[time-nuts] OT: Need HP 7475A Drivers for XP or Linux

Sun Oct 21 18:23:37 EDT 2007

Thanks,

Got the archive successfully.  I thought I had done similar and failed but
it's here now and what a thrill to watch this old plotter draw each and
every character of a word pad document on the page.

I now know the following about what works and what does not:

the HPGL/2 driver listed in windows does not work at all, Don't even bother
trying with the 7475A

Winlink has pay drivers available and the orientation out of wordpad is
proper (They know the page is sideways and prints (draws) acordingly).  The
free download leaves a watermark on all drawings until registered.

The roland drivers work perfectly as well, with the exception of page
registration.  This is likely something that can be taken care of by
software settings.

.....

Now I just need pens and paper...(I have one offer for this, more sources
are welcome)

Thanks to all,

Eric

Eric

On 10/21/07, Joseph Gray <jgray at zianet.com> wrote:
>
> Until he fixes that URL, just paste the filename into the page URL after
> "Misc/". It worked for me.
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Eric Fort" <eric.fort at gmail.com>
> To: "Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement"
> <time-nuts at febo.com>
> 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 <jgd at johngsbbq.com> wrote:
> >>
> >> On Sat, 20 Oct 2007 18:57:27 -0700, "Eric Fort" <eric.fort at gmail.com>
> >> 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.
> >>
> >>
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