Communication problem using Graphtec FC-3100-60 with Flexi 8.5

[Moonlight Taxi]

So I have a Graphtec FC-3100-60 (that I bought used) and a dedicated PC running Flexi 8.5. I have the two connected with a 25 to 9 pin "null modem" serial cable. It appears that I have a communication problem as when I send a job to the cutter nothing happens. I'm fairly certain that the cable is connected and assigned to Com port 1 and that's the port which I have Flexi sending the jobs through. Currently, when I send a job to the cutter, the Flexi production manager says "cutting 0%" for a long time followed by "write port error". When I tried using different ports it actually goes through the process saying "Cutting 10% 20%...50%...etc untill it reaches 100% although nothing actually happens at the cutter.

If the problem doesn't lie within the connection I thought possibly there's a setting wrong on the cutter. Anyone know if there's a "master reset" function with this cutter to return it back to "default" settings? I put the cutter through it's "self test" and it appears to work fine.

A.J.

 

[signage]

Check on your graphtec plotter that it is set to HPGL not GPGL and also that you software is set to HPGl!

 

[Moonlight Taxi]

O.K. I have confirmed that the cutter is in HPGL mode.

How do I set Flexi into HPGL mode?

A.J.

 

[Moonlight Taxi]

Update

Problem solved. I called around to some sign shops and they suggested as an alternative, try using a parallel cable and the parallel printer ports between the computer and the graphtec. I found a parallel cable I had lying around hooked it up, switched the communication port to LP1 and it worked!

I suppose the serial cable I had was either defective, the wrong cable or there is maybe an issue with the serial port on my PC.

If I get a chance, I will try another serial cable to confirm this and post back.

A.J.