TECHNICAL NOTE

M41026
SlideMate AS Troubleshooting

Slide delivery system

Slides are not dropping from the slide dispense arm

What the customer might report:

The customer will usually say that the slide is sticking to

the dispense arm or that they are seeing a “Hopper Empty”
error and the slide is not going down into the printer.

Questions to ask:

1. After the “Hopper Empty” error is displayed, does the

slide dispense arm appear to all the way down?

2. If you press gently on the dispense arm, does the slide

fall off into the printer?

If the slide dispense arm is not going all the way down, the
slide will not be kicked off the dispense arm and will remain
sitting squarely on the dispense arm. Pushing the arm in
and seeing the slide fall off means the arm is not traveling
the all the way down to the slide eject position.
2. Slowly tighten the screws stopping at the
Remedy A: point where you first feel the screw tightening up.

A known cause of the slide dispense arm not traveling 3. Test the assembly to see of the dispense
fully to the eject position is overtightening of the screws is now working correctly.
that secure the dispense arm to the motor travel assembly.
If the problem persists, see Remedy section below
1. Using a T10 Torx wrench, loosen both screws for additional information.
approximately two full turns. Continues
Continued

Remedy B:

1. A second known cause of the slide dispense arm

not traveling fully to the eject position is failure of the
torsion spring located at the top of the slide
dispense arm.

2. Locate and check the spring is not broken. The spring

should have a few circular turns around the hinge pin
and the end of the spring should extend downward to
the bottom end of the opening as shown in the
picture to the right.

3. If the spring is damaged, it will need to be serviced by

a qualified service technician.

Slide delivery system

Slides are falling onto the front of the printer

What the customer might report: 1. Check the flatness of the dispense arm, see image
below. If the slide rocks or light is clearly visible under
The customer will usually say that they are seeing a the end or middle of the slide, the arm is bowed.
“Hopper Empty” error and the slide is laying on the
front top of the slide printer. 2. If the arm is bowed, the arm will need to be replaced
by a qualified technician.
Questions to ask:

1. How often does this occur?

2. Is the slide printer sitting level?
3. Are you having any other type of side dispense error?

If they are experiencing other types of dispense error,

troubleshoot those issues first. If the other problems
persist, follow the remedies listed below.

If the printer is not sitting level, it should be leveled before

any further troubleshooting is performed.

Remedy A:

A known cause of the slide falling off the dispense arm is

a bowed dispense arm. A bowed dispense arm will usually
cause the slides to fall off more often than other causes. Continues
Continued

Remedy B:

A second known cause of the slide falling onto the front of

the slide printer is a broken torsion spring.

1. Locate and check the spring is not broken. The spring

should have a few circular turns around the hinge pin
and the end of the spring should extend downward to
the bottom end of the opening as shown in the picture
to the right.

2. If the spring is damaged, it will need to be serviced by

a qualified service technician.

Remedy C:

Another known cause of the slide falling onto the front of the
slide printer is a dirty slide dispense arm. This can usually
be identified by lots of white (glass) powder on or embedded
into the dispense arm. See the image to the right.

1. If the arm is dirty, it will need to be cleaned using one of

the following methods:

a. Blow dust away using compressed air

b. Scrub clean with abrasive pad

c. Scrub clean with very fine emery paper

Dispense arm should be clean of debris.

Dirty assembly Clean assembly

Continues
Slide delivery system
Slide delivery system is not recognized by the slide printer

What the customer might report:

The PLAY button does not show up on the front of the slide
printer so the slide delivery does not operate.

Illustration 1

Display does not Display shows the

show the “Play” “Play” button —
button — Slide Slide Delivery
Delivery System System is detected
not detected a. Remove the five screws shown in illustration 1

b. Remove the side cover

Questions to ask:
c. Plug the power cable into the slide delivery system
1. Are the cables connected properly? d. Plug the power cable into an electrical outlet

2. Has cycling the power corrected the issue? e. Look for a flashing green LED, if you do not see this,
the board is defective

f. Remove the power cord from the slide delivery system

Remedy:
g. Remove the three screws securing the circuit board
The only known cause of this is a defective circuit board h. Disconnect the cable plugged into the left end of the
within the slide delivery system. The cause of this type circuit board
of failure is “Hot Swapping” of the cables from the slide
printer to the slide delivery system. This means that i. Remove the circuit board
someone may have disconnected the mini-USB cable
j. Install the new board making sure the cable is properly
while power was applied.
routed around the stand-offs

The fix for this is very simple, the circuit board must be k. Install the three screws and tighten
replaced if defective. The steps below detail the method
l. Reattach the cable
for testing and replacing the circuit board.
m. Install side cover using five screws

n. Attach all cables and test the slide delivery system

Slide printer
Screen freeze

What the customer might report: Questions to ask:

The customer will usually say that the screen is frozen or What you are trying to understand is what the customer
the screen does not respond. means by their complaint.

1. What is the condition of the slide delivery system?

Is it up or down?

If the arm is down, drop a slide into the printer

manually. Does the printer run?

2. If the dispense arm is not down, is the play

button visible?

If the play button is not visible, what is displayed where

the play button would normally be?

If it is, press the settings button, does the display

change?

If the display changes, the screen is not frozen; press

the home button then the play button, does the printer
dispense a slide?

If not, cycle the power and try printing again.

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and its subsidiaries unless otherwise specified. M41026 R1/17