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Need some help with Gerber Omega and Plotter

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theKING

New Member
Purchased a Gerber Edge and two plotters from a sign shop that closed.
Have the Omega 2.1 installed and the Edge installed working great.. Problem is the 15" plotter. I do not have an available 9 pin plug to plug the plotter into... using my only one for the 30 inch plotter.. any suggestions? Thanks!
 
TwoNine

TwoNine

New Member
Get a serial card off of Amazon or something like that - we bought one about 6 months ago - it ran about 20 bucks and works great!

-Chad
 
idsignsil

idsignsil

New Member
They now have a new serial to usb converter that they have tested and is approved by Gerber. Bought two from Advantage when we upgraded computers and then upgraded Omega to 4.0
 
The Equipment Guy

The Equipment Guy

New Member
Yep, the serial to usb is good or a card with additional serial ports. I think the cord from Gerber is $130 in my neck of the woods. The 4.0 (or even 5.0) advice is a good idea if you do the cable, the card will work with older versions.
 
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theKING

New Member
yeah.. have to upgrade software for the USB to serial to work. they want 695.00 for the software upgrade and 99.00 for the cable.

Can I use an A/B box and just swap between my plotters that way? I am a 1 guy operation working from home and I never have the need to run both plotters at this time... Having just bought this equipment and a mimaki a few months ago I really dont want to shell out 800.00 right now if I can help it.
 
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theKING

New Member
I could add a second port... do not have a slot open but I suppose I could pull out the card for the phone modem that is never used. They have some listed with dual ports.. any problem with those? Do they need to be assigned? Want something plug and play so should I stick with one port? THANKS!!:thankyou:
 
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RG

New Member
theKING said:
I could add a second port... do not have a slot open but I suppose I could pull out the card for the phone modem that is never used. They have some listed with dual ports.. any problem with those? Do they need to be assigned? Want something plug and play so should I stick with one port? THANKS!!:thankyou:
Click to expand...

If you add another serial port, just leave your big plotter plugged in as usual (COM 1). You would then simple have to go into the Gerber plotter setup and tell it to use COM 2 (the port you are adding). You will only have to do this once. By the way, you don't have to buy a new serial cable from Gerber. I bought a 20' serial cable last Christmas from Amazon for $10 and it works just fine. If I had to connect through a USB port, I would buy a USB to serial adapter (for about $5) and see if it would work. You may also want to check your plotter firmware and see if it is the latest and greatest.
 
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theKING

New Member
I tried the USP to Serial adapter from Amazon... Must be Gerber specific and it requires a software upgrade to work. i am just going to add a new card and go from there... didnt realize a stupid phone modem was taking up a PCI slot.. lol
 
The Equipment Guy

The Equipment Guy

New Member
Just a fyi, there was a manufacture change on the ser. to usb cables at the manufacturer that does not matter to the layman but is a go/no go situation for Gerber owners. Its not labeled on the cables, thats why I recommend the ones direct from Gerber.

Another idea, another member on here went to Tiger direct and ordered up a refurb computer that was configured properly for his Gerber system and was not very expensive at all. Definitely less than the price of an upgrade. Although I still think 5.0 looks amazing...

Craig
 
jfiscus

jfiscus

Rap Master
Add another serial port, whichever way is easiest depending on your motherboard configuration. I just bought a new computer and my computer company was able to find the serial port card that I needed for the correct newer slots/pins/whatever on the motherboard... so yours should be able to also.

If your computer still has a 56k modem card in it, I am suspecting you're due for a newer computer!
 
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rrjans

New Member
I used an A/B Serial switch box from the Goodwill and a couple of serial cables and that works great for me. It was cheap under $10 but I did have some problems getting the correct cables. It was trial and error for me, some worked and some did not. Again, the A/B box works great everyday. See my earlier posts. Good Luck
 
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