Avantra imaging problem

[pspdfppdfxhd]

We're having a problem with our old AVANTRA 30 imagesetter. Hoping someone has seen this case.

When the film images, randomly, on any separation, there appears some strange lines. It's not in the preview so I think it's making it to the rip ok and rasterizing ok. The lines run in the direction of the laser movement. If I reimage the separation, it may come out exactly the same or worse or better but always in the same area. We couldn't get it right yesterday and had to run a job with a line in the black because we didn't know what to do. It was not horribly visible so we let it go.

So last night, I shut down everything....computer for the rip, the Avantra and even shut off the ciircuit breaker to it.

This morning, I reimaged the separtation and everything was ok. Note that this rip has not been shut down or restarted in about a month but we do turn the avantra off every night. We had a technician look at it (it needed mechanical maintenance anyway...cleaning the mirror, lubing etc.) and he said it's gotta be some kind of electronic problem between the rip and the Avantra but he had no idea where. Cable? Laser?

This thing is 12 years old and we're hoping to score a ctp system but not yet. I've linked a scan of the film to this message. It is not a scratch of any sort by the way, if you looked at it really carefully you'd see it looks "machined"...

Any insight appreciated.




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[David]

I would, off the top of my head, say a power fluctuation.
Is it on a UPS?
You may want to get an electrician out to check the voltage coming in to the Avantra, check to see if it is steady over a period of time.
Could be, when they power up a press or something else, there could be a power surge or drop.

[DigitalCrapShoveler]

A LONG time ago, AGFA told us, "This problem is humidity." We set up a circus tent around the Avantra to help contain the air modifications. Didn't work. It turned out being the LONNNNNG-ASS SCSI cable going from the RIP to the Avantra. It had a short.

[Joe]

A LONG time ago, AGFA told us, "This problem is humidity." We set up a circus tent around the Avantra to help contain the air modifications. Didn't work. It turned out being the LONNNNNG-ASS SCSI cable going from the RIP to the Avantra. It had a short.

I've seen this one too. And the cable on our old ECRM was around $3,000 eight years ago. :shocked:

[pspdfppdfxhd]

oy! is that all!

[DigitalCrapShoveler]

Hahahah, expensive and inconvenient. Our problem was, we spent a fortune on materials and labor to build this greenhouse around the machine, only for it to become the joke around town. :laugh:

[David]

hell, get two, they're cheep.

[pspdfppdfxhd]

Maybe they'll have 3 for 5 grand. That would be a steal!

I have a feeling it might be that cable too... was looking at it at lunchtime and it's appearing kinda dirty and moldy. it might just need to be re-seated and cleaned.

The technician that cleaned the mirror etc. replaced the short cable but that wasn't it.

[Joe]

Turn everything off before you disconnect and re-connect that cable. Blowing a SCSI board is more than the cable. :wink:

[pspdfppdfxhd]

wow! if you squint your eyes and look at that picture I posted...holy cow!

Looks like smoke coming off a mountain or something! I was looking for Jesus but could only see the smoke mountain thing. No need to call the National Enquirer...

[pspdfppdfxhd]

I scanned that film with our new canon desktop scanner...this thing is great....used the film strip adaptor...150 bucks, best scanner i've ever used.

CANOSCAN 5600

Has led lights inside the top lid to scan positive or negative slides and film strips as well.

[DigitalCrapShoveler]

Turn everything off before you disconnect and re-connect that cable. Blowing a SCSI board is more than the cable. :wink:

Ditto-Ditto. In fact, turn it off twice to be sure.

[Chilbear]

What direction is the line in? Does the line appear when advancing film without being imaged? Is the a line on the file before it get processed (need to be in a red light room). If you image the same file twice in a row is the pattern the same? (Sounds like no is the answer).

Humidity is very important - we had a humidifier against the Accuset1500 we had running full time trying to keep the humidity "close" to 50%. Never got there.

[pspdfppdfxhd]

The line goes across the film in the direction that the laser travels on the drum.

The line is not identical in appearance but always in the same area.....it may be thicker or thinner or the opposite of the previous...for example the black line may reverse to clear....

I talked to the technician (former AGFA employee) and he said when it happens again, call him and he'll rush in and swap the long cable. Said the cable would cost about 100 bucks.

He said it could also be the board the cable goes into at the rip or in the AVANTRA. Hopefully it's not that.

I said if he could get me 3 for 200 we had a deal.

[born2print]

It could be humidity if I remember, I made wire connections for "grounds" to eliminate static exposure as film went in the take-up cassettes on a Selectset5000, then the Avantra25 came with antistatic connections from the factory and the Avantra 44 had an OLP.
Good luck pspdfppdfxetc...