PNC1000 diagnostic test

[Nitronorth]

I have a PNC1000 with both serial and parrallel ports. I am running a Dell 8100 with Windows XP upgraded from ME. Coreldraw7 is the software. I can print to a parrallel printer (CANON BJ) so the port and cable is ok. The cutter runs the self diagnostic ok by cutting CAMM 1 and other words if I power up while holding the up arrow. I cannot get it to cut though. Nothing happens at the cutter when I tell it to plot. I downloaded the driver from Roland V2.70 It is 27290 not 29270J like I saw on other websites. Although it is listed as the driver for the PNC1000. I set it up for LPT1. When I say print it shows up in the print que as printing then a short while later it says it failed. Is there any settings that would make the unit totally unresponsive or would setting errors in the software still cause it to do something even if it is not correct?

Is there a diagnostic for testing the ports as that seems to be the only thing left that could have failed on this unit. Thanks.

 

[joostio]

I just got my pnc 1000 up and running. I had similar issuse to you at first. I ened up messing around with the cutter settings, the menu has a lot of things I don't understand, I played with all of them, eventually it worked. I removed the blade until it responded to my attemps to cut. now it works great.

 

[chitoon]

i see a lot of people askinf for help here i see a fellow from 2007 oct nobody answered that fellow it seem here they just answer to tell a person he or she is dumb what is our fellow man and women comming to?

 

[OldPaint]

YOU NEED THE 27029 DJ driver.. or it will not work

 

[Techman]

tell a person he or she is dumb what is our fellow man and women comming to?

What is yoru point? You didn't get an instant answer on another thread. So now you plan on complaining on every other thread? This post is about a specific answer that only a few have the answer to.

 

[Ian Stewart-Koster]

Nitro , I believe Corel 7 was fraught with problems, and they came up with a repaired edition called Corel Select Edition, numbered 7.267 or some such similar number.
That edition does work to drive the plotter, but I'm not so sure about version 7 alone.

Email me if you'd like a manual.

Are you putting a hairline outline around your text? You'll need to do that. It won't plot without it.

Don't use the serial port- you'd need a special Roland cable. I did post the pinouts here some years ago for it- if you do a search, you'll find that, but it'll take a bit of setting up. Stick with the standard printer cable. Or buy a new printer cable- they can fail after a time.

The console menu needs to read Mode=2, lang.=hgpl, rotate Y, but don't let the printer driver swap X&Y when it asks you if it should.

It's an easy text to just draw a box in corel & go to print setup & select the pnc1000& then go to print preview, & position the box, and then print.

Also, I would suggest trying the driver for the PNC1000A. Our 1000 won't work with the 1000 driver, but is fine under 1000A driver. The 1000A we have works with that one too. It is the better machine, but the differences are not obvious at first!

.......

Chitoon- perhaps you should go back to your fire fighting instead of whinging here- I did post a helpful reply in your thread- I might as well delete it, instead, for all you care.

 

[Nitronorth]

How do I get to the menu to select mode 2 etc

My menu on the PNC1000 wakes up with:

Coordinate display x y
Move Sheet
page view org area
Set Parameters
Tool speed font P-ch
Manual cutting
String size output
Replot mode
Replot load append

I can get to any one of the menus and submenus but not the one mentioned in the thread. Like many others I do not have a manual for this unit. I have purchased X3 in attempt to overcome the problems mentioned in Version 7. Still no difference.

As far as the driver I have the driver from the Roland site
RWD 029 I downloaded the Ver 2.7 for XP. I do not know how to verify if it is 270290J or not. As well I have tried the demo software from CoCut and Sign3 with no luck.

[SIZE=-1]PNC-900[/SIZE]

[SIZE=-1]PNC-1100[/SIZE]

[SIZE=-1]PNC-950[/SIZE]

[SIZE=-1]PNC-1600[/SIZE]

[SIZE=-1]PNC-1000[/SIZE]

[SIZE=-1]PNC-1900[/SIZE]

[SIZE=-1]PNC-1000A [/SIZE]

[SIZE=-1]PNC-1610[/SIZE]

[SIZE=-1]Windows Driver[/SIZE][SIZE=-1]AutoCAD Driver[/SIZE]

[SIZE=-1]3.1[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]95/98/Me[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]XP/2000/NT4.0[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]Ver.2.71[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]Ver.3.21[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]Ver.2.70[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]ADI Driver[/SIZE]​

 

[Ian Stewart-Koster]

HI Nitro,
re the driver- when you downloaded it, what name or number did your PC save it as?
That's where you'll find 270290J or somehting else listed.

Re the rest- well, this is the procedure for the PNC1000A- it's almost the same as the 1000, but I've forgotten the differences- you'll have to nut your way through them as our pnc1000 is stored away.

Turn on- you must have the pinch rollers UP. The lever will be UP also.
If the pinch rollers are DOWN, the display will read "check sheet press enter"
If the pinch rollers are up, it'll read " select>hit 'enter"
and beneath that "CMND, I/O, ROTATE"

Use the arrows to select Cmnd (command) and the options given are Mode1, Mode2, Auto. (I think Auto as an options is not in the 1000 model though, just the 1000A)
Use the arrows to pick Mode2 & hit 'enter'.

Then pick I/O from the first screen, and select parallel, not serial or auto & enter it. Don't fiddle with the rest of the options there- they relate to serial choices, baud rate etc.

Back at the top, the other available options are usually tool, font, penchange etc- these options have been superceded by modern printer drivers, and are best left alone on the console of the plotter.

Now lower the pinchwheels onto some vinyl, or onto the grit rollers, and the display should read "check sheet & then press enter"
and it'll suss out the sheet width, and you'll be ready to plot.

I think the display you get is because the pinch wheels are DOWN. Raise them to get to the rest of the important options. The options you list do not need touching.

When you get to use it a lot, the page & origin commands can be useful, but you'll survive fine without ever knowing what they all do.

Hope that helps.
Send me an email- I'll get you the manual- not that it will help here- it relates to when Win3.0 was the greatest program around!

 

[Nitronorth]

Cutter now responds although not correctly

The cutter now moves the paper and the cutter travels to one end of the sheet and stops. At least I know it is communicating and responding. Great progress for me.

The tip on how to set the settings really helped.

Currently set to Free Y, parrallel. I could not find the HPGL setting. Does the Font setting have any impact?

I emailed - looking forward to the manual.

I am working with X3 so as to focus my efforts on the most current software I have.

Thanks again for the help.

 

[Ian Stewart-Koster]

Don't worry about hpgl then.
I would guess you have not applied a hairline outline to the text (in Corel)...

Then go to Print setup & select the camm1
Then Print preview, and don't let it rotate if it asks
And position the stuff at the left edge of the default 1530 x 465mm sheet
Then 'Print this sheet now'

& see how you go. You have to have a hairline outline/stroke on the text- that's what it will plot.

 

[Nitronorth]

Thanks for the great help

Hi

Thanks for all the help. The machine is now cutting. I need to learn the software though. The cutter also does not cut through the vinyl deep enough but your manuals will help with this I am sure.

Again your help is much appreciated.

Ron

 

[Ian Stewart-Koster]

Five possible explanations-
1.there's a pressure slider on the right edge of the machine, not far from where the printer LPT cable plugs in. Ours works well on the zero (middle) setting. Slide it toward the back of the machine to increase pressure.
2. maybe the blade is blunt
3. maybe the blade doesn't poke far enough out of the blade holder to go through the vinyl
4. maybe the teflon cutter strip is grooved & needs replacing
5. maybe the vinyl is hard/a bad batch/crook.

 

[Nitronorth]

Hi
Yes it is all of the above. The cutter has a burr, the teflon is worn, and I adjusted the pressure. I need to find a Canadian Supplier for parts.
The good news is it communicates well with computer. I also am now using TurboCAD to make simple text signs. The driver works well with TurboCAD. Once I get the parts above I will make signs for our snowmobile club. Thanks again for the help.
Ron

 

[Ian Stewart-Koster]

Well done- Turbocad sounds like a bit of overkill, but if it works for you, then that's fine!

 

[Are We Not Men?]

I am having the same sort of trouble getting my PNC-1000 going on an XP PC running Corel 11. Never had trouble under Windows 98, but switched this week to XP. XP refused the driver I have been using since I got the plotter back in 1990.

Downloaded the XP driver from Roland's site and got it working, but it turns everything 90 degrees, so the biggest thing I can make is the width of the vinyl.

Roland says my machine is obsolete and they have no idea about Corel since it is not their software. The arrogant fellow made it sound like there was something wrong with me for thinking I could still use a machine "over 10 years old" even though it is in perfect working order, and he didn't even offer me the driver on their web site. I had to find it by searching the web and hitting a link. Nitronorth was even good enough to post it above.

They didn't treat me like dirt when they were taking my $2,500 for the machine. They told me how it was built to last and how any windows based drawing program would work with it.

Anyway, I tried every combination of page setup and print setup and portrait and landscape and was unable to get it to print without rotating the whole project. Their readme file said to set the machine's console to no rotation ro=0 but I don't see any option about rotation in my console on the PNC-1000.

Anyone have an idea on the rotation? Is that console option only in the 1000A, or am I missing it somehow?

 

[Ian Stewart-Koster]

HI, yes, you need to alter the rotation in the machine's console- that's a particular quirk with the change in the PNC1000 from Win98 to XP.
The OS upgrade took me ages to sort out also, but it's fine now.

With the pinch wheels UP, press the console button or sideways arrows till you get to 'rotate', and shift it from whatever it is (free X?) to rotate Y. (or at least to the opposite of what it is that sounds like a 90 degree flip) Then enter that, and turn it off, or lower the pinchwheels & try that. I'm going from memory, but the details in the post up above this should help.

It's just a weird win98 versus XP issue with the driver.

 

[Ian Stewart-Koster]

and the PNC1000 & the 1000A are slightly different in the specific labelling/wording of the rotation & the designation of the new position, but the meaning is the same.

 

[Replicator]

Great Information Ian, Thanks . . . !

 

[Are We Not Men?]

Rotation is not an option

On my PNC1000, there is not option in the console for rotation. With the rollers up, I have >SET CONFIGURATION< and >SET PARAMETERS<. SET CONFIGURATION contains COMMAND, INPUT, and SIZE.

- COMMAND choices are MODE1 or MODE2. MODE1 is manual input and MODE2 is computer input.

INPUT choices are PARALLEL or SERIAL.
SIZE choices are EXPAND-X, FREE-Y, ISOA3 or ISOA2.

- PARAMETERS choices are TOOL, SPEED, FONT or P-CH.

TOOL choices are CUTTER, PEN(8) thru PEN(1).
SPEED choices are CUTTER SPEED and PEN SPEED
FONT choices are SET CHARACTER and OUTLINE vs VECTOR
P-CH choices are PEN CHANGE COMMAND IGNORED vs EFFECTIVE

Those are all the choices in that menu. With the rollers down, those are all available plus a few more, including >PRESS FUNCTION< COORDINATE DISPLAY /X= /Y=, MOVE SHEET /PAGE /VIEW /ORIGIN /AREA, MANUAL CUTTING /STRING /SIZE /OUTPUT, REPLOT MODE /REPLOT /LOAD /APPEND.

I went into the sub menus of each choice and found nothing to do with rotation. I am thinking maybe I have a model that is so old, that they hadn't thought of hardware rotation from the console yet. I know it was the first plotter that claimed to interact with Windows, which was Windows 3.1 at the time, and Roland didn't even have a Windows driver yet - I had to use a really bad third party driver till Roland finally got one that they sold to me for $15. At the time, I paid $2,500 for the plotter which they said was half price, and my 386-40 was the fastest PC available and was maxed out at 4 meg of RAM, and a gigantic 40meg Hard Drive. Ah, the good old days.

So, I am out of luck now, right?

 

[Are We Not Men?]

So, next I bought a "null modem cable" which Roland says is the right kind to connect via the Serial Port, and I uninstalled and reinstalled the drivers and set it up as a Serial Printer on Com1. Made sure all the settings were correct. I set the plotter console to Serial Input. I sent a simple square, it said it was printing. The Plotter ignored me, and the print job failed after about a minute. I am doing great.