Reply with QuoteYou could try the HP-GL driver in Autocad, but I am not sure if you will get it running without a RS232 port, even with USB.RS232 convertor.
Al.
HP 7475A Pen Plotter
Hello,
New to the group.
Our office recently purchased an HP 7475 pen plotter.
We would like to use the plotter to print presentation drawings using technical nib pens - plotting on 11"x17" double matte mylar sheets.
We are currently running Autocad 2006 and Windows XP.
A couple questions -
What is the best driver to use with Autocad '06 and Win XP?
What type of cable should we purchase - we only have USB ports?
Is there anything we need to do with the switches on the back (parity/baud)?
Many thanks in advance for any help!
Similar Threads:
You could try the HP-GL driver in Autocad, but I am not sure if you will get it running without a RS232 port, even with USB.RS232 convertor.
Al.
CNC, Mechatronics Integration and Custom Machine Design
“Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.”
Albert E.
Try;
http://www.fixyourownprinter.com/
They cover printers and plotters very well.
[Following is a forum entry from fixyourownprinter.com]
Neither HP nor Microsoft wrote drivers for the old HP 7475 series plotters after W98. Now people are finding that upgrades to office operating systems mean junking a perfectly good plotter, or paying for a commercial driver from WinLine.
Help is at hand! The Roland DXY-990 series plotters are plug-compatible with the HP 7475 series, and Roland have W2K and XP drivers for them at this address:
http://dg4.roland.co.jp/en/down5oad.html .
You will need to download d028220j.exe (393,216 bytes). I am running a 7475 successfully on a W2K network at the moment by calling it a DXY-990 and using these drivers.
http://www.fixyourownprinter.com/forums/printer/40213#1
Hi SteveS, Thank you for the Roland DXY-990 driver recommendation. I'll check this out. Also, on a related note, the plotter we have is an RS 232 interface. Any ideas about how to connect this when our computers only have USB ports? Thx!Originally Posted by SteveS
Hi Al_The_Man. Okay, this could be a bit of a snag. Our computers are Sony Vaio laptops w/ no RS 232 ports. I did read that one thing that I'll need to purchase is a Null Modem Cable and was hoping that I could connect this to a USB - RS232 adapter. Any thoughts on this? Thx!
null modem cable is for rs232 port....Sorry Al for jumpin in... One thin you could do is to purchase a PCMCIA serial port available at http://www.usbgear.com/computer_cabl...37;2C538%2C464.. says it is compatable with plotters...although I havent tried them
Bob
Hi Bob, Thank you for the info. I would then connect a null modem cable from the 9pin PCMCIA serial port to the 25 pin HP 7475A plotter?
Yes that is right... Also I remembered these do not do network at all...at least according to HP see here..http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport...ectID=bpp01035
Bob
Thx Bob!
Thanks for all the info! I hope the driver will breath new life into and bring back the usefulness of my wide format plotter. It has been sorely missed.
I was unable to get the link http://dg4.roland.co.jp/en/down5oad.html to work, it send back a 404.
However a google search brought up a Taiwan Roland site that has the driver. It is located here:
http://www.rolandtaiwan.com.tw/DG/do...P_2000_NT4.htm
The file is at the bottom of the page.
It downloaded, but I will not be able to try it out for a week.
On another note: Does anybody have a resource for parts? My plotter needs a cutting knife.
Thanks again!
HP 7475A Update
I wanted to post an update on our HP 7475A pen plotter.
We have had 'first contact' but we are wrestling with - what we think is happening - the plot file being corrupted.
There has been previous posts noting some concern that Windows XP might cause trouble but we thought we would give it a go to see if we could get the pen plotter to work.
We are currently running AutoCAD 2006 on XP. We have a Null Modem Cable along with a Socket PCMCIA Serial Adapter and are using the recommended Roland driver.
As a test we drew a circle with an inset square in AutoCAD.
In sending this to plot (plotting from model space) the HP starts up - shakes the pens, selects a pen, proceeds to draw a nice smooth circle but then stalls half way through drawing the square. We've tried this multiple times and it hangs at this point everytime.
I'm guessing here - but I think the problem is (as previously noted) with Windows XP as AutoCAD doesn't report any errors.
I was wondering if anyone has any thoughts on what we might try next? Is there a way to run Win 98 along with XP on the same computer?
Many thanks in advance for any suggestions!
Could the problem be a hardware handshake issue between the plotter and the PC?? It's been awhile since I have messed with my 7475 but I sorta remeber it used the hardware handshake lines of the 232 interface to control data flow. What happens with a smaller plot, or attempting to plot from some other program? Can you change setup parameters on your PCMCIA 232 converter?
Hi,
Thank you for the suggestions.
I think you're right that the stalling has something to do with how Windows XP allocates memory. I did read that it might be worth a try plotting the drawing from AutoCAD as a PLT file and then sending directly to the plotter.
I tried this yesterday following this link - http://www.lingpartnership.com/plotfiles.htm - but didn't have success. When I sent the file to the plotter nothing happened.
Have you ever fiddled with sending directly as the PLT file?
Many thanks!
I have not tried a copy of a PLT file format directly to the plotter but I have using HPGL format. Basically it involved plotting from the CAD program to a file. Once the file was created you could just copy the file to the port on which the plotter is located. This use to be done by many folks back when DOS ruled the PC world. The only gotcha is that you needed to setup the COM port or you would get garbage. A batch file was used by most of use to prevent that from happening.
I dug my plotter out a couple days ago, I'll try to get it hooked up and give it a try using the Roland drivers.
HP 7475A
Hi,
Good deal on setting up your plotter - I hope you are able to get it up and running smoothly. If you need a source for pens I can recommend WNC Supply ( found here http://www.westnc.com/ ). They are super knowledgeable on all things pen & media related.
I haven't had success with getting a full plot to work yet with my 7475A. I am going to try GoPlot (found here http://www.noliturbare.com/index.php ) as a next step. I read some intel that this software works well.
Will keep you posted.
Thanks again.
HP Plot files
Hi
I've recently been spending a lot of time with a HP 7550 pen plotter. Very much like your unit, perhaps a few more bells and whistles. Complete documentation for just about any HP device or software can be had from
http://www.hpmuseum.net/collection_document.php
I also have Acad 2006, and have used that Printer driver on a Graphtec pen plotter that accepts such connections The Graphtec also runs on HP-GL commands.(It's OLD ;-).
I assume you are trying the serial connections.
The HP 7550a unit I have provides connectivity for Serial connections RS-232, or the HP-IB/GP-IB parallel interface. No "centronics printer port connection" . The serial connection requires a "null modem" configured chord.
The HP-IB cards I have are not on a box that I connect to the plotter yet.
My setup is using Linux and a terminal window to send files to the plotter. That works Very well. I have made use of both pstoedit and hpgl -distiller applications.( http://pldaniels.com/dxf-hpgl/) to format and clean up the files for straight plotting.
HPGL/2, which is a contemporary vector graphics output has more commands than does the older HP-GL conventions. Some machines, perhaps yours, will "choke" on some of the commands. The 7550a does cough over the unrecognized commands, sending out a "command not recognized" warning. Plotting can resume after a clear using the panel key board. Even then, at times that confusion disconnects the serial terminal connection, and a restart is needed.
I have gotten around nearly all the command headaches by using the hpgl-distiller, but I still like to review the files using a text editor before sending them to the plotter. Page size, scale and formatting is still in developement for me.
At this time, I use Inkscape for generation of most plot files, some from bitmap or jeg image files. First saved as an .eps (encapsulated post script) then to the pstoedit program for conversion to HP-GL. then to the distiller for cleanup. Acad drawings are not something I generate every day, nor do I have ACad on the Linux box.
There are a lot of HP-GL converters for Windows, You can search the net.
Oh, I did spend a bit of time using the USB to serial converter. I have a Targus device that works just fine on my Win XP IBM R-51 thinkpad. The Realterm application is my choice for setting up the serial connection, and transferring files or commands.
Wish you good fortune
Cal
PS a .plt file IS a HPGL format file. Same, same!
Last edited by CalG; 07-08-2009 at 04:48 PM. Reason: Add .PLT reference
Hi Cal,
Thanks for writing.
Would I be able to save the AutoCAD file as an .eps file then take this file to the pstoedit program - you mention - to have it translated to HPGL language and from this program send the file directly to the plotter?
I think you're right that the HPGL/2 language causes my plotter to 'choke' -even with using the Roland Driver - and I haven't been able to get the .plt file to work by sending directly to the plotter - per my previous post.
Many thanks!
Jon
Try to simplify
Jon
Well, I am not an ACad whizz, but you should be able to output the drawings you want to plot directly by a "Save as HP-GL" or a "Print to file" as a HPGL. Remember .plt is the HP-GL format. I'm using eps file format as Inkscape has no HP-GL or .plt output. It does have .DXF though. You should not need an eps file. You can run the distiller on the raw ACad.plt files to clean them up if needed.
Now if you have had time to read the Interface and programming documents (Lots of pages) You will at least find a listing of the commands that you plotter supports. The driver for a Roland device could send lots of 'extras" that you don't want. Plus in the reading, you will see some examples of basic programs that include logical commands.
Have you taken a look at the files that you are trying to send via the serial port?
Try to send something like the following. Just use notepad (NOT WORDPAD!)
to write the text and save the file. HP-GL is entirely text based.
IN;SP1;PA0,0;PD1000,1000;SP0;PG
should draw a diagonal on the paper using pen #1. Just try to send that via a terminal. hyperterm works, but it's made for other purposes. You can even "echo" these text commands if the terminal connection is open. Each ; sends the previous text strings.
IF
You don't have the serial connections right and the same for both plotter and computer, things won't work right. I use 2400,8,N, xon/xoff. But I think "hardwire" handshake might be the default from HP If the serial connection isn't right,... "puke"!
I'm thinking your ACad files are meant for a printer or late model raster plotter, and you need to work into getting those files into a forum acceptable to your plotter.
Or else the serial connection is not made correctly yet. Don't limit yourself to trying to get a big document to plot right out of your drawing program. But keep trying until it works.
Just a story, I have a very OLD IBM X/Y 750 flat bed plotter. I can find absolutely no documentation. Like a thousand monkeys at the keyboard typing out manuscripts, The unit no plots just about anything in it's size. I just haven't figured out pen speed yet.
Wish me luck!
Read the docs....search the net... there is lots of stuff on these HP plotters
Here is a HP Q&A site: Sorry, it's for my 7550a, but you should be able to walk back.
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/d...reg_R1002_USEN
Good luck
Cal
Last edited by CalG; 07-08-2009 at 09:15 PM. Reason: correct command string
Hi Cal,
I have to confess some of this is very new to me.
Would you mind going into more detail about the serial connection setup - i.e. 2400,8,N, xon/xoff?
For reference - I'm using a Socket PCMCIA serial adapter (I don't have serial ports on my computer) connected to a Null Modem Cable. I set the Socket serial adapter to Port B = COM 4 (there are two ports - Port A and Port B - on this model Socket adapter).
When I plotted the drawing directly from AutoCAD - I installed the Roland driver set up on COM 4 & used the 'Add a Plotter Wizard' in AutoCAD to establish the 7475A as a plotting option - there was some life - a few lines drawn - but then the plotter stalled.
When I tried sending as a .plt file directly to the plotter - wrote a line of code based on the previous link - nothing happened. Maybe I didn't do this correctly --?
Not to ask too basic a question - but how should I go about sending the .plt file to the printer - or using notepad, sending a basic line of code this to the plotter? I'm afraid I don't have much experience using DOS commands.
Many thanks!
Jon
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