Plotter Problem

[Cheryl Smith]

oh hon, I can only empathise with you, I dont know myself, but just to say I hope she picks up and cuts for you soon xxC

[Nick Minall]

Was it a Mimaki cable you got? maybe a printer one wont work, needs to be the right one?

[Marcella Ross]

Nick, it has run with a standard parallel cable for all those years. 🙁

[Nick Minall]

ok, not that then 😕

[Nick Minall]

Have you tested to port on the pc to see if it still works ok… tried to print to a ordinary printer? or test the cutter with anuther pc?

[Marcella Ross]

Nick both printers here run on usb ports so I cant test it through either of them.
But here’s something odd ……………… when trying to cut the information starts to get sent to Intuit Internal Printer on LPT1……….. Intuit is my Quickbooks??????????? But when I print direct from Quickbooks it goes to my Epson on a usb……. not to the Intuit internal printer….. I don’t even know what that is!!!!!!!!!!!!! But if I change this setting then nothing moves from Signlab at all. 😕
I’m getting really confused here …………….
I can’t try the plotter on another pc as I dont have cutting software on either of the other 2 in here. And nothing I can plug in to the LPT port ………

Ooooooooohhhhhhh this is driving me nuts. 👿

[Nicola McIntosh]

can you not do a back up of quickbooks remove it from pc along with the other printers and start again with signlab first 😕

nik

[Marcella Ross]

I just said to John that I was going to remove the Intuit printer and see what happens ……………. in fact I won’t back it up………… if I lose it I’ll make it up ……………. HUGE losses for the year so the tax will refund me :lol1:

[Marcella Ross]

🙁 this is getting stranger by the second.

I removed the Intuit internal printer (which is installed by quickbooks to allow emailing pdf files ……!) as I don’t know why that was on LPT1?????? Anyway, did that and now zero bytes are being sent to the plotter???? 😕
Surely this must be a software issue rather than a hardware??????

Oh, and if I use the spooler, then all the info transfers to the spooler but still doesnt go to the plotter………

I’m baffled as nothing has changed since I cut on thursday to trying to cut on friday.

[Nick Minall]

Can you try re-installing the cutter?

[Nicola McIntosh]

youd be quicker doing a wipe marcella… 😕

nik

[Marcella Ross]

😥 😥 😥 😥 😥 😥 😥 😥 😥

fuck shit bastard shit fuck bollocks bugger shit fuck

[Phill Fenton]

From what you’ve said, nothing has been altered in your software to cause this problem so everything seems to point to a fault with the cable or the plotter port. (i.e. a hardware fault) but even so it is worth double checking that your software is set up properly (could something have corrupted it – have you installed any new programs recently that use the LPT1 port?)

I’d probably still double check that my Signlab settings were properly configured to send the cut file to LPT1. Also Signlab has a printspooler feature which you may or may not be using – check that this is also configured to LPT1. (If you’re not using this feature maybe try setting Signlab up to use it instead of sending the cut file direct to the cutter and see if that gets around the problem?)

I would also try re-installing the driver in case this has been corrupted in some way.

If none of the above works perhaps even try re-installing Signlab?

Just a few things you can try that you probably know already.

Good luck – I hope you get it fixed 😀

[Marcella Ross]

thanks Phill….. tried all those options. Signlab is spooling and it’s printing to file.
I’ve just switched the connections to a com port just in case my LPT is damaged. When I try to plot Signlab says ‘waiting for CTS DSR’ ????????
but does not lock like it does when I try it in the LPT port.

Mmmmmmmmmm ……….. (?)

Edit to say ……… got around that problem, the info is sending but the plotter is not responding 🙁

[Nick Minall]

Oh dear…. have you thrown it out the window yet 😕

[Shane Drew]

just a long shot, but have you installed new software, or upgraded windows since you last did a successful plot?

Reason I ask, is that last week, I upgraded windows as per the automatic settings in XP, got to work the next day, and I had all sorts of weird problems when I went to rip files, or even send emails.

Out of desperation, I went back to a restore point a few days before, and everything is sweet again. Only thing changed was the XP upgrade.

[David Rogers]

quote Marcella:

Edit to say ……… got around that problem, the info is sending but the plotter is not responding 🙁

Have you tried to see if it’ll communicate with the plotter at all – not just plot?

A ‘get page size’ or ‘plotter ID’ will see if there are ANY comms between them.

Dave

[Brian Hays]

quote David Rogers:

quote Marcella:

Edit to say ……… got around that problem, the info is sending but the plotter is not responding 🙁

Have you tried to see if it’ll communicate with the plotter at all – not just plot?

A ‘get page size’ or ‘plotter ID’ will see if there are ANY comms between them.

Dave

You can’t poll size if the cutter is running through at LTP port Dave. The information will onluy go one way ie from the computer to the plotter.

Do the older Mimaki’s have usb or serial ports Marcella?

[Marcella Ross]

Brian,
serial or parallel ports on my Mimaki, no usb as it’s about 6 years old.

Shane, no software upgrades etc at all. I did a restore back to Wednesday but it made no difference. 🙁

[Kevin Flowers]

Marcella,
turn the print spooler off & tick send straight to the printer, my laser works via parallel & will not accept a file from spooler.

Its a long shot but may work

Kev

[Marcella Ross]

Kevin thats how I normally run it. But as it wasn’t working sending it straight to the plotter I tried the spooler to see if it worked. It did spool but didn’t cut. The set up was changed straight back to ‘direct to port’.

[Lynn Normington]

Marcella looks like you will have to talk nice to Santa 🙄

Lynn

[Brian Hays]

quote Marcella:

Brian,
serial or parallel ports on my Mimaki, no usb as it’s about 6 years old.
(

Didn’t think it would have a usb. May be worth getting a serial cable from Mimaki to try though?

[Marcella Ross]

What would make a Mimaki cable different? 🙄 Is that an obvious question and I’m being stupid? 😳 The info is definitely moving through the serial connection as I tried that today. All info went but the plotter still didn’t plot.
I’ll give Hybrid a ring tomorrow me thinks ………

[Peter Normington]

Marcella,
was the cable supplied with plotter? They can be wired different.

Peter

[Marcella Ross]

Peter, I honestly can’t remember if it was the original cable from Mimaki or not. I’ll talk to Hybrid and see what they say. Fingers crossed that’s all it will be.

You’ve given me hope! 😀

[Nick Minall]

Marcella the cable was the first thing I asked you about 😕

[Peter Normington]

Nik, Ladies have the perogative to dismiss comments until they have tried what they think best, Brian also hinted at the cable, Marcella is really frogged off, as is understandable. lets all hope the cable is the problem.

Peter

[Marcella Ross]

Now now Peter!!!!! I’ll ask Lynn to reprimand you!!!! 😉

Nick, I was unaware until Peter said that the cables can be wired differently. I bought a new parallel cable right away and tried that but it didn’t help. I am also not certain if the cable I was using was the original supplied with the plotter or not. I had an extension cable added to it anyway so I assumed that a Mimaki cable would be no different.
I was not dismissing any comments made by anyone which was why I asked what the difference between a standard parallel cable and a Mimaki one was.

I appreciate ALL input ……….. Peter, I will skelp your bum for your cheek! 😀

[Nick Minall]

Lets hope it is the cable, I know some for cutters are different to a printer one and an extension may just have all the wires as they do not know what it will be used on. fingers crossed!

[Marcella Ross]

It’s certainly worth a try 😀

[Nick Minall]

Ps I should have explained the reason for asking the first time.

[Marcella Ross]

quote Nick Minall:

Ps I should have explained the reason for asking the first time.

no worries ……….. I’m just an idiot! 😉

[Brian Hays]

It’s all getting confusing 😮

Marcella get a serial cable from Hybrid (think maybe that is what you are going to do anyway?) best check you have a 9 pin serial port on the pc 1st as well. Most do unless it’s a newish Dell or something similar.

The parallel cables are standard printer cables. So if it was just a cable problem your new cable would have sorted it.

[Marcella Ross]

I’ve no serial port on my pc but that’s easy enough remedied. But I could use a usb to serial converter???? Would that be adviseable?
Is a serial cable a better option than a parallel?

[Cheryl Smith]

quote Peter Normington:

Nik, Ladies have the perogative to dismiss comments until they have tried what they think best,
Peter

now there’s a man who understands a woman

nice new pic of you Marcella

[Peter Normington]

had a lot of practice 😀

Peter

[Peter Normington]

quote Cheryl Smith:

quote Peter Normington:

Nik, Ladies have the perogative to dismiss comments until they have tried what they think best,
Peter

now there’s a man who understands a woman

nice new pic of you Marcella

And theres a woman that understands a man who understands a woman 😀

Peter

[Marcella Ross]

Cheryl! Don’t massage his ego!!!!!!! It’s big enough! :lol1:

[Peter Normington]

quote Marcella:

Cheryl! Don’t massage his ego!!!!!!! It’s big enough! :lol1:

Oh no its not…..

Well it is panto season 😀

Almost

Peter

[Brian Hays]

quote Marcella:

I’ve no serial port on my pc but that’s easy enough remedied. But I could use a usb to serial converter???? Would that be adviseable?
Is a serial cable a better option than a parallel?

Well if you have tried a new parallel cable & it doesn’t work, then getting a serial cable is something I would try.

What PC have you got? must be pretty new if it has no serial port. And yes you can use a usb-serial convertor.

May be the main board that has gone though, wouldn’t be the 1st time. Fingers crossed the serial works though 😉

[Paul Jamieson]

Hi Marcella,

If the cable had been pulled enough to damage the actual cable, it might have also damaged the parallel socket on the cutter.
Maybe it’s cracked the solder joints, or even the PCB that the socket is soldered onto? Does the parallel socket feel loose or wobbly on the cutter?

I hope I’m not totally lost on this one 😉

[Marcella Ross]

Hi Paul, we checked the parallel port on friday. It seems fine, no loose or broken bits. Well, it certainly appears solid enough. But I wondered if the damaged cable could have ‘blown’ anything.

[Marcella Ross]

Well, I’ve just spoken to Hybrid, apparently there’s no difference in the parallel cables and that a standard one would work fine.
They are unsure of what is going on with it since it is switching on, loading media, sample cutting perfectly but not plotting from file.

I am waiting on them calling me back ………….. we’ll see how it goes.
Meantime I’m going to reinstall the driver again!!!!!!!

[Lorraine Clinch]

Hi Marcella, I hope your problem is sorted now, but if not, have you re-installed Signlab itself?
I have had exactly the same problem in the past, with the bytes sending then freezing, the only remedy was to re-install SL. Drove me nuts tilll I realised the problem. I still don’t know why it doesn’t do it any more, or why it ever started.

Good luck.

[Marcella Ross]

tried that already Lorraine. 😕

[Garrie]

if your really stuck and don’t get it sorted today, I can pop down tonight with my laptop which is running flexi, we could try it from my lappy and see if it works 🙂

[Marcella Ross]

thanks Garrie, but I have an old flexi here ……… no difference! I’ve also installed the Mimaki driver as opposed to the signlab mimaki driver so that I could try cutting from corel …………… that didn’t work either.
So it’s not a Signlab error.

[Shane Drew]

I’d say it is a problem with the cutter then. Only have to short a diode and it will not work.

Can you borrow another cutter to run on your machine?

[Nick Minall]

quote Brian Hays – Impact:

quote Marcella:

I’ve no serial port on my pc but that’s easy enough remedied. But I could use a usb to serial converter???? Would that be adviseable?
Is a serial cable a better option than a parallel?

Well if you have tried a new parallel cable & it doesn’t work, then getting a serial cable is something I would try.

What PC have you got? must be pretty new if it has no serial port. And yes you can use a usb-serial convertor.

May be the main board that has gone though, wouldn’t be the 1st time. Fingers crossed the serial works though 😉

Marcella, can you do what Brian says?

[Tim Painter]

Hi Marcella

Have you proved your paralell port yet? Have you checked it works with another device?

Have you tried unistalling the LPT port and reinstalling it?

Just getting slightly lost precisely where your at with your headache………yes I’m male easily confused…lmao

And I thought my Monday was going cr*p…lol

Tim.

[DaneRead]

Just a thought.

I have sometimes had problems like this.

I would suggest you use a coms port instead of LTPT. At least you can poll the device.

Then you need to check the the communication setting on the cutter are the same as the setting on the computer. you need to go to control panel, stytem then hardwaree and then device settings. Double click the port in question and selet port setings, then make sure the the setings on the port are the same as set on the cutter. i.e parity, data bits, bits per second etc.

I once changed a cable and the same hapened to me this method seemed to fix it. Just make sure you get the same setting on the plotter, device manager and even on the software, i know i use flexi sign and there is setting similar to this in the produciton mamager

[Marcella Ross]

OK,

I have tried a serial cable, tried that on saturday through another pc, no luck.
I cannot test the lpt port as I have nothing else with an lpt connection.

I’ve tried a serial cable, a different pc, new drivers etc etc etc. I’ve tried everything suggested here and more.

[Marcella Ross]

quote daneread:

Just a thought.

I have sometimes had problems like this.

I would suggest you use a coms port instead of LTPT. At least you can poll the device.

strange you say that …………… it won’t poll the device using the serial 😕

[Nick Minall]

Think you need to talk to Hybrid again if they are a dealer for the cutter see what they think, looking more like the cutter now 😕

[DaneRead]

Just check those settings.

On the cutter go into the menu and check the communication settings. Writer the settings down. i.e 19500bps parity odd, even none etc. etc. Then confirm that they are the same on the computer port settings.

Once you’ve done that restart the PC and switch of the cutter, then switch everything back on again.

[Marcella Ross]

yeah….. done that already. All settings are exactly the same on the pc and the cutter.
I’m waiting on Hybrid getting back to me still. I’ll ring them in an hour if they haven’t got back to me.
It’s a little awkward as on this pc I have only the lpt port. The serial is on another pc so we’re going back and forth from one to the next with different software!!!!!!! 😕

Either way it still ain’t working. I think you’re right Nick ……. it’s the plotter 😥

[Marcella Ross]

Can anyone tell me me where to find info to help me reload the firmware??????

Hybrid suggested doing that as an outside chance, otherwise is the mainboard that’s gone ………………… big problem is that they don’t and never have had a main boards for one of these as they’ve never had a problem with them before 🙁

[Nick Minall]

Found this hope it helps you

[Marcella Ross]

been there already Nick!!!!! only drivers available from Mimakis site.

[Paul Jamieson]

I’m not trying to be negative…but, through experience any firmware updates are normally sent to the device via your Com’s cable from the PC. If your Com’s are your problem it’s not going to be possible. 😕 Unless you can do it by replacing a chip on the main board (eeprom)???

[Marcella Ross]

Paul ………….. we’ve just asked Hybrid the very same question!!!!!! How can we reload the firmware if the serial isn’t communicating with the cutter! Someone from their technnical department is calling us back at some point today………………..

[Paul Jamieson]

I hope you get it sorted out, I know how frustrating it can be. I have been doing some searches but can’t really find much at all. If I do I’ll let you know.
Good luck!

[George Elsmore]

hope things work out Marcella keep it together and dont lose the PLOT!

:lol1: sorry couldnt resist

[Marcella Ross]

George…………… I’ll make a public thanks here for everyone to see, that you being the kind hearted soul that you are, offered to cut vinyls for me until I get sorted out.
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for £45 a square metre. 😀

[George Elsmore]

😮 😮 😮 lololol

[Garrie]

Marcella – I can help you out if your in a pickle, email or PM me if you like.

[Marcella Ross]

thanks Garrie, if I’m stuck I’ll shout so loud everyone will hear me! :lol1:

[Garrie]

LOL, I’ve got my fingers crossed for you :lol1:

[Paul Jamieson]

quote Marcella:

George…………… I’ll make a public thanks here for everyone to see, that you being the kind hearted soul that you are, offered to cut vinyls for me until I get sorted out.
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for £45 a square metre. 😀

lol….I hope you’re using 2 year removable vinyl for that price George. :lol1:

[jeffus – Graphtec]

Hi

I agree with Shane your plotter sound like the interface has been blown
a dislodged cable can take it out, some times it will take the serial with it if they share the same circuit, Hybrid should sort you out.

cheers

Jeff

[Marcella Ross]

Well it seems my worst fears are facing me 🙁 It certainly looks that the damaged cable has blown the main board in the plotter. Despite the fact it’s switching on doing a sample cut etc etc it still will not communicate with a pc.
The cost of a replacement board £550 + vat, plus call out charge and labour which takes it to somewhere in the region of £950 + vat ……… 😮

So my options are;
1. do I replace the board at a cost of £950
2. Buy a new plotter
3. Buy a printer/plotter (although I’d miss extra cutting width that I had with this Mimaki)
4. A noose?

This cutter has by far been the best cutter I’ve ever had, up until friday it ran as sweet as a nut, never the slightest problem over the last 5 years. This alone makes me biased at looking at another Mimaki but are the replacement parts for Mimakis expensive should anything happen again? Or is this a pretty standard cost for a main board???????????????

Depressed 🙁 ………….. cheesed off 😕 …………… skint :hung: …………….. harrassed. :nagnag:

What’s the costs for a 1200 wide Roland or Graphtec …….. approximately????

[George Elsmore]

never mind soon be xmas :nag4: came the reply

[Peter Normington]

Marcella it looks like you may be better off cutting your losses and going for a new plotter, Have you had a look in the online shop?

https://www.uksignboards.com/index.php?page=4
I thing there is a mistake in the wording as one machine looks like a 1220?

I have a grc (signpal) and is a good machine, now its semi retired after more than 5 years hard labour.

Peter

[Marcella Ross]

I’ve had a Signpal before Peter ………….. but I’ll save that story for another time! 😉

I’ve also run a Roland which was a good machine. But I’ll away and have a look at the prices on the online shop and then see how much discount I can get! 😀

[Phill Fenton]

Try phoning Ken Mcnight (Kentech Services) 07711 211196 who does plotter repairs for the UK sign group.

[Marcella Ross]

thanks Phill!!!!! 😀

[Shane Drew]

I’d by a new machine Marcella. You’ll get another 5 o 7 years without any more drama.

I have a camm1 1000mm wide. Cost me $100 for new rollers (2 years ago) in the 10 years I’ve had it. Don’t know what I’ll do when it dies on me.