Roland CJ-500 on Mac G3

[artsnletters]

I posted this also on the Flexi discussion section: I hope a redundant post isn't a problem. I wasn't sure if there would be enough "overlap" to get an answer.
I have ancient versions of Flexi-Pro running (5.7 and 6.6) on an equally old Mac beige G3...i'm trying to run a Roland CJ-500 printer/plotter. The CJ-500 has been sitting for a few years, it powers up fine does test cuts...has ink supply. Test prints thru the Roland units' menu don't completely print, either, i did a few "powerful" cleaning sessions with it. Anyway, I would like to use this as a plotter so i can send my workhorse Summa T-750 back to Summa for service. I presently have the Summa running thru a modem port/serial cable and the Roland hooked up thru the Parallel/printer cable/port. The Summa plotter works fine thru the production manager but the Roland doesn't seem to "do anything", the poll size command doesn't work and yes, the setup menu in the production manager is set to Roland CJ-500/printer port. Any other settings like handshake/baud rates/whatever else i left those settings alone. Any suggestions or where to start? I wanted to get it communicating with the Roland first THEN figure out what hard parts i need to get the printer to work. And i'm not ready to convert it to solvent yet. I'd like to get it working like it was originally before i start a whole new set of problems. Last thing...does anyone know if you can hook one of these to a Mac G4 tower? Perhaps using a parallel/USB adapter and a later version of Flexi? Thanks in advance.
Tim

 

[artsnletters]

Nobody? How about is it possible to drive the CJ-500 with the Parallel/Usb adapter? Do the later versions of Flexi have the drivers for this. You may ask why i use the archaic versions of Flexi? Cause they work with nary a hiccup and i can make them do what i need them to do...i'm just sticking my toe in the water to see if i can justify the expense of getting this dinosaur printer up and running. If the later versions of Flexi Pro will work on Mac OSX and solve this then let me know some of your experiences with running OSX, then i'll have to step up and upgrade....

Right now, i have a great resource maybe a 1/2 mile away who treats me right on purchasing wholesale digital printing (on vinyl & banner material) who i use on a regular basis. I just wish to see if i can utilize this old printer to do stickers and the like for short term use on race cars to start. Any suggestions?
Tim

 

[FatCat]

I don't know the answers to your questions, but I know a fellow who would.

Contact Dave at Solvent Printer Conversions. He deals in all the old Rolands and how to convert them to eco solvent inks.

http://www.solventprinterconversion.com/

 

[sfr table hockey]

Not sure if this helps with your Mac but I have two (older printers FJ 42 and CJ 500) running with a usb to parallel. Both were set up with colorchoice 4.5 to start but in order to get profiles made and to work I needed flexi Production Manager. I also have both computers on XP.

Flexi will support these printers. I'm not sure if starting with colorchoice and installing drivers from that program has anything to do with it working right away with Flxei or not.

I also coverted the CJ over to solvet.

 

[artsnletters]

Not sure if this helps with your Mac but I have two (older printers FJ 42 and CJ 500) running with a usb to parallel. Both were set up with colorchoice 4.5 to start but in order to get profiles made and to work I needed flexi Production Manager. I also have both computers on XP.

Flexi will support these printers. I'm not sure if starting with colorchoice and installing drivers from that program has anything to do with it working right away with Flxei or not.

I also coverted the CJ over to solvet.

Thanks to both of you. I've been in e-mail contact with Dave at solventprinterconversions.com, i'm not sure i want to spend the dollars right out of the gate, i'd just like to get the computer=plotter connected and working. The person i got this plotter from didn't give me any software (ie Colorchoice)...i've searched the internet for it but havent been able to find it (for a mac). Lyle, what version of Flexi are you on?
Tim

 

[stinky12]

I too am running my CJ-500 from a usb to parallel. Using Signlab I had cutting issues when the cable was longer than 6 feet, when I got a 6 foot usb to parallel the erroneous cutting data was fixed and has worked fine since. I mention this cause it was a pain figuring this out and in case you get weird cutting lines from a cut job sent to the cj500.

 

[Andy Cricket]

SEH, a german company make a network printserver (fastpocket tx-105) that will convert over to parallel data on the printer. In flexi you can setup production manager, ports etc, there are no settings to worry about. profiles are an issue for the cj500, but i have a couple if necessary you could try.Flexi 6.6 will have the drivers and should drive the rolands no problem, the initial setup is not straight forward though.
Best wishes,
Andy