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Roland CAMM-1 PNC-1000 on a Mac?

cyantist

cyantist

New Member
I've been looking for some software to use my PNC-1000 on my Mac. A bridge program would be fine as I would prefer to continue designing in Illustrator. I acquired the cutter with Signlab 5.0 for the PC, but I hate working on PCs! I'm also hoping that a USB -> Serial cable is going to work.

So, does anyone have any experience with this type of setup or could maybe point me in the right direction?

I understand that the new Roland machines come with Cut Studio which has a plugin for Illustrator for OSX. Would this work on my older machine as well?

Thanks in advance for any info..
 
Geary

Geary

New Member
Wecome on board!

I'm a Mac user as well. I don't have your equipment/sofware configs. I don't believe any of the very few Mac users here have the setup you are going for either. You'd be best off calling Roland. However, I'm wondering if their Roland "CutStudio" would work on your machine.

Also, just be advised to watch saying things right out of the box like "....I hate working on PCs!" All you'll do is inflame the other 90% of the board and embarrass the friendly Mac folk. Please, wait until you've gotten at least a hundred posts under your belt ......then you can be a opinionated SOBtchn MacAddict like me.....LOL I believe that's the required amout of time.....right Fred? :wink:


~G.
 
cyantist

cyantist

New Member
Thanks Geary for your comments.. I guess what I need to know firstly is if CutStudio will even work with my older machine before I look at getting away from the PC altogether.. And it's not that the PC isn't capable of doing the job, it's just that my most powerful computers happen to be Macs, and I simply don't like having PCs plugged into my local net and try to avoid it whenever possible.. I have my cutter plugged in to an old P3-800 running SignLab. It works OK, and I still do all of my design on my Macs, but I personally would rather not have anything to do with the PC at all anymore, hence my original questions.. Sorry if I have offended anybody.. The PC is a good machine in its own right, and I should know, I've used them since the days of the 8Mhz 8088 XT and have been a PC tech for the last 15 years. But, for those of us who have discovered how much better the Mac platform is for design, security, and overall user-experience, going back to the PC is like stepping back in time.. Way back..

Anyways, I don't want to turn this into another Mac vs. PC thread.. Just wanting to know what's possible for this older cutter to run in a Mac-only environment.. I will give Roland a call this week and see what they have to say.. I will post my findings back here when and if I learn anything new regarding this setup.. If I can make it work, then great.. If not, I think I may dump the PNC-1000 and go for a GX-300 or a FC-7000 instead.. But I would like to squeeze the last bit of life out of the old PNC-1000.. It does a great job and the price was right..

Thanks again..
 
OldPaint

OldPaint

New Member
sam sanphilapano.....in birmingham al does mac/roland.....
i got a cable here somewhere for a mac to roland.....i got it with one of my plotters......
 
cyantist

cyantist

New Member
That must be a USB to Serial cable? I'm pretty sure one of these cables would work.. Mainly I'm concerned about the software available to run this older machine on a Mac.. I'm thinking finding the right driver might be a problem.. Unless say a GX-24 driver would work?

OldPaint, I'll take that cable if you can find it.. ;)
 
B

BigPines

New Member
First of all, great forum! I am so glad I found it. I wish I had found it years ago!

I know I am resurrecting a pretty old thread here but I figured it would be better than starting a new one.

I am in the same situation as cyantist. I am a Mac only shop and have a PNC-1000 that I want to use with a USB only Mac. The Roland was previously hooked up to an ancient Quadra 840AV but I am having too many problems with that machine so it is definitely time to retire that old work horse and at least move into Mac OS X.

I purchased a Keyspan USB Serial adapter and Flexi 8 software. I did get the PNC-1000 to cut but it is slllllllllllllllllllllllllooooooooooooooooooow! We are talking 2 hours for a job that should have taken 10 minutes. Staight lines are OK but anything with an arc or radius is killer slow. I suspect the keyspan adapter is to blame but I am not really sure. I have called Roland and SAI but nobody seems to know what is going on. I am planning on trying another adapter but I am so frustrated at this point that I may just ditch the whole setup. Too bad since the PNC-1000 has also been a great work horse and still fits my needs nicely (if I could just get it to run on a modern Mac). Somebody out there must have this setup no?

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Mike

P.S. I love the corn dog smiley so I had to use it somewhere in this post. :corndog: It is so pointless that I actually dig it. I guess it is supposed to be used for corny things or something but I just found it humorous for some reason.
 
Mainframe

Mainframe

New Member
I run flexi starter on a Mac with a cam1 roland which I think is the same thing or close, OP would know the difference, you may have your dip switches wrong, I am going to my shop in a few minutes & will check on the settings & the type of serial to usb I have, I know one is the wrong one & one works well, I will get back to on this
 
Mainframe

Mainframe

New Member
OK I checked & it is a keyspan 2 port serial to usb adapter & the 6th dip switch from the left is flipped up, all the rest are down-if you indeed have dip switches,hope this info helps
 
bayviewsignworks

bayviewsignworks

New Member
I used to run my PNC-1000 off and old G3. I think we had to switch the pins around, mentioned above here. We also had seial (no USB)... good luck.

Andy
 
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