uksignboards.com | Signlab 8 & Roland GX300 cutter problem talking

Signlab Software

Signlab 8 & Roland GX300 cutter problem talking

Posted by Stephen Morriss on 24 July 2014 at 16:14

Hi all.

Computer is Windows 8 64bit and works fine with my Summa cutter on USB.

I’ve just got a new cutter, a Roland GX300, and I’ve been trying to get Signlab vinyl pro to talk to it.
I had a summa D60 setup and running no problems before and I may have to revert back until i can get this sorted.

Anyway I’ve installed the Roland driver and Versaworks and Roland Cutstudio can see the cutter and get page size etc no problem so it’s installed correctly, I think.
It also shows up in the printer list in windows.

I’ve then selected the Roland GX300 driver in signlabs and then gone into the setup and selected various ports, including the GX300 usb002+ port at the bottom of the list and the external dll
Non of these have worked, even when I just click cut to see if it’ll send anything to the cutter.
In fact my printer spat out a load of rubbish when usb001 was selected, this is the port my printer is on so I expected that.

So if anyone has any experience of setting up a Roland up in signlabs please give me some pointers.
Apparently most Rolands use the same or similar drivers so I presume any tips will help.

Connection is by USB.

Regards
Steve

Stephen Morriss replied 11 years, 1 month ago 3 Members · 13 Replies
13 Replies

Stephen Morriss

Member
24 July 2014 at 19:45

I’ve finally managed to get the cutter cutting from Signlab but it will not poll for the sheet size, I can even poll for this in the driver so no idea why signlab can’t get the info.

I ended up with the GX300 driver and the usb port installed by the Roland software.
At least I’m able to cut again it’s just a pain having to check the sheet size and input it in the cut window.

Steve
Ray Wilcox

Member
25 July 2014 at 08:32

Try using the GX-500 driver and set the port to External DLL. I have a GX-500 here and that works here, I tried the GX-300 driver and that did not.
Stephen Morriss

Member
25 July 2014 at 08:40

Hi Ray

Thanks fro the response, I tried the GX500 driver and external DLL but I just get a device not responding message when I try to poll the cutter.

Steve
Stephen Morriss

Member
25 July 2014 at 13:54

Could you poll the plotter for page size with your setup Ray?

Steve
Ray Wilcox

Member
25 July 2014 at 14:12

Yes I can, My apologies are due now I have just seen the title of the topic, I have been trying with Signlab 9, I just tried with Signlab 8 and i cannot make it work with that either. Sorry to get your hopes up.
Stephen Morriss

Member
25 July 2014 at 15:18

Oh well, any chance of the driver being updated, is it the external dll that was updated or the ini file?

And if it’s the external dll is it not working because I’m on win 8 64 bit?

I have thought about updating signlab but to be honest there doesn’t look to be that much that helps with vinyl cutting, may have to look again.

Steve
Ray Wilcox

Member
28 July 2014 at 08:12

There is a DLL now attached to the INI, I tried using both files in SL8 but it did not work. There is a free 10 day trial you can download if you want to look.
Stephen Morriss

Member
14 August 2014 at 10:26

Hi Ray

Is there any chance that Cadlink will update the driver for V8?
This problem must have existed when it was the current version so surely they have a responsibility to leave that version working properly before moving onto the new features in v9?

Steve
Frank Droog

Member
14 August 2014 at 19:25

I will try to build a dll for Signlab 8.
I will send it to Ray as I don’t have a GX cutter here currently so I cant test.

FYI, for Get Page size to work you need the Roland Windows Printer driver installed.
For some reason, Roland only allows you to interrogate the cutter USB via the printer driver. I actually have to send a command to the printer driver asking it what the Page size is.

Also, you need to have the correct Signlab cutter driver INI file.
The GX 300 cutter driver INI looks for the GX 300 printer driver.
So you cant use say , the GX400 to get page size for a GX300 .
Stephen Morriss

Member
14 August 2014 at 19:43

That would be fantastic Frank.
I already have the Roland driver installed and it can get the page size etc and I’m using the GX300 ini driver in signlabs. It’s just the dll will not work for some reason so I’m just pointing the ini to the usb port created by the roland driver.

Thanks
Steve
Stephen Morriss

Member
15 August 2014 at 13:55

Hi Frank

As a separate question, is there a way to send the current cut page size to the prefeed setting in the plotter settings box?

something like a special character + (say 100mm) where the special character takes the current job cut length from the cut preview window.

I currently have this prefeed box set to 1m as the Roland doesn’t have prefeed built in.

Regards
Steve
Ray Wilcox

Member
18 August 2014 at 08:50

Hi Steve,
Frank has sent me a new set of driver files that allow polling for page size from the GX with Signlab 8. I will ZIP and attach it here. If there is a problem with getting that mail me rayw AT cadlink.co.uk.

Attachments:

GX-Driver SL8.zip
Stephen Morriss

Member
18 August 2014 at 09:35

Hi Ray, I’ve sent you an email.

Steve