HP Pen Plotter

[Doug_P]

I have been given an old HP 7586b plotter. Is there a way to use it with Autocad 2009? I would like to know before I accept the offer, it's big and I need to move it about 15 miles.

[lpseifert]

See if you can get a driver from HP for your operating system.

[Doug_P]

I've tried to locate a driver from HP and there isn't one available. I'm running Windows XP pro. I was wondering if anyone has tried to run one of these older plotters on a newer computer.

[Rickard5]

I use the same Roland Plotter Driver on all my HP Pen Plotters and they work Flawlessly
I'm using the Roland DXY980 plotter Driver in win 2k, XP and Vista
I have a Draftmaster Pen Plotter at the shop
a 7475A and a 7470 here in my Home Studio
and I have a 7550 out in my home shop I use to plot templates and such
All of them work flawlessly with this driver! I'm also using Autocad 2002
I think the 7586B is an HPGLII Plotter so the stock windows HPGLII driver will work ! but some things to remember

1. Plotters are not printers, You are pretty much going to use it with Autocad or Illustrator only, they don't print Raster Graphics

2. HP Felt tip pens suck! It is worth the time and investment to buy some Rapidograph pens off epay to convert to plotter pens I can tell you how.

3. Hord every OLD DRIED up pen you can get your hands on thay are real useful for conversions, Like I build CHEEP CHEEP Balpoint pens for doing checkplots and for plotting pattrens

4. if you do go the Rapidograph pen rout you'll save a TON OF MONEY on ink, Cartridges for my HP DesignJet 600 cost me like $28 each but a bottle of Rapideograph Ink costs me $2.75 (Higgins T100) and with 00,0, and #1 pens a bottle will last though 2-3 rolls of paper

5. HP Serial Plotters REQUIRE a special Null Modem Cable
cables to go has one for $9

6. HP Serial Plotters like real Serial Ports, I've had real bad luck with the usb to serial stuff, but then it might be that I got the $9.99 special

I'd go and get the thing before I DO !!!!!!!

Ohh and one more thing Autocad will have a driver in the plotter wizzard! and it sucks so bad plots look like they were done on a dot matrix printer, and that driver beats the pens all to hell!

do me a favor if you decide not to get the plotter at least get me all the pens he has :)

[ReMark]

I will suggest not taking the plotter. Do you really want to be stuck using pens? Find a used/refurbished inkjet.

[Doug_P]

Rickard5,
Thanks for the info I'm going to try to find the driver from roland and see if I can get the plotter up and running. I know that there are only a couple of pens in the carosel.

Remark,
This plotter is free, I know that a inkjet is more versital than the old pen plotters. I just like the uniqueness of them and I'm a bit of a tinkerer. It will be fun to see if I can make it work.

[ReMark]

I thought most of the pens were sealed units. How does someone actually go about refilling them? We actually deep-sixed a Mutoh pen/pencil plotter because we could no longer get pens from the manufacturer and Mars-Staedtler discontinued making and selling similar type pens that would work in the plotter.

Funny how pen plotters would jump around the drawing as the media rolled back and forth compared to inkjet plotters were the drawings are just spit out in a straight line.

[Rickard5]

Thanks for the info I'm going to try to find the driver from roland and see if I can get the plotter up and running.

Doug the file name is d028220j.exe located here (http://dg4.roland.co.jp/en/cutting.html#dxy89) and go to Roland DGA and get their "Dr.Stika" app if you want to mess with cutting vinyl stickers (it's Free)
if you need a Cable check these guys (http://www.colordrives.com/6-feet-hp-plotter-laser-serial-printer-cable--db9-female-to-db25-male.html)out


I know that there are only a couple of pens in the carosel.
I'd keep ONE at least to have as a guide to the model pens it uses, You Probaly got lucky and they are the Taller style pens that give you more room for modding. I'll try to work up a brief how to on converting Koh-I-Noor Rapediograph pens for use with the HP Plotter pens . Remember epay is your friend I picked up a full set of Rapediograph pens for $20 and about 150 Felt tip pens for another $20 so now for a $40 upfront investment I can use $2.75 Bottles of ink that last twice as long as the $35 Cartriges in my Design Jet 600
and if you want to mess with cutting you can use a Roland type blade holder $45 off ebay NEW and Blades are out there for $10 for 4



This plotter is free,

Best Price !!! I paid $300 in shipping to get my Draft master E size plotter here from FLA


I know that a inkjet is more versital than the old pen plotters.

WRONG WRONG WRONG
1 can't cut vinyl Paint masks or stickers
2 can't get that wounderfull Pen and ink look in your drawings
3 can't use Illustration board
4 a roll of Vellum Costs a fortune and you'll waste 1/2 of it
5 Shinny object Factor, Pen Plotters are an exercize in Robotics Like an automated Drafting robot !

I could go on for pages


I just like the uniqueness of them and I'm a bit of a tinkerer. It will be fun to see if I can make it work.

That's the spirit :) Good to se some one else willing to tinker with something instead of being spoon feed


I thought most of the pens were sealed units. How does someone actually go about refilling them?

Where there's will there's a dumb redneck that don't know you can't refill them


We actually deep-sixed a Mutoh pen/pencil plotter because we could no longer get pens from the manufacturer

You're KILLING ME. I'd love to have a Mutoh Plotter

Pens are easy if you can't buy them MAKE THEM


Mars-Staedtler discontinued making and selling similar type pens that would work in the plotter.

epay


Funny how pen plotters would jump around the drawing as the media rolled back and forth compared to inkjet plotters were the drawings are just spit out in a straight line.

Shinny Object Factor , that's what makes them soo kool :)

[Doug_P]

Here's 9 and I've got 1 more before I can add a signature.

[Doug_P]

Rickard5, I couldn't agree with you more. I think that the pen plotters are very cool. What I meant about ink jet plotters was the ability to print photos, color logos and such.

Some years ago I stood in an engineers office watching the pen plotter doing it's drawing and was amazed. We have a graphtec plotter at work for doing vinyl and it works on the same principal.

I also found the driver you sent me the link for and there is a cable place close to our house. http://toplinecables.com/ They are a little more expensive than the link you sent.

Thanks so much for all your help. Doug

[Rickard5]

Thank you for saving a wonderful old plotter from the scrap heap :) PM me any time if you need help :)

[Fibonacci]

Rickard, you comment that the HP needs a special null model cable? Do you know how this is different from a normal null modem cable?

I rescued a 7856B from the garbage at work and am looking to be able to use it as both a pen plotter and a vinyl cutter. I have A null modem cable, but am concerned about whether or not it will work.

As I can't send PMs, can you give me some pointers on converting this?

I got Dr.Stika and have started messing with it. Cool program.

I would appreciate any advice you might have. I remember using plotters back in highschool and being fascinated with them. In the last few years, I have wished that I had one for doing arcade projects, and now I am really excited to get one.

[Rickard5]

Fibonacci (http://www.cadtutor.net/forum/member.php?u=17395)

This Guy's site (http://www.luberth.com/help/pen_plotter_vinyl_cutter_swivel_knive_drag.html) is a great resource for conversion information :)

you can find the cable pin out for the Serial Cables here (http://www.luberth.com/help/hp_plotter_serial_cable_pinouts.html)

and this guy (http://www.topmic.com/02817.html) has the best deal on pre made cables

You might check out this thread (http://forums.windrivers.com/vb/showthread.php?p=55077) about using Roland Drivers (http://dg4.roland.co.jp/en/cutting.html#dxy89)too. Hp never offered a driver for win2k, xp, or Vista for HPGL Plotters but I use the Roland DXY990 Drive flawlessly!!! it's availsbe from Roland as a free download (http://dg4.roland.co.jp/en/cutting.html#dxy89) :) also the Roland Driver (http://dg4.roland.co.jp/en/cutting.html#dxy89) smooths out the plotting which is better for Cutting vinyl straight from Acad :) I always cut straight from Acad so I always get correct sizeing for Paint Masks! and one last thing get some teflon Knife protection strips from like signwearhouse.com you'll savwe blades and not ruin the machine for paper plotting :) What kind of arcae projects do you do? I'm jonesing to do another MAME Cabinet :)

[Fibonacci]

Thanks! Of course HP would use a non-standard cable.

It looks like that has all the info I could possibly need.

Thank you for the help, I appreciate it.

I have built a couple mame machines, but I mostly restore and rebuild older (early 80s-mid 90s) games. I also rebuild pinball machines and am in the process of building one from scratch.

[Jack_O'neill]

Thank you for saving a wonderful old plotter from the scrap heap :) PM me any time if you need help :)

How about helping me save an Ioline LP-4000? It still works very well, or I should say, it does it's test plot very well. It was working when it was taken out of service many years ago. Has been sitting in my back closet for some time. I dragged it out about a year ago and it powered right up and again, did a beautiful test plot. I can't get Autocad07 to recognize it. I've used every old plotter driver I can find. Some of them makes Acad think there's some sort of plotter there, but it just won't plot. It may be the cable, I made one from plans I found on the internet, but I'm not sure the plans were correct.

Any ideas?

[Rickard5]

How about helping me save an Ioline LP-4000? It still works very well, or I should say, it does it's test plot very well. It was working when it was taken out of service many years ago. Has been sitting in my back closet for some time. I dragged it out about a year ago and it powered right up and again, did a beautiful test plot. I can't get Autocad07 to recognize it. I've used every old plotter driver I can find. Some of them makes Acad think there's some sort of plotter there, but it just won't plot. It may be the cable, I made one from plans I found on the internet, but I'm not sure the plans were correct.

Any ideas?

DANG IT That ain't no Plotter, it's a cutter for cutting RUBYLITH ! I guess you could plot on paper with it, but that's kinda like Planting a Flower with a Sledge Hammer :( Seriously the IOlines are the Cadillac oof cutters so you got you s nice mochine there, I'd try the same HPGL1 Drivers and see if they work.

[Jack_O'neill]

DANG IT That ain't no Plotter, it's a cutter for cutting RUBYLITH ! I guess you could plot on paper with it, but that's kinda like Planting a Flower with a Sledge Hammer :( Seriously the IOlines are the Cadillac oof cutters so you got you s nice mochine there, I'd try the same HPGL1 Drivers and see if they work.

This one has never been used for anything but paper and vellum drawings, and it's plotted literally thousands of them. The company I worked for at the time bought it new in 1986 or 87, and it ran all day every day until I replaced it with a Designjet 600 in 1998 or 99 (I think, can't remember). I've even got two 8 slot pen carriages for it!

I've tried all the drivers on the autocad disk, and every new one i could find on the web. Some of them make the computer think there's a device there, but I just can't get it to talk to it.

I did run across a product called Winline that according to their website supports a variety of devices. Anybody reading this have any experience with them? Not a bad price for the software if it does all they say it does.

[K6KFH]

Jack O'Neal
Greetings,
I've been spending several weeks sucessfully getting a WinXp/ACAD2000/HP plotter system going. In my search for drivers I found a Winline CD that I bought for use with a Calcomp plotter and I no longer have need for it as I bought an HP plotter instead. It does have a driver for the IOLine LP4000. All their drivers work on Win 95, 98, Me,NT4, 2000, XP and they say higher but I don't know about Vista. It supports many other plotters as well. I also ended up with the CPGL Rom cartridge for CalComp (Ver. 4.02) that Winline works with in all the versions of Windows listed above. I have no use for that either. If you or anyone else is interested in either of these make me an offer.

Thanks,
Art

[GeorgeAlbert]

Hi Rickard, I'm a young Electrical & Electronic Engineer looking forward buying an old HP pen plotter, in fact it's a 7440A ¿any better suggestion? I'd like it to draw electronic circuits directly to copper clads instead of printing them on transfer sheets and ironing them.

The software I use for circuit design has the ability to export my designs in this formats: .EMF Metafile, .DXF, .EPS, and .HGL.

I'm a bit familiar with AutoCAD but haven't used it since a while and don't have it right now. Will any version work well on WinXP with the DXY980 driver you spoke of?

By the way, I need a USB to RS232 cable right? Is it ok if I get one with DB9 but has a DB25 adapter?

I will really appreciate your advice.

Best Regards!
George A.

[Rickard5]

By the way, I need a USB to RS232 cable right? Is it ok if I get one with DB9 but has a DB25 adapter?

I will really appreciate your advice.

Best Regards!
George A.
Hi George
Sorry it took me a few days to get back to you. But I'm a huge fan of using the 7470A Plotter if you can get one, they go for less anyway because they are a 2 pen plotter.The 7440 will work, Just bigger cost more to ship The modding potential is much higher. and I've done what you describe etching Model parts. the Key thing is you'll have to make your own Sharpie pens to use as a resist! and you'll have to get an HP Null Modem serial cable. these are kinda special serial cables and for $6 you can get one 9 to 25 pin! and they DXY driver works with any version of autocadd or autosketch :)! GOOD Luck you might be able to plot directly from you auto router, I know you can out of SPICE

[GeorgeAlbert]

Thankyou very much for the info Rickard. I see you're familiar with etching stuff, so I'd like to ask you for more advice if possible. I can afford one of both 7475A and 7440A you said, but I'm concerned about precision and resolution, which you know are very important for components to fit, specially for thin routes.

By the way, do you think I should make any mechanical adjustment for the paper tray so the copper clads wont get stuck with the moving pen or something else? Regarding these issues, I thought and found two XY plotters, an HP 7225A and a Houston Instrument DMP-29, but I don't neither how precise they are nor if they'll work with a Roland driver, do you know? Thanks anyway!

Best regards,
George A.

[Rickard5]

George
The 7440 and the 7475 don't have paper trays and shouldn't need any adjustments depending on the thickness of the PCB, I know I can load .025 pretty easy:) and stay away from the Houston Instruments, They are JUNK there, main value is to scavenge the Contoller and Servos for a CNC project :)

[GeorgeAlbert]

Hi Rickard, thanks for preventing me on the H.I., I also had an eye on a Roland DXY-1150, but I'll take your word on the HP's, besides, they're fair in price for starting this plot adventure far from buying those small lab plotters that mill and drill your copper clads into pcb's at once which are near $20,000!

Thanks a lot once more & see you around!

[Rickard5]

Hi Rickard, thanks for preventing me on the H.I., I also had an eye on a Roland DXY-1150, but I'll take your word on the HP's, besides, they're fair in price for starting this plot adventure far from buying those small lab plotters that mill and drill your copper clads into pcb's at once which are near $20,000!

Thanks a lot once more & see you around!
George Depending on how Adventurous There are lots of Self Design and Self Build CNC information out there, I picked up a 3 axis Stepper motor Controller for my Mill for like $200, and useing Steppers out of old 5.25 Floppies I was able to cobble up everything for $250-$300. You might look at http://www.cnczone.com/ there are some interesting Wood CNC Mill/Drills Out There, Where my Mistake was, Was using Delrin Instead of Machining Alu, But I've seen Wood Frame Ones that worked Real well. I mean for PCBs you son't need the kind of Accurcy I was hoping for for the junk I do :) Now that being Said the roland is a Great plotter :)

[Rickard5]

Ohh George:
I ment to ask does Mexico Have 110 60~ electricity like the US? Just Curious, as deals pop up every now and again for CNC Drill conversions.

[Fibonacci]

2. HP Felt tip pens suck! It is worth the time and investment to buy some Rapidograph pens off epay to convert to plotter pens I can tell you how.


I have been hunting around trying to find this info on my own and failing miserably. Any chance you are still willing to tell us how to do this? I built a felt tip pen from an old marker, but it still fairly sporadic. It would be great to have some decent pens.

Also, it looks like the roland XD-CH2 blade holder is about the same dimensions as the standard HP pens. Anyone happen to know if they are directly compatible?

Thanks!

[Rickard5]

.....Also, it looks like the roland XD-CH2 blade holder is about the same dimensions as the standard HP pens. Anyone happen to know if they are directly compatible?

Thanks!
Yes and NO, the Blade holder is a bit taller and my require some cuting of the plotter Case / Covers for clearance
I'll post some pics as soon as I can about the conversion to make Repidograph Pens from old HP plotter pens

[Fibonacci]

Yes and NO, the Blade holder is a bit taller and my require some cuting of the plotter Case / Covers for clearance
I'll post some pics as soon as I can about the conversion to make Repidograph Pens from old HP plotter pens

Thanks!

As far as the blade holder is concerned, it will work, but require some fiddling?

[Rickard5]

Thanks!

As far as the blade holder is concerned, it will work, but require some fiddling?
Ohh Yes the Blade Holders will fit the Pen Holders Fine, you may just have to fiddle with the plotter's case

[casella]

I've tried to locate a driver from HP and there isn't one available. I'm running Windows XP pro. I was wondering if anyone has tried to run one of these older plotters on a newer computer.


***you'll find it here

www.plotterdriver.it

[kindergartenchats]

I use the same Roland Plotter Driver on all my HP Pen Plotters and they work Flawlessly
I'm using the Roland DXY980 plotter Driver in win 2k, XP and Vista
I have a Draftmaster Pen Plotter at the shop
a 7475A and a 7470 here in my Home Studio
and I have a 7550 out in my home shop I use to plot templates and such
All of them work flawlessly with this driver! I'm also using Autocad 2002
I think the 7586B is an HPGLII Plotter so the stock windows HPGLII driver will work ! but some things to remember

Hi Rickard5, I know this is an old post but I was wondering - could ask you a couple questions regarding pen plotters? I am interested in using an HP7475A pen plotter with Autocad 2006 & Windows XP. Would you happen to know if the Roland driver you mention will work with this software? Also, do you know what model of pen the 7475A uses - and do you have any additional info on how to make a refillable pen for this plotter? Many thanks!

[Gabriel]

I'v got a tonne of those mars staedlter discontinued pen so if you still wants plotter pen contact me at cv@mpphoto.com or 514-861-8541 extension 2244

Gabriel Borduas

[hansatle]

I am new user of this forum, and wonder if someone has experiens how I get my old plotter to work with Autocad 2006. I have the driver for the plotter.
Looking forward to get help.
Best regards
Hans
from the coold scandinawien.:)

[casella]

***hallo Hans.
it's not very clear what you are looking for.
can you explain better?

www.plotterdriver.it

[hansatle]

I tried to get my penplotter Graphtec GP9101 to work with Autocad2006.

[kindergartenchats]

I tried to get my penplotter Graphtec GP9101 to work with Autocad2006.

Not the best news – but I after many hours of fiddling - I wasn't able to get my HP7475A pen plotter to work with Autocad 2006 - running on Windows XP.

I tried just about every driver out there (including the Roland diver) along with using the requisite HP Null Modem Cable.

The plotter would start-up, shake the pens and then start its run but it would then stop in the middle of the plot - even with the simplest of drawings (like a circle inside a square) and no text.

I hope you have better luck!

[ReMark]

And you are surprised because?

When was this plotter manufactured? Wasn't that somewhere around 1984 or 1985? Seems I recall using one at an engineering office I worked at. 6 pen carousel right?

Lets see, 1984 that predates MS Windows by about 6 years. That means we're talking the good old MS DOS days. Versions 2.11, 3.0 and 3.1 all came out in 1984.

I think you got your money's worth out of the plotter. Time to upgrade don't you think? We now have laser and inkjet plotters.

[kindergartenchats]

And you are surprised because?

When was this plotter manufactured? Wasn't that somewhere around 1984 or 1985? Seems I recall using one at an engineering office I worked at. 6 pen carousel right?

Lets see, 1984 that predates MS Windows by about 6 years. That means we're talking the good old MS DOS days. Versions 2.11, 3.0 and 3.1 all came out in 1984.

I think you got your money's worth out of the plotter. Time to upgrade don't you think? We now have laser and inkjet plotters.


Not so much surprised as disappointed. This was an experiment based on reading that other owners have gotten them to work.

We use an HP Designjet for our large format plotting.

The pen plotter was more an idea of creating technical pen on mylar presentation drawings - the quality of this type of plot can't be matched by an inkjet or laser printer.

[ReMark]

Time to dust off the old drafting board then along with your set of Koh-i-noor technical pens.

The technology was meant to be obsolete within five years. Be grateful you got it to last as long as you did. Companies like Microsoft, HP and AutoDesk don't expect versions of their products to last or to be used as long as such things as cars, TVs and washing machines. Even the timelines for "support" have been shortened.

What did that plotter cost new anyway?

We have a HP DesignJet 500 we bought new in 2002 for $2590 that we keep hoping will last another three years. HP will sell us parts but the prices are through the roof. Replace two major parts and we might as well buy a brand new plotter!

[hansatle]

Hi. I have heard that it will be ok with autocad 2000. Why should I buy a new??? The plotter is ok. It is the software the problem are.
I try further.
Hans

[Coosbaylumber]

Unless you have a Autocad version R-14 or earlier, the text ought to be junk. I have used a H-P 7585B but get error mesages when work was done on a more recent edition of Autocad. If all work was done on via R-14 is will go w/o complaint.

At another forum it warned NOT to mix up or call up any raster type fonts (Like a TrueType one) or it will satay and stay inside the computer memory and thus not be able to print out.

And yes, you do need the special cable for the plotter or nothing will come out. If shown in your hand book as how to wire or make one, then do it that way. My plotter uses straight through wires (like many other than H-P do) and I can get a used cable for $1 each of about 15 feet long at the swapmeets.

Like Mark mentioned, you may be too new for the pen type of plotter.
And do not think that Winline driers will automaticaly work. This plotter only understands going from a DOS level. You also need to change your Autoexec.bat file some.

Wm.

[casella]

Unless you have a Autocad version R-14 or earlier, the text ought to be junk. I have used a H-P 7585B but get error mesages when work was done on a more recent edition of Autocad. If all work was done on via R-14 is will go w/o complaint.

At another forum it warned NOT to mix up or call up any raster type fonts (Like a TrueType one) or it will satay and stay inside the computer memory and thus not be able to print out.

And yes, you do need the special cable for the plotter or nothing will come out. If shown in your hand book as how to wire or make one, then do it that way. My plotter uses straight through wires (like many other than H-P do) and I can get a used cable for $1 each of about 15 feet long at the swapmeets.

Like Mark mentioned, you may be too new for the pen type of plotter.
And do not think that Winline driers will automaticaly work. This plotter only understands going from a DOS level. You also need to change your Autoexec.bat file some.
Wm.

***Winline will work with ALL HP pen plotters and with good results with TTFonts.
WYSIWYG TrueType Font Support

Renders any Windows TrueType font on all supported devices
Selection of outlines, fills, both or eitherBut first of all you need a correct cable
Get the right cable for your output device. Your WinLINE help shows you cabling diagrams for Hewlett Packard and other manufacturers.
Find out your plotter's DIP switch or front panel settings for serial communications, or set them to a known configuration such as:


9600 baud, no parity, 8 data bits, 1 stop bit



www dot plotterdriver dot it

[Coosbaylumber]

They may say such in their advertisements, but I have telephoned the folks at WinLine directly downunder, and they tell me it is not always possible to get a repro sent to the plotter. First blame was via.... then, via.....

Wm.

[Qmelon]

I realise this is a old thread, but just in case:
Does anyone have any experience with modifing rapidograph pens to work in HP 7550 plotters. I have thought of a few ways but each has it's downsides, just wondered if anyone has a good solution.

[casella]

I realise this is a old thread, but just in case:
Does anyone have any experience with modifing rapidograph pens to work in HP 7550 plotters. I have thought of a few ways but each has it's downsides, just wondered if anyone has a good solution.

***We can provide specific china ink plotter pens for your plotter HP 7550.
If it is what you are looking for.


www dot plotterdriver dot it
>>>plotter pens

[Coosbaylumber]

Way back when on my older Calcomp 965 plotter, I think it was Fisher Pen Co. that used to make the pressurized ball points, so that it can run at the high speeds, instead of the slower 48 IPS. I found one firm in SE Los Angeles who had the BP pens, and bought every single one they had. After that, had to order them via some business down-under in Austrailia.

These were not a part of any Asian firms manufacture, so you need to look outside the bun here. If you can find ones that do not need any alterations, order them.


Wm.

[cbrunschen]

2. HP Felt tip pens suck! It is worth the time and investment to buy some Rapidograph pens off epay to convert to plotter pens I can tell you how.

Apologies for resurrecting an old thread which I just stumbled upon - but if at all possible, I'd love to know how to best convert Rapidograph pens to plotter use.

Best wishes,

// Christian

[bigcarpchaser]

I remember our first plotter with fondness....we used to stand there fascinated for ages watching it, until it broke a 0.25 pen halfway through a 3 hour plot :lol:
Happy days :(

[J-man]

I followed Rickard5's suggestions, and I now have an HP 7475 running from Windows XP. Works perfectly, and is retro-tastic. Thanks for all the help.