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Help with Roland CAMM-1 PNC 1200
Hi Everyone,
Im Colin I have worked in the graphcs/ signage industry for the last 12 years – 5 years supplying car decals to the major manufacturers and the last 7 for an international sign company.
In the last year or so I have started to branch off on my own in my spare time. I started with a laser cutter/ engraver and have recently used some of my profits to purchase a vinyl cutter – Roland CAMM-1 PNC 1200.
I purchased it second hand (obviously) and was foolish enough to assume that it wold come with the necessary cables.
I have a power cable and the 2009 version of the artcut software runnining on XP and have recently purchased a 25pin serial printer cable.
I have set the settings on the plotter and the software so the settings match but when I go to cut I get an "open com port" error.
Im hoping someone can tell me if the cable I have is the right one. Like I said its a 25 pin serial printer cable with a 25 pin plug going into the printer socket on my pc tower.
Also the man who sold me the software said that despite my machine not being in the built in driver list all I had to do was select any roland machine and it would work – does anyone know if this is true and if I should be selecting a particular roland machine from the list?Is this right?
any help or advice you can give me will be gratefully received -
9 Replies
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Hi Colin – welcome to UKSB 🙂
You say your *serial* cable is plugged into the printer port? The printer port will be a parallel port (LPT1 in config). The port most likely for your purpose will be the serial port (COM1) formerly used for a mouse or similar device. It will be D socket around half the size of the parallel port. I would reckon that is why you’re getting the com port error.
Neil
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Neil’s on the right track I am guessing. Think you have your computer ports confused. Parallel ports are normally 25 pin & used to drive printers, serial ports are either 9 pin or 25 pin. The port on a standard off the shelf computer is a 9 pin port so your 25 pin cable won’t fit unless you have a big hammer :lol1:
Some of the older plotters used the computers parallel port (lpt) to transfer info between the computer & machine & you will probably find that this is true in your case. Go back to your settings & configure the software & plotter using the parallel interface rather than the serial.
Oh & you would be better having a separate post introducing yourself in the hello forum.
Best of luck with it.
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Thanks Neil and Martin for the replies guys and the rapid repsonse.
It’s definatley a serial connection that I have the cable plugged into in the plotter as it has a separate socket for a parallel connection.
Ive pulled out my tower and see what you mean about the port
I will by another cable with a 9pin plug and try that – thrid time lucky!
I did see on another post here someone suggested a null modem cable – excuse my ignorance is there more than 1 type of cable available?
~If so what should I buy?Many thanks
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Depends on the plotter requirements I guess and therfore best checking with Roland site for the proper cable config. From memory null modem cable normally have a crossover and may/not be what you need. I’d check with Roland for the actual device model.
However I think the Camm-1 may have used a parallel connection anyhow so you could try using a parallel cable if you have one. So that would be parallel port on your plotter and the printer port on the computer. Just remember to set your cutter software to output to LPT (if you only have one parallel port on the computer then it’ll be LTP1).
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Null Modem cable for serial on that.
You also need to set the DIP switches so the baud rate etc is the same as the serial on the PC end. -
So from the info supplied you can either run it from a parallel cable if you have one or you would need to buy a null modem cable. Serial will be quicker but if your going to buy a cable mind you will need to but a 9 pin to 25 pin cable to connect the computer to the plotter.
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Thanks for all the great help guys I just have one last question.
I’ve been looking at null modem cables and most of them appear to be "switch over" cables. Are they all switch over cables or can you get non switchover cables if so what type would I need?Thanks once again
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A null modem cable and a crossover cable are the same thing (assuming switchover is another name for the same?). Crossover/switchover refers to the way it is physically wired – null modem refers to the method of use – i.e. not requiring a modem to facillitate data transfer. So as Tim says probably a null modem cable. If you have the device manual for the plotter it may well give you the DIP switch settings. I haven’t looked but you may find the necessary info on the Roland site.
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Manual states RS232c.
Null modem cables have pins 2 / 3 crossed over, so 2 goes to 3 / 3 goes to 2. The rest are straight through.Serial
ON / OFF
SW-1 Baud rate 9600 / 4800
SW-2 Parity check Disable / Enable
SW-3 Parity check ODD / EVEN
SW-4 Data bits 8-bit / 7-bit
SW-5 Stop bits 1-bit / 2-bit
SW-6 Handshake Hardwire XON/XOFF
SW-7 Blade offset 0.25 / 0.5*
SW-8 Sheet weight Light / Heavy
SW-9 Sheet size Roll / Piece
SW-10 Smoothing ON / OFFOff is towards the numbers on the DIP switch.
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