• I want to thank all the members that have upgraded your accounts. I truly appreciate your support of the site monetarily. Supporting the site keeps this site up and running as a lot of work daily goes on behind the scenes. Click to Support Signs101 ...

How to make a Graphtec plotter wireless?

netsol

Active Member
i have been a networking consultant for over 35 years

this is a REALLY BAD IDEA

connect the damn thing with a piece of cable and you never need to think about it again (relatively speaking)

wireless is great for things that recover transparently from communication errors

printing and plotting are NOT that type of operations

wireless client (computer, phone, tablet, etc) to a WIRED PRINTER/PLOTTER is acceptable, but will still be a problem on occasion, but connecting the printing/plotting device wirelessly
is a clusterf**k waiting to happen
 

Geneva Olson

Expert Storyteller
i have been a networking consultant for over 35 years

this is a REALLY BAD IDEA

connect the damn thing with a piece of cable and you never need to think about it again (relatively speaking)

wireless is great for things that recover transparently from communication errors

printing and plotting are NOT that type of operations

wireless client (computer, phone, tablet, etc) to a WIRED PRINTER/PLOTTER is acceptable, but will still be a problem on occasion, but connecting the printing/plotting device wirelessly
is a clusterf**k waiting to happen
I could not agree more. hardwire everything if you don't want it to "drop carrier" in the middle of a run. ("drop carrier" is for the super old techies. LOL)
 

netsol

Active Member
he will find out, the first time it loses connection and "scrambles" a print or plot job

when this happens with my laser printer, it just ruins a stack of paper, printing a few random characters on each page

that is a lot more of a pain in the ass, AND A LOT MORE EXPENSIVE with a full roll of vinyl
 

Boudica

I'm here for Educational Purposes
I'd first ask, and listen to tinker. Aka netsol. He's like Mikey in the life cereal commercial... He'd try anything. If he says don't do it, don't try it.

Eta, and listen the other contributions... Just finished reading all the input.
 

jimbug72

New Member
scissors.jpg
 

GAC05

Quit buggin' me
I don't know why we don't have this already, how hard could it be? They pretty much perfected reliable, wireless bras decades ago.
 

balstestrat

Problem Solver
You get another wireless access point/mesh router/whatever is compatible on your commercial grade setup and then you wire your cutter to that and let it handle the networking.
Now it's just as robust as wifi can be. The fact that it's a cutter doesn't make it any worse setup than it being a phone or a laptop etc.
 

Attila Nagy

New Member
Not your Plotter, but your computer can be wireless. Do not listen the negative ideas. TCP never fails, and plot files are small. The plotter needs to be connected to your router, and you can connect your laptop to the same router wirelessly.
I can Run all my machines from my MacBook sitting in the garden. Not a single failure.
If your router ever drops the wireless connection, try firmware upgrade or replace it.
 

netsol

Active Member
I'd first ask, and listen to tinker. Aka netsol. He's like Mikey in the life cereal commercial... He'd try anything. If he says don't do it, don't try it.

Eta, and listen the other contributions... Just finished reading all the input.
Gee, thanks, i think...
 

netsol

Active Member
Not your Plotter, but your computer can be wireless. Do not listen the negative ideas. TCP never fails, and plot files are small. The plotter needs to be connected to your router, and you can connect your laptop to the same router wirelessly.
I can Run all my machines from my MacBook sitting in the garden. Not a single failure.
If your router ever drops the wireless connection, try firmware upgrade or replace it.
exactly attila,
if there is a communication "blip" the macbook can sense and resend

the printer/plotter is a "dumb" device and will print garbage
 
Top