MY PNC-1000 is STILL printing COORDINATES

[Lynn Normington]

I have no idea about your problem, sorry for your friends passing. But folks on here go to the say hello and introduce their selves before asking the question, welcome anyway

Lynn

[Chris Wool]

welcome

i can’t remember the plotter screen commands but the plotter is acting as a printer and if a pen was fitted you would be able to read what its plotting. its actually plotting the x,y commands in stead of acting on them.

having said that the small set of what you listed does not look like the correct roland commands. is it the correct driver ?

the screen should show something X,Y coorderates and i think its showing ansi ?

as i say long time since i touched one of those your user manual should put you right.

chris

[Brian Little]

hmmm best of luck rick ive had a pnc 1000 sitting under the bench here for four years s!!!!! i find the instructions so complex 😳 🙁

[Rick Wiggins]

For starters….

Thank you Lynn for the welcoming

To Chris Wool… I do have have a pen in it and it prints the same characters every time like i mentioned. But it seem to me that it’s not converting or interpreting the file correctly.

And to Brian Little….. Yes i do have the manual in my hands and i agree … it seems a little too complex when it gets into sending the commands in the basic code. hmmmmm

I’m looking for someone who has one of these running…. that i could sorta mimic and THEN match the control panel settings maybe….

I think that’s an idea…..

Or someone that could tell me that even a good TESTCODE readout… may not indicate a workable cutter.

HEY IN ANY EVENT…. THANXXX TO ALLLL
🙄 🙄

[Tim Painter]

Rick are you setting line width to 0.001 ? & cutting direct from Corel using the Roland printer driver?

Tim.

[Rick Wiggins]

To Tim…..
Its been a long time since i’ve worked with Corel but yes i’ve tried a simple square using the hairline setting. And I’ve reloaded the most recent d029270j.exe from the Roland site a number of times. And I shoot it direct from Corel. But i get the same readout. I’ve even used a test file from Ian Steward and the driver he has sent me…. Just to make sure.
Its the same thing!!
YEEEECCK

thannxxxx again! (hot)

[Tim Painter]

Hi Rick

I read an old post on another site that said the driver on the Roland US was causing them issues, maybe long since amended as it was an old post.

Is the cutter set to parallel?
You state hairline that isn’t 0.001 which the old docs recomend.

Do you have a serial port on ur XP machine?

Tim.

[Rick Wiggins]

Tim….

If you only know how much i wish i could fix it with the driver change…. and how much the problem seems like it is. I’ve reloaded the driver a number of times from the roland site….even one Ian has sent me (which was identical) I’ve sent a simple file from this same system using Autocad, and Flexsign 8 with the SAME results which make me think its either the driver or internal to the cutter.

But where?

No i dont have a serial port…. (its all USD ) But i started putting together another system just to try the serial thing out…. but haven’t got the right located.

Do you have one running?

Hey thanxxxx

[Ian Stewart-Koster]

Very basic suggestion…make sure Mode=2 is set.

[Tim Painter]

Rick I assume you mean USB. Have you proved the USB to parallel on another printing device to rule that out?

[Rick Wiggins]

Woooooohhhh

HOW about this for a basic answer….

What on earth is MODE 1!

I looking into this digital version of the book….. HOPING this
could be magically switch that’s going to allow me to talk
to this damn thing!!!

(hot)

[Rick Wiggins]

Hmmmmm….
Ian,
I thought i posted this reply already here….
In any event….
What the heck is MODE 1….????
So i went back to the digital version of the book…. ( im not to fond of
that book…. I just discovered the testmode location!)
and like the parallel setting…..
Its a default setting….. which is burnt into the
chip on the cutters motherboard i believe…..
Now im not sure i can find it on the little control board like the
parallel setting…….
BUT WHAT IF…. or is it possible….
that it isnt in MODE 1 and somehow a switch to the default has
been made! OR IS THAT POSSIBLE???

Its got to be some kind of damn switch or setting on this thing
that is not allowing me to communicate…..

BUT WHERE!!!!!! (hot) (hot) (hot)

[Chris Wool]

ian koster is on the right track and is what i was trying to remember.
i think it makes a difference as to what the little screen says is if the pinch rollers are up or down. when trying to alter things
its 18 years since i touched one of those

[Ian Stewart-Koster]

mOde 1 & mode 2 are settings in the control panel on the plotter, which tell it what kind of language to expect the input signals to be in, I think.

All I remember was back when we first got ours, I was warned to not ever change it out of mode 2 or it would not work properly.

I have a feeling that Mode 2 means it expects the input signals to be in HPGL, while Mode 1 might be in ASCII or some more basic language. Remember that these machines were new back in the early days of DOS 5 perhaps and Windows 3.0 if you were lucky.

I’ll go & turn the machine on & see where the setting is.
The problem I have is we’re using a PNC1000A at the moment, & the old PNC1000 is put away in storage, and they do have different options & words displayed in the console. Essentially they’re the same, but they’re not identical.

Both need the 1000-A driver. The 1000 will not work with the 1000 driver.

(P.S. I think when I’ve given manuals to anyone, I’ve warned them that they’re not likely to be too useful, as modern printer drivers have super-ceded much of what the manual used to find necessary.

[Ian Stewart-Koster]

MODES:

With the pnc1000A, if you lift the pinchwheels UP, off the vinyl, then turn the machine on, it’ll come up with <command> on the console.
Press <enter>.
It will display <mode><mode>.
Use the sideways arrows to select # 2.
Press <enter>, or else <menu>.
That’s all.
Lower the pinchwheels onto the vinyl & start your job.

For the PNC1000, the procedure is vaguely similar. You just have to scroll through the menu options till you find MODE mentioned & then press <enter> & go from there.

In the assorted menu options, you can choose to tell it whether the incoming signal is via serial or parallel cable, etc.

[Ian Stewart-Koster]

Another fix is that on various occasions, like about once every 3 or 4 years, I have to get a new printer lead.
The old ones work on other printers, but they cease to work properly with the Camm1. No idea why, but I know getting a new parallel/centronics cable solves it.

[Jim Kitts]

The pupurpose of Mode 1 was to run the thing without a computer right off the lcd screen, using internal commands. To drive it with a computer you need Mode 2.

To change Mode on PNC 1000 Camm-1:

1. turn it on.
2. press ‘enter.’
3. push lower arrow (the one that points down.)
4. push ‘enter’ again.
5. push FUNC. to pull out of that screen.

Now you are probably in Mode 2. Turn it off, check again to see what it says just to be sure. The parallel hookup to a parallel port (if you have one) is pretty reliable. I used an old cable torn off a dead hp printer. The serial hookup is more problematic, needs a null modem cable, set your bits, and all that. I had an old 9 pin serial null cable off an ancient GPS system that worked, but all null modem cables particularly in the 25 pin family are not similarly wired. If you get the manual off Ian, look for the cable pin out diagram and test continuity with a multi-meter, or try to make one up.

best luck,
jim

[Rick Wiggins]

FINALLY!!!!
Thanks specifically to another gentleman (jumbo-pizza) from another forum and walking thru the set-up via phone, I’ve discovered the block or the reason i couldnt commicate to my pnc-1000. And like Jim Kitts mentioned, it is mode 2. The plotters default is mode 1 and after switching it to mode 2, I am now able to print out what i’m sending to it. I’ve still got a lot to learn about how to use it correctly but NOWWWW i can see the results…

WWOOOOOPPEEEEEE…..

so thanx to all … and esp Ian Stewart-Koster who probably got me into thinking this plotter was still usable before tossing it out..

thanx to all again!!!

😀 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀

[Ian Stewart-Koster]

😀
glad to be able to help- Merry Christmas!

[Jim Kitts]

Yes, and to all a ‘good night.’

(I was also a hostage of mode 1 until Ian came along.)

jim