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new plotter question
Hi Folks im looking to buy a cheep wee plotter just as a back up for my trusty roland which although its not said must be nearing the end off its life. whats the real problem with the chinese ones ? that people seem to shy away from . Im probally looking for the imposible a machine that would run off my signlab 4.95 windows 98 i dont have a printer so i find its all i need and does the job .
Regards Brian
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18 Replies
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quote Brian Little:signlab 4.95 windows 98 Regards BrianNote to self: Take Brian shopping at SignUK and drag him kicking and screaming into the 21st century :lol1:
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quote Dave n Rob Lowery:quote Brian Little:signlab 4.95 windows 98 Regards BrianNote to self: Take Brian shopping at SignUK and drag him kicking and screaming into the 21st century :lol1:
:giggle:
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hmmm may i remind you its probally the most stable 😀 a cut letter or graphic is a cut letter or graphic but thanks for your helpful advice
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I’m with you Brian…..they shall prize XP out of my cold dead hands! 😀
Vista, Windows Eleventy Seventy or whatever, may have plenty of Whizz and Bang but also loads of Wallop too 🙁 -
My name’s Phill and I use windows 98 *drink*
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come on you lot come out of the woodwork were all mates here 😀 i love 98 i love 98 ilove 98 😀 😀 😀 ra ra ra hmmm can anyone help with my original question
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I Love XP 😳 wouldn’t want vista or 7 because i’m a "stuck in me ways – old fart" :lol1:
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my name’s Hugh and i’m an XP pro 🙂
specified it when having the new pc built a year ago, bloke thought i was crazy not to use the newer vista!!
as for the chinese machines, some are apparently not so good at tracking (hearsay), biggest prob i’ve seen on the boards is the pc not talking to the cutter.
prob nothing too much wrong with them otherwise, just not built as well i imagine, cheaper parts, warranties? i’d sooner buy a used roland or summa as a back up i think.
Hugh
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Same as Hugh, buy a second user summa or Roland. My summa is 16yrs old and still going strong.
Steve
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Brian, I’m still running windows 98 on one machine because I use Inspire pro which came before Flexisign so your not alone using 98 and older software.
As for the plotter, I would look at the second user market as well, I have seen some good machines sell for not much more than some of the Chinese plotters sell for. Just remember if you buy yourself a cheap Chinese plotter I’m not going to keep coming up to fix it for you 😉
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hmmm second hand roland never thought of that always a bit suspect of second hand but ill have a look…apartt from the obvious ebay anymore suggestions welcome
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quote Martin:Brian, I’m still running windows 98 on one machine because I use Inspire pro which came before Flexisign so your not alone using 98 and older software.
As for the plotter, I would look at the second user market as well, I have seen some good machines sell for not much more than some of the Chinese plotters sell for. Just remember if you buy yourself a cheap Chinese plotter I’m not going to keep coming up to fix it for you 😉
hmmmm dam 😀 ok Martin point taken mate ill look around im used to Roland so ill see what there is
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I have a refine MH721 and found it to be quite a capable machine. I have seen a Roland and graphtec in action and have to say if your using one already it will be like driving a bentley all week to step into a vauxhall cavalier as your weekend car LOL.
They are cheap new and even cheaper 2nd hand but they do have a few issues and from reading on an the American forum can be frequent to breakdowns especially motherboards. Mine actually went wrong this week but thankfully it turned out to be just the power lead that had failed (standard kettle lead) and I have only had it 6 months from new.
As for cutting I haven’t had much of issue but then I can’t say exactly how it compares with the likes of a Roland but I expect there will be quite a difference.
For computer connection issues I run mine off an Toshiba Laptop running XP pro and it runs fine. I couldn’t get the USB to USB to work at all though and my laptop has no serial port so I had to get the Serial to USB connector but that got around the problem. I also couldn’t get flexi to run right with the cutter so used signblazer. I can seem to use flexi when connected to my desktop via the serial connectors though.
Hope that helps a little, but as others have said for maybe a little more get a 2nd hand better named machine which is what I will doing soon.
Richard
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thanks richard very helpful
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I forgot to add support is non existent from the UK sellers of these cheap cutter, unless you buy from it from the US retailer who are excellent in their support but the cost of shipping outways buying a cheap cutter from them as fro the same money you can pick up a second user Roland.
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quote Richard Martin:I forgot to add support is non existent from the UK sellers of these cheap cutter, unless you buy from it from the US retailer who are excellent in their support but the cost of shipping outways buying a cheap cutter from them as fro the same money you can pick up a second user Roland.
hmmm i have to say Richard ive not be to impressed with the aftercare from Roland in fact at one time i was supposed to wrap it up and fire it down to cardif i think it was at the time with a 3 week turn around i might as well have shut the doors
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At least Roland answer the phone LOL. The seller I got the refine off has been a nightmare and very hard to get hold of.
I was already to ship the cutter back to him this week after it wouldn’t power up, changed all the fuses and still no go. He did say though (after finally getting hold of him) that it would be turned around within a day and returned on 24 delivery, which I highly doubted.
It was under warranty but I would still have to pay £25 for a technician to look at it, but all labour and parts are free of charge. He did say if I knew what was wrong he would send me the parts for free to fix which was nice but of no use to me.
I was waiting for him to email the return address which still took another day in which time searching the forums helped me check the power cable something I’m actually surprised that failed but resolved the problem.
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