Need Help NEW to signmaking, new (OLDDDD) printer/plotter, cant get anywhere, please help!

[Gino]

I think this is why you have some people that Frankenstein hardware/software (well if they are able to do that with software portion) to get it to do things that it may not ordinarily do, or at least advertised as such. Didn't there used to be a user on here from Houston that loved to do that type of stuff, see what boundaries that they could push their hardware?

If right to repair goes the way that it looks like it might, what is going on with tractors and their used market, I could easily see happen with the used market with printers as well. Might see more and more people going with the older tech, Frankensteining it to get away with more.

Quite so. You're not in any business without breaking rules and procedures. It's come in handy many many times. However, no mention of jerrry-rigging took place in this thread. Had the original parameters been mentioned, it could easily have a different outcome.

 

[WildWestDesigns]

However, no mention of jerrry-rigging took place in this thread.

This thread overflows with jerry rigging at it's core even though it may not have been out right stated.

Running on outdated tech (printer), there is expected to be jerry rigging to be going on, even if it's to keep it going status quo. When one has zero commercial support (and this could actually go for new open source kits (quite a few users like the CNC kits on here) as kits along that type don't come with much(if any) commercial support or that support is a la carte and offered at an additional fee) for a product even using it "as is", yes I would expect there to be some "creative" problem solving to be going on.

Running things in a VM, yea, that's jerry rigging as well versus running everything on bare metal as it was originally designed for. And that type of jerry rigging was actually mentioned in this thread.

In this type of situation, I would have actually expected jerry rigging to be going on. Hard not to with outdated tech and trying to keep it going, regardless if it's on the hardware or software side.

 

[Ian Stewart-Koster]

For what it's worth... I have two PNC1000s here, of similar era to the PC60/600, and a PNC 1410. (amd a mimaki CG130FX2)
The old Rolands happily work on a Win XP 32 bit machine. I use the old parallel/centronics printer leads.
But no amount of VM setting up on a 64 bit machine worked whatsoever. I lost 2 days trying to get ne set up for a freind, on an old XP-64 bit system. IN the end it was easiest to buy a refurbished legacy 32 bit PC, and all was good.

The PC60/600s might have similar anti-64 bit attitudes, perhaps!

 

[netsol]

but ian, i don't get it.
i am far from the vmwre guru, but there should be no problem virtualizing a 32 bit "guest" operating system. we either use vmware 5.x or vmware player (if only virtualizing & running 1 machine)

is your problem communicating with the old rolands?

generally the issue is serial communication

 

[WildWestDesigns]

Serial connections using a VM do require more effort compared to if it was regular USB passthrough from host to guest.

That effort (as in the case of Ian) would put most people off from using the VM. USB communications are straight forward between host and guest.

Setting up a 32bit guest on a 64 bit machine is not an issue at all. I run Vista 32bit on a KDE Neon 64 bit host. Within that same Vista VM, I have Win 98 in a VM (VM within a VM), communication is flawless and that's going through 64 bit to 32 bit to 16/32bit. The issue is the serial communication. Also depending on what VM software you are running as well. Some don't do well with others in the more nuanced features.

 

[Ian Stewart-Koster]

Nope. I use a 30- ft serial lead to run our CNC router with no problems.
But the 64 bit win 7 PC could not see the plotter, via the LPT lead.
We put XP on it in a VM and it was no different. I honestly wrestled with it for 2 days before giving up- and the techs too, and we just used a 32 bit system and it was a breeze.
I have zero interest in expending any more time on figuring out why the 32/64 argument- I just know that others I have offered advice to, had no problems sticking with 32 bits also to run the ancient PNX1000A.!

 

[WildWestDesigns]

Nope. I use a 30- ft serial lead to run our CNC router with no problems.

It's not the physical cable itself. It's going through the software and making sure that it is passed through correctly to the guest.

If you pass through a connector (say USB for giggles), that USB is only seen through the guest and not the host OS until you shutdown the VM. This is the easiest way to do it, but it does mean that one has the drivers for the guest OS to be able to use the device (for emulated ports this is even more important and perhaps even more confounding with legacy systems).

Now, sometimes, one can use IPs in order to pass things through, which adds even more of a headache. Essentially using the VM software to network in the device to the guest.

I have zero interest in expending any more time on figuring out why the 32/64 argument

It works, bottom line. Hell, even MS had XPM for Win 7 pro users to run XP in and that is a VM environment.