); SAEximRunCond expanded to false Errors-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] RETRY Until he fixes that URL, just paste the filename into the page URL after "Misc/". It worked for me.
----- Original Message ----- From: "Eric Fort" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement" <[email protected]> Sent: Sunday, October 21, 2007 3:41 AM Subject: Re: [time-nuts] OT: Need HP 7475A Drivers for XP or Linux >I really appreciate the Detailed reply, Thanks. Your web page has an error > though that prevents downloading the roland drivers. the link to them is > file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/neonjohn/My%20Documents/My%20Webs/Neon_John/Neon/Misc/Roland_RWD- > 028.zip > > since I'm not on your local machine I have no access to files on your C: > drive, atleast referenced this way. Could the link be updated or could > you > just email the drivers. > > Thanks, > > I'll let you know how it goes. > > Eric > > On 10/20/07, Neon John <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >> >> On Sat, 20 Oct 2007 18:57:27 -0700, "Eric Fort" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >> wrote: >> >> >There seems to be a wealth of knowlege here about keeping older HP >> hardware >> >running. Would anyone in this group have experience using a 7475A >> plotter >> >under XP or Linux to plot test data or drawings. I'd like to get mine >> >running again. >> >> No problem. I use an E-size HP engineering plotter to make neon patterns >> and to plot >> schematics. I have it working quite well under XP. >> >> These old plotters are HPGL or HPGL-1 - same thing. They are NOT >> compatible with >> HPGL-2. An additional complication that arises with some software >> packages is that >> there are two common implementations of HPGL. The HP standard one has >> the >> origin at >> the corner of the paper and all movement instructions are positive >> intergers. The >> other one has the origin in the center of the page and movement >> instructions involve >> positive and negative intergers. They are not compatible. If you get a >> plot but >> it's only about a quarter of the drawing then the driver is outputting a >> center-zero >> file to a corner-zero plotter. >> >> Microsoft dropped HPGL support, what little there was, from XP. No >> problem. Sign >> vinyl cutters almost all use HPGL and are still in >> production. Unfortunately many >> use center-page-origin HPGL. Fortunately Roland does not. Therefore >> Roland drivers >> will work with HP plotters. >> >> Unfortunately, Roland apparently has taken down their windows plotter >> drivers. >> Fortunately I haven't :-) You can get the drivers from my site here: >> >> http://www.neon-john.com/Neon/Misc/misc_home.htm >> >> Bottom of the page. ( a google click or two would be appreciated :-) >> You'll have to >> experiment a bit to find out which Roland plotter most closely >> approximates your >> plotter. >> >> This is a universal solution that will let just about any program send >> vector images >> to the plotter via windows printing. Just for kicks sometime, print a >> text file from >> WordPad and watch what happens. The plotter carefully draws each and >> every letter. >> >> If, for some reason, this doesn't work, there is another method that I >> use >> with >> CorelDraw and any other package that can export the drawing in HPGL >> format. >> >> Simply choose "export", select "HPGL" and select a place to store the >> file. Then use >> Hyperterm or any other terminal package capable of sending out an ASCII >> file and copy >> the HPGL file to the COM port that the plotter is connected to. This >> will >> be generic >> HPGL and won't have any plotter setup info in it. OTOH, usually none is >> needed. >> >> My HP plotter and/or Hyperterm (can't remember which is the culprit) does >> NOT use >> Xon/Xoff handshaking. Therefore hardware handshaking MUST be enabled and >> wired in >> the interface. Additionally, several pins must be jumpered together to >> make things >> work. When you get that far, drop me a note and I'll go dig out my >> adapter and give >> you the wiring. This handshaking requirement applies to the XP drivers >> too. >> >> A few notes about using a pen plotter with Windows and Corel in >> particular. Set ALL >> lines to "hairline". Use the ^A key to "select all" and then set the >> line >> width to >> "hairline". The reason is that Corel and/or the driver is so dumb that >> instead of >> making a wide line by making several long strokes with the pen offset a >> little each >> time, it scribbles it in like a first grader coloring. That is, if the >> line is to be >> 24 points wide, the pin is driven to scribble back and forth on 24 point >> strokes. It >> draws effectively about an inch a minute like that, if it doesn't wear a >> hole in the >> paper. >> >> Set your actual line widths by using various width pens. Set, say, a 4 >> point wide >> line to pen 1, an 8 point line to pen 2, etc. >> >> Also, convert all the colors to black. For some reason the translation >> from color to >> pen number doesn't work too well. If you need the output to be in color >> then move >> each color in the drawing to a different layer and then assign the >> appropriate pen to >> each layer. >> >> Sometimes text comes out looking better if you "convert to curves" before >> plotting. >> >> Rots o Ruck finding pens. They're available but hard to find and very >> expensive. I'm >> fortunate to have acquired several Rapidograph drafting pen to HP pen >> adapters so >> that I can use india ink to draw with. India ink on mylar is still THE >> kick-ass way >> to make PCB masks if you don't have a photo-plotter handy. I bought out >> the entire >> remaining stock so there are no more anywhere in the country according to >> the >> factory. >> >> When I don't feel like messing with liquid ink, I use felt tip pens. >> I've >> hacked up >> an HP pen to accept a shortened ordinary writing felt tip. I've also >> tried roller >> ball and gel pens. Both work but the plotting speed has to be kept down >> to 1" per >> second. >> >> BTW, I found this painful-to-retrieve programming manual for your plotter >> while >> googling around. >> >> >> http://www.luberth.com/help/HP_7475_Graphics_Plotter_interfacing_and_programming_manual/ >> >> BTW2, Several years ago I experimented with photo-plotting by making up a >> pen adapter >> that held an optical fiber instead of a pen. I tapped the pen up/down >> solenoid to >> turn the light source on and off. Plotting in a dark room directly to >> film worked >> fairly well. Now that green laser modules are available so cheaply, I'm >> going to >> revisit the concept, only this time with the module mounted directly in a >> pen body. >> >> So as not to waste so much film on my fixed-width plotter, I'd set up an >> E-size page >> in Corel. I draw a box in the center of the page the size of the film. >> to >> be used. I >> plot this to a carrier sheet of mylar in the plotter using a pencil >> mounted in a pen >> body. This lets me erase the lines later and reuse the mylar. >> >> In Corel, I then turn on the layer with the PCB artwork, tape the film to >> the square >> on the paper and plot only the artwork layer. Works great. I use this >> same >> technique when plotting to mylar so as not to waste a large sheet on >> small >> artwork. >> Adhering the film to the mylar with 3M spray adhesive greatly improves >> the >> dimensional accuracy. >> John >> -- >> John De Armond >> See my website for my current email address >> http://www.neon-john.com >> http://www.johndearmond.com <-- best little blog on the net! >> Tellico Plains, Occupied TN >> Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms should be a convenience store, not a >> government agency. >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> time-nuts mailing list -- [email protected] >> To unsubscribe, go to >> https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts >> and follow the instructions there. >> > _______________________________________________ > time-nuts mailing list -- [email protected] > To unsubscribe, go to > https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts > and follow the instructions there. > _______________________________________________ time-nuts mailing list -- [email protected] To unsubscribe, go to https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts and follow the instructions there.
