[filmscanners] An apology and OT printer stories

["Arthur Entlich" <artistic-1@shaw.ca>]

Dear Bob,

I've over-reacted to your post, and I apologize.

I've been working on some projects that have been less than cooperative,
causing lack of sleep and considerable frustration.  I had not one, but
two laser printers fail on me in a matter of hours when I had some
deadlines where I needed there output.

However, I do have to say that the internet was very useful in these cases.

First, my Panasonic laser printer informed me I had a "call service" E31
error, and it would not initialize, and the fuser was staying cold.  Not
a good sign.

I went to Google and plugged in the model number and E31, and amazingly
several websites came up, and two in particular gave a rundown of this
error and how common it was with this printer.  It went into what meter
reading were needed, and how to track down and fix the problem.  Of
course this was 3 AM, and the work was needed that morning at 7 AM.

The one website had a photo of the power supply PCB with the likely cold
solder joint circled.  Amazingly, once I took the whole darn printer
apart and removed the power supply and got it out of it's cage, the cold
solder joint was exactly the pin indicated in the photo.  In fact, the
photo could have been the PCB from my printer.  I resoldered that
connection and a few other suspect ones, and put the whole thing back
together and bingo, the thing fired right up, and I finished that
project just in time.

Laser printer story 2: I have never much liked the Panasonic printer, as
it prints too light and the toner doesn't bond well to the paper with
heavier stock. The reason I had been using it is because several months
back my HP Laserjet II was getting stuck at a 02 "WARMING" prompt on the
LCD.  I figured the fuser had finally given out.  I had also worked on
this printer a year or so ago when a triac had failed in the fuser power
section, and I figured something else on that board had finally failed.
  Because of the info I got regarding the Panasonic on line, I thought
I'd give it a try with the HP.  This one was a little more difficult to
track down but I again found two sites which indicated the error was
likely either an interfacing or software problem.  Being that I had
removed the drivers when I switched to the Panasonic, I thought I'd try
a reload of the drivers and try again.  Amazingly, it worked.

I had another project which required printing on the back of card stock,
which I have been doing via one of my inkjet printers, which is very
slow.  Now that the HP was working again, and it works with cardstock
and is much darker than the Panasonic, I figured I would use it for this
other project. However, it turned out that the cartridge which had been
sitting in it idle for some time had developed a deformed wiper, and was
causing streaks and bands.  I though I had a few extra carts around, but
it turned out they were all empty.  So, I decided to open up the cart
and remove the toner and move it into one of the empty carts, (very
messy work to do) but after I did it, it turned out the drum was damaged
in that cart.  So, I ended up rebuilding the first cartridge using parts
from two other carts, and refilling it up again.  I successfully made a
good rebuilt cart to use.

  I began my printing project, which was some logo and copyright wording
printed onto the back of some color photocopies printed on card stock.
The copyright and logo info needed to be placed fairly accurately.
Everything was fine until the printer started misfeeding and the take up
roller was slipping.  I cleaned it, no help.  I deglazed it with
sandpaper, still not good. A number of the prints were ruined because
the type on the black was mispositioned due to the slipping take up
roller   Sooo....  Luckily, I had printed up some extras and I ended up
doing the rest of the reverse side printing on one of the inkjet
printers, which took forever. This threw the whole project off time wise.

Of course, this was also the last week of school, and so my wife had a
dozen projects for me to complete for her as well (she teaches). Anyway,
as a result, I've been short on sleep, sort of time, and short of
temper, so I apologize for responding too strongly to your posting.

But, I also want to let people know that the internet is becoming an
amazing source for information, especially if you are a bit handy with
an ohm meter and a soldering iron (or whatever).

Art


Bob Frost wrote:

> Art,
>
> I'm sorry if my reference to "someone like Art" has upset you; it was not
> intended to do so - quite the opposite in fact, as it was really a
> compliment to your experience and knowledge. I said it to Brian to contrast
> my relative inexperience in serious photography with people like you and
> Brian who obviously have far more experience than I do. But one of the main
> things you learn in becoming a scientist is to question everything. That is
> not to say that I think that you are wrong in your statements about the
> relative merits of diffuse and collimated light sources in scanners - you
> may well be right (and Austin says you are), but I want to know why it works
> the way you both say it does. So I will read and re-read your comments, and
> those of Austin and Brian, and follow up Brian's references (and any that
> you may have that throws further light - collimated of course - on the
> subject).
>
> Respectfully yours,
>
> Bob Frost.
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Arthur Entlich" <artistic-1@shaw.ca>
>
>
> Oh, so I've become the "someone like" reference now, eh?
>
> Fine.
>
> If you think my intent here is to mislead or just give uneducated
> opinions with no forethought or research, just ignore them.  I have
> found that the vast majority of people who have followed my advice in
> regard to scanner decisions have been expressed to me that they were
> better off for it, but I can't provide you with scientific evidence of
> that, sorry.
>
>


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