OT: Revisiting ACARD Controller

Dach wrote on 11/12/2009, 7:11 AM
Sometime ago I had posted some concerns regarding my duplicating tower that is controlled with an ACARD controller.

Not all drives would record, so I unplugged the power, took the machine apart and put it together and it seemed to work for a very short while. (Its a 1 to 7 duplicator). I now experience incosistent number of burns. For example, load 7 and only six will burn, load 7 again and only 4 will burn. Reset the maching and burn 6. If a disc does burns its quality of burn is fine.

Anyway, I am now experiences more inconsistent issues. Has anybody had any issues with such a device? How did you resolve them? I have no problem replacing a part, I just hope to make sure I replace the right part the first time.

Thanks,
Chad

Comments

John_Cline wrote on 11/12/2009, 12:20 PM
I have several duplicators based on the ACARD ARS-2033S controllers.

First of all, what brand and type of media are you using? I typically use Taiyo Yuden premium discs and burn at 8x. I had a large run a few weeks ago and didn't have as many Taiyo Yuden discs as I needed, so I went to Costco and bought four 100-disc spindles of Sony DVD-R media. Two of the spindles burned just fine and two of them had random bad burns. It was acting exactly as you describe and I blame it on inconsistent media. A few days later, I did another job using a fresh batch of Taiyo Yuden media and every burn was just fine. Regardless, I never burn above 8x with any media.

Secondly, how old are your drives and how many discs have you burned? It may be that your drives are nearing the end of their service life. DVD drives don't last forever and the laser diode does weaken over time to the point where it won't emit enough laser light to burn properly. I've had to "re-drive" my duplicators a couple of times.
Dach wrote on 11/12/2009, 3:18 PM
John,

I appreciate the dialogue. I use Taiyo Yuden the majority of the time, if not then Verbatim. In this case, I was using Taiyo Yuden. When a drive is loaded and does not burn, it does nothing to the disc, doesn't even begin the process.

I to have limited the burning speed to no more than 8x. The system is approximately 4 years old and I have perhaps done around 3k duplications.

Thanks,
Chad