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Best RIP for HP 570 latex + Roland 640?

612 SIGNS

New Member
We are acquiring an HP 570 latex printer in addition to our Roland 640. VersaWorks does not support HP. What RIP do you suggest to run both, or at least the 570?

ETA: Looking at Onyx. Caldera is Mac-only.
 
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iPrintStuff

Prints stuff
Depends what you want to do with it, pretty much all the standalone rips should be fine.

We use onyx with a mimaki and an oce and everything works pretty seamlessly. Not cheap though!
 

balstestrat

Problem Solver
Just remember you might have a hard time with Roland profiles if you don't use VW.
For HP it doesn't matter, use what you want Caldera, Onyx, Flexi..
 

WYLDGFI

Merchant Member
We love Caldera if you like Mac Computers....Onyx & Flexi for PC....never really looked into mac versions for either of those.
 

k_graham

New Member
Hey we have been using Caldera on a workstation pc with our HP for 7 years after starting with a free trial of it and Onyx. Onyx had just introduced the Adobe PDF capability and Caldara seemed to have been on it for a while and sailed through what would stop Onyx. With the new Mac mini available I would be considering that if it handles Caldera. The other I will look at if we go with a new HP printer would be Flexi as It was not available as a Adobe PDF rip last time. If in doubt ask for a free trial and dedicate a hard disk to each for boot up. Caldera willingly extended our trial as Onyx was only available in trial with a loaner USB so took a couple weeks to get, delaying our final decision to about a month. Also ask about competitive trade ups, we got a nice trade in on a Fiery disk.
 

balstestrat

Problem Solver
Hey we have been using Caldera on a workstation pc with our HP for 7 years after starting with a free trial of it and Onyx. Onyx had just introduced the Adobe PDF capability and Caldara seemed to have been on it for a while and sailed through what would stop Onyx. With the new Mac mini available I would be considering that if it handles Caldera. The other I will look at if we go with a new HP printer would be Flexi as It was not available as a Adobe PDF rip last time. If in doubt ask for a free trial and dedicate a hard disk to each for boot up. Caldera willingly extended our trial as Onyx was only available in trial with a loaner USB so took a couple weeks to get, delaying our final decision to about a month. Also ask about competitive trade ups, we got a nice trade in on a Fiery disk.
Flexi still doesn't have adobe pdf engine.
 
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balstestrat

Problem Solver
According to this thread it has https://signs101.com/threads/flexi-vs-onyx-10.114339/
Or did they drop it?
This xerox file will print out boxes behind art on a non pdf rip, items you will not see on a monitor, the pms gradients are a good test as well showing 25 50 75% as per label but may have issues on a old RIP http://dc.communityprinters.com/color/Complex Design.pdf
Consider the price difference of flexi rip vs onyx or caldera. No, Flexi doesn't have adobes pdf engine.
 

k_graham

New Member
We love Caldera if you like Mac Computers....Onyx & Flexi for PC....never really looked into mac versions for either of those.
On our old HP Latex we used the Caldera on PC, we ordered a new HP700 latex last week with anticipated July delivery to our remote Canadian location. I think it might be time to update the RIP as previous was 2ghz with a regular SATA harddrive, but may I ask the benefit of a new Mac Mini vs Caldaras Dell PC build at 1/2 the price and with a Terabyte NVMe drive vs Mac mini M1 at 1/2 terabyte.
ac's in our shop maybe I am missing something?
 
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balstestrat

Problem Solver
On our old HP Latex we used the Caldara on PC, we ordered a new HP700 last week with anticipated July delivery. I think it might be time to update the RIP as previous was 2ghz with a regular SATA harddrive, but may I ask the benefit of a new Mac Mini vs Caldaras Dell PC build at 1/2 the price and with a Terabyte NVMe drive vs Mac mini M1 at 1/2 terabyte.

Would one be able to use the Mac mini for other tasks at the same time, as in would the RIP run in a virtual process?
If not and each is just acting as a RIP it seems to me the Dell with 3 year warranty included would be preferable, but as we have no Mac's in our shop maybe I am missing something?
You can go with either one. No one is forcing you to buy the "Caldera Dell", you can buy the same PC or a different one, what ever you want and install debian+caldera on that.
If you go with the Mac you can use it for other stuff as well. Caldera just installs on it like any other software.
 

k_graham

New Member
I realize it will fit any decent PC, I was just referencing the Mac mini being double and likely a year warranty. RIP times were not excessive on our previous Caldara, more annoying was the 5 minute warm up time to print after RIPPING, hopefully the new HP latex has figured a way to start the warm up during the RIPPING, that would be a time saver.
 

balstestrat

Problem Solver
I realize it will fit any decent PC, I was just referencing the Mac mini being double and likely a year warranty. RIP times were not excessive on our previous Caldara, more annoying was the 5 minute warm up time to print after RIPPING, hopefully the new HP latex has figured a way to start the warm up during the RIPPING, that would be a time saver.
Well it has Apple tax included, proprietary hardware inside and is a aluminium cube. That's why it's more expensive. There is no other justifying, we all know Apple is making a ton of $$$.
If you buy a barebone PC with no software you only pay for the normal (not apple) hardware. Top that off with a free OS.

I doubt there is hardly any speed difference, might even be slower RIP times on the Mac.

Caldera has had this button for a long long time. You press it when you want to start the heating.
Still same with L700 but on that the cleaning takes longer than heating.

And if you send the job with "Print" action, it will start the warm-up as soon as you hit that button.
The ripping happens on the background at the same time. Don't use "Rip then print" if you dislike waiting.

s84o.png
 
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Pauly

Printrade.com.au
As powerful as the M1 chip may be, it's still technically a "mobile" chip and would not use a mac mini for a workstation.
Yes it can hold up to some of the desktop CPUs but as cooling lacks, it'll still throttle, still limited with OI ports.
a mac mini is designed for home use.

Get a workstation with dedicated graphics.
At least they're upgradable. they don't throttle.
and if you want massive amounts of storage, no problem.
 

k_graham

New Member
Thank you Balstestrat for the information about the heating button on the current Caldera RIP.

We are running version 9 Caldera on the discontinued HP26500 Latex. My staff tells me they managed to source a last light Magenta so when the HP700 comes in our supplies on the old unit will be exhausted.

As you see we will be moving about 3 generations up on the printer and 5 up on the RIP software, maybe 6 if Version 15 comes out during the 1st year of purchase. Too bad one asks when a RIP upgrade comes and they mention color and all which I was already happy with, but really just mentioning that warm up button could have convinced me an upgrade was in my interest.

Anyway your suggestions match what I was thinking, that I would be better staying with a PC Workstation as a RIP and maybe getting a NVMe drive in it of about a Terabyte based on what Caldera is offering. Or perhaps just adding a new NVMe drive to the old RIP if it can fit one, if not a Samsung SSD. Do you know does the Caldera RIP even benefit from a Graphics card or is all the processing done via the regular Chip?

That leaves the question of what Caldera actually quoted me, I see their is a HP sign edition and the Visual RIP 4+ edition. The sign edition kind of walks around the question of it being an Adobe RIP, also the Visual RIP 4 looks to benefit from hot folders.


 

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balstestrat

Problem Solver
Thank you Balstestrat for the information about the heating button on the current Caldera RIP.

We are running version 9 Caldera on the discontinued HP26500 Latex. My staff tells me they managed to source a last light Magenta so when the HP700 comes in our supplies on the old unit will be exhausted.

As you see we will be moving about 3 generations up on the printer and 5 up on the RIP software, maybe 6 if Version 15 comes out during the 1st year of purchase. Too bad one asks when a RIP upgrade comes and they mention color and all which I was already happy with, but really just mentioning that warm up button could have convinced me an upgrade was in my interest.

Anyway your suggestions match what I was thinking, that I would be better staying with a PC Workstation as a RIP and maybe getting a NVMe drive in it of about a Terabyte based on what Caldera is offering. Or perhaps just adding a new NVMe drive to the old RIP if it can fit one, if not a Samsung SSD. Do you know does the Caldera RIP even benefit from a Graphics card or is all the processing done via the regular Chip?

That leaves the question of what Caldera actually quoted me, I see their is a HP sign edition and the Visual RIP 4+ edition. The sign edition kind of walks around the question of it being an Adobe RIP, also the Visual RIP 4 looks to benefit from hot folders.
You don't necessary need a external GPU, processor with integrated GPU is just fine. If you have a 2nd GPU you can enable some acceleration setup but then again it's more usefull if you have lets say 5 printers in one PC.
But definately upgrade the PC now, don't try to go with the old one any longer. Get some 4-8 cores, 8-16gb ram, space as much as you need. 1TB SSD is a good starting point, be it a SATA or NVME, doesn't really matter that much speedwise (again we talking about one printer here).

I don't know this Signrip edition, seems like some HP specific version for some competitive markets without true Adobe PDF engine and some other small limitations. I suspect it has some 3rd party pdf engine and/or old adobe ps engine.
Going to be more expensive to upgrade if you one day want to add another printer to it.
 

k_graham

New Member
You don't necessary need a external GPU, processor with integrated GPU is just fine. If you have a 2nd GPU you can enable some acceleration setup but then again it's more usefull if you have lets say 5 printers in one PC.
But definately upgrade the PC now, don't try to go with the old one any longer. Get some 4-8 cores, 8-16gb ram, space as much as you need. 1TB SSD is a good starting point, be it a SATA or NVME, doesn't really matter that much speedwise (again we talking about one printer here).

I don't know this Signrip edition, seems like some HP specific version for some competitive markets without true Adobe PDF engine and some other small limitations. I suspect it has some 3rd party pdf engine and/or old adobe ps engine.
Going to be more expensive to upgrade if you one day want to add another printer to it.
If memory serves the current old RIP is a 2Ghz, Intel i7 which I think is 4 core, 12 Gigs RAM, and has a separate Graphics card .

I did put in an inquiry to Caldera to see what they were actually offering me. I had told them the upgrade would be for a 700 HP Latex and we would be using the same 60" cutter.

HP apparently does ship the 700 with a 1 year of Onyx but when I trialed both it and Caldera 7 or 8 years ago the Caldera printed what Onyx could not and every call to Onyx started with you need to buy a $$$ service plan. Thus my leaning to Caldera.
 
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