the user guide.
• The ribbon may have broken, open the print head, pull the un-used ribbon under the print head and re attach to the take up roller with sticky tape. Close the print head and synchronise the ribbon.
• If the ribbon is not broken check that the ribbon in the printer matches the ribbon type in the printer driver. This error will occur on the J400 and J420 if the driver setting is YMCKOK and the ribbon is YMCKO.

Description

The printer will not accept the encoding information sent.

Cause

The encoding data does not conform to ISO standards; the most likely error is sending alpha characters to track 2. Note:

• Track 1 is Alphanumeric
• Track 2 and 3 are Numeric only

Solution

Check the data being sent; test the printer using the Tools option from the driver.

Description

The printer is prompting the user to remove the ribbon to allow a cleaning cycle to start.

Cause

On the J310, if the black button near the display is pressed when the message is Ready, the printer will try perform the cleaning cycle.

If the user is familiar with the J300 they may be trying to advance the ribbon using the black button. On the J310 and J420 the ribbon advances when the head is latched down with the power on.

Solution

If a cleaning cycle is required, remove the ribbon, place a cleaning card in the feeder and close the print head.

If a cleaning cycle is not required, switch the printer off and then on.

• Check that the power cord is plugged firmly into the printer.
• Try connecting the printer to a different mains socket, and another connection cable.
• If the printer is a J300 or J400 try pushing the Black button by the display, this may advance the ribbon, the LCD display may need replacing but the machine may print OK.
• On the J310, open and close the print head, this may advance the ribbon. The LCD display may need replacing but the machine may print OK.

The most likely cause of this is that the ribbon is not synchronised, i.e. the printer is using the incorrect panel on the ribbon.

1. Advance the ribbon, on a J310/J420 open and close the print head with the power on, the ribbon will move. On the J300 push the black button by the display the ribbon should advance.
2. Check where the ribbon stops:
   • If you are printing Colour with a 5-panel ribbon, YMCKO (Yellow, Magenta, Cyan, Black, Clear). The colour showing between the print head and the take up roller should be Clear. If not try advancing the ribbon again, then remove the ribbon and check the colours follow the sequence YMCKO i.e. if you have Yellow in your left hand, the next colour should be Magenta.
   • If you are printing double sided Colour using a 6 panel ribbon, YMCKOK (Yellow, Magenta, Cyan, Black, Clear, Black). The colour showing between the print head and the take up roller should be Black. If not try advancing the ribbon again, then remove the ribbon and check the colours follow the sequence YMCKO i.e. if you have Yellow in your left hand, the next colour should be Magenta.
3. Has the ribbon already been used before, check that there are no "images" on the "new" ribbon. Try fitting a brand new ribbon.
4. Check that the cards are not being re-used as this causes the ribbon to stick to the surface of the card.

If the card is fed into the printer but there is no visible image on the card, check the following:

1. Perform an off-line self-test, switch the printer on with the black button depressed.
2. Did the fault occur after changing the ribbon?

Check that the ribbon is fitted correctly, check the ribbon advances to the correct colour, see the previous section on "Wrong colours on the card".

If the card is printing OK but does not fully eject the card test the printer by:

1. Go to the printer driver, properties, Printer, Tools.
2. Click on the Eject Card button this should cause the printer to eject the card.

If the eject button in the tools works, but the card is not ejected normally, try sending a RESET command from the driver.

There may be a physical obstruction, or possibly some ribbon wrapped around the output rollers. Has the printer suffered a jam recently or pulled the ribbon through the machine?

Description

If the ribbon does not advance to the correct position i.e.

• Colour 5 panel ribbon YMCKO the Clear panel should be visible between the print head and the take up roller.
• Colour 6 panel ribbon YMCKOK the Black panel should be visible between the print head and the take up roller.

Ensure the driver ribbon settings match the ribbon in the printer:

1. Go to the driver properties, Ribbon and pull down the ribbon menu.
2. Physically count the number of panels on the ribbon.
3. If you have a 5-panel ribbon set the driver to YMCKO. If you have 6 panel ribbons set YMCKOK. If you are using a 2-panel ribbon, Black and Overlay, set the driver to KrO.
4. Select the ribbon type, click on Apply and Set Ribbon.
5. This will update the printer and cause the ribbon to advance.

Check that the ribbon sensor (red beam under the print head is on) The sensor reflects off a shiny metal sticker or polished metal, remove the ribbon, try and clean this area to insure a good reflection.

Print a self-test card, is the complete area of the card faint when printing on standard cards?

From the self-test card, check the Head Resistance figure, is should match the value printed on a sticker visible on the rear of the print head. If the value is incorrect, update the printer using the driver Tools, send the command !R xxxx where xxxx is the print head resistance.

Printing faint in areas

If the cards are for access control which contain electronics, the surface may not be flat; this causes areas of the print to be missing. Move the text and photo's to the flattest areas.

If using PAC cards, the Head Setting values may need to be raised as shown below. Go to the Driver, Properties, Ribbon, and Head Settings.

Ensure that the card feeder is set-up correctly.

On the J300 and J400 the feeder adjustment is via a small "Brass" thumbscrew. Turn the screw half a turn anti-clockwise to reduce the feeder gap.

On the J310 and J420 the blue thickness lever can be moved down one notch to reduce the gap. For normal 0.76 credit card thickness cards, the lever should cover the setting 30-mil 0.8-mm.

Check the physical connection between the PC and the printer. The 25 way parallel cable should be connected from the printer to the printer port of the PC and the connectors screwed together.

Has the cable been disturbed or replaced recently? The cable is a parallel cable, they may be using an incorrect type of cable. Test the printer using a known good cable.

Try an on line self-test from the printer driver:

1. Go to the driver, Properties, Printer, Tools, click on Self-Test printing station.
2. This should cause a card to be picked or printed. This should prove if the communication is OK.

Try connecting the printer to another PC, install the driver and perform the test above.

See the section on Ribbon Synchronisation first.

If the ribbon advances to the correct panel, ribbon breaks on the Yellow panel as soon as the print head moves down to print.

The print head may be cutting the ribbon as it moves down to print. Adjust the X-Axis to move the printing away from the leading edge. Go to the driver, Properties, Printer, Tools. Click in the X offset box, enter the value shown on the self-test card + 10 or 15 if you are unsure of the present value. The Y-Axis must be entered, but keep it the same, click on set offset to apply.

If the ribbon breaks on the Clear Overlay panel (J310 AND j420 only) send an end card command from the driver:

1. Go to the driver, Properties, Printer, Tools and then Manual Command.
2. Click in the box and enter +EC 15 then execute.
3. The current end card value is printed on the self-test card, shown as (for example) EC 0010. The higher the figure the earlier the print head raises off the trailing edge of the card.

Have the cards been printed by the printer before? This will cause the ribbon to stick to the card and break.

Are the cards the standard ISO size, the printer cannot accept cards that are over or under size, check with a known good card.

The most likely cause is that the printer started printing with the ribbon in the wrong position. See the section on No Ribbon Synchronisation.

Have the cards been printed by the printer before?

The cards must be clean and un-used.

Ensure the ribbon in the printer matches the ribbon selected in the printer driver.

This is normally due to slippage of the card. If the card does not reach the print head, the printer senses a card jam and reverses the drive. This can cause the cards to be ejected into the feeder.

Clean the printer.

As the printer reverses the card to print the Magenta colour, does the card slip and loose position. The card would normally be ejected into the output hopper.

The transport rollers need a thorough clean.

If the card has encode data printed on the card such as ~2123456 for example, normally this means the driver is not set-up:

1. Go to the driver, Properties, Printer tab.
2. Ensure the "With Magnetic Encoder" is checked as shown below:
   
3. Check that you printer supports encoding, the serial label should the model type as "CM".

If a fine "white" line is visible across the card, this normally means the print head has a damaged pixel.

Try printing several cards of different types; if the white line stays in the same position, the print head needs to be replaced.