Power Cut = Both Ricoh's Purge.. Gutted

[NikGrey]

I only have a UPS as I used to live in an even more remote place than I do now and we had constant power outages - my job then was all online so I couldnt afford to keel losing work, even so these machines aren't too expensive at about £100. The problem is: Once the power goes you can set this up so the computers shut down but not the printers... so if I was not here and the power went then as soon as the UPS ran out of juice then it would cut the power.

So, I have turned my Sub printer off now - if it loses power now there shouldnt be a problem, I will turn it on again officially when I need it.

I say, turn it off if you dont use it much - much better to expect to clean the heads now and then rather than have it purge. I think the fact of it losing power without notice is making it think its new or has been reset.

[cumbriakevin]

http://www.industrialextensionleads.co. ... 0476-p.asp

Thanks for that Nick. The link is to a non latching RCD plug which costs about £8. The non latching means you have to manually reset it when power is lost. So if we used one of these in line to the printer I'm wondering whether this could be a cheap work around for very expensive ink loss. I don't have the knowledge with the Richos though to know how they cycle through purge/normal start up after a power loss. If it could enable a normal start up it means the printer could still be left on all the time to clean the heads, and not worry about a power outage.
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[NikGrey]

I know what you mean - the type of thing you have inline somewhere for a hedge cutter or strimmer so that when you cut through the cable you need to still be alive to reset the power

I'm sure you need to shut these down properly in order to avoid this problem, and thats where the problem lies - so we need to have enough power from a PSU to give you time to do this manually, to shut it down.

[cumbriakevin]

You probably are right and that a proper shut down is needed. I just put this out there on the off chance that a cheap and simple solution may work. Unlikely in this technological day and age I know but it's enjoyable to swap ideas just in case

[pisquee]

Think our UPS cost around £30-£50 used off Ebay, when it arrived it was in very good, as new condition, so happy with it sitting there running and protecting everything.

[arthur.daley]

Hi All

how do people who work on location fare with Ricohs? If they have to shut down every night to pack away, do they lose bucket loads of ink or is the ink loss problem confined to

A) printers that have just lost power ie not shut allowed to shut down via their own mains switch
and or

B) printers that have been left switched off for several days

I am looking at doing some work on location printing mugs but am wary of the potential ink costs blowing the profit margin.

Alternatively are loaction printers using other printers that don't seem to suffer with these problems?


regards


Arthur

[Justin]

Only issue with the UPS I can see is the £100'ish ones, excellent though they are, have a very limited battery life....many quoting 25 mins, obviously depending on what's plugged in at the time. This would be plenty of time to safely shut down your equipment in a controlled manner but if you're away from home/the office you're still going to get a shutdown when the battery dies.

Can the PC be configured to safely shutdown PC's etc. when it detects a power loss?

[pisquee]

Can the PC be configured to safely shutdown PC's etc. when it detects a power loss?

Yes, mine has both USB and serial ports for connecting to a host computer, which can then issue the shut down command on power loss- this can also be used in a network environment to shut more than one computer down. Not sure about printers. Our is mainly to keep things going while I'm working, or to be able to finish the current thing that is printing, rather than the waste of time, paper and ink of losing power half way through a big/long print (prints if more than one printer is running)
(about 15 minutes ago we had a series of small powercuts/brown outs) and the UPS nicely just clicked in and our of service keeping everything in here running as if nothing had happened, except the room light going out, and neighbouring house alarms going off!)

[cumbriakevin]

Justin, run that by me again what you do down your equipment:eek:

[Justin]

Jees, time I type that! haha....sorted