Roland PNC 1100

[archerdesign]

Hi All! Im having a problem with my Roland PNC 1100...I know she's old school, but I have had her for over 20 years, and she still does everything I need her to do...until now! In the middle of cutting a graphic...the plotter stops, and I get this on my screen "Floating Point: Square Root of Negative Number" I have had this a few times before...and all I had to do, was copy and paste it in a new file and that seemed to do the trick. Now is not the case. I'd appreciate any advice. Thank you!

Dave
Sechelt, BC

 

[Mosh]

I have 2 pnc 1100 still running, I have found that newer computers seem to send the info TOO FAST and this messes them up. If fact I had to put the both back on window XP machines to keep them running. Not sure if this will help, but i had a similar problem, but not exact. Those ploters have like a 1MB or 4MB buffer, back in the day was huge, but now nothing at all.

 

[archerdesign]

Thanks for your reply, Mosh! Im actually running Windows 98! I got the unit in 96, and began with Windows 95, and "upgraded" to 98 But Im thinking that maybe the graphic is too large, and it is running out of memory. Thanks for your help!

 

[Mosh]

How big is the file, on an old OP like that I never had a problem. those plotters are AWESOME, like I said I have two that have outlasted at least 6 others, even newer Roldans.

 

[archerdesign]

Its only 123KB, so I didn't think that was too big to handle

 

[OldPaint]

have you ever taken the top cover off it? inside that is a ribbon wire that travels with the cutting head. i have replaced a couple. over time they get wore out or the connectors come loose. also check the pinch roller drop down handle. inside there is a small sensor, that tells the machine it has media between the rollers. it may not be making a full contact.

 

[archerdesign]

Thanks Old Paint...Im not sure if thats the problem or not...the only reason I say that is because after running the same cut several times, the plotter stops in the exact same spot everytime. The "Floating Tool" thing comes on the screen much before the plotter stops. But, it always stops at the exact same point and spot....very frustrating. Thanks for your input, Paint!

Dave

 

[round man]

you don't mention what program you are running the plotter with or what type of file it is..it may very well be as Mosh suggests...a spooling issue which will only be fixed with adjustments made in the program running the plotter....From the description you give it could very well be two points directly on top of each other in the file at the point it stops cutting,...the plotter is stupid and only understands x and y coordinates,..two points directly on top of each other would suggest a need for the plotter to understand a third "Z" axis which creates the error you describe,....this sometimes happens when the spooling program sends one part of the file and when sending so too fast the plotter misinterprets the end of one spool segement(stopping point) with the begining point of the following segement(starting point) which in theory would be the same point in the file