I had an interesting customer this week. He had purchased a 755cm HP Designjet from me a couple years ago. He's only called me twice needing help with the machine. He called two days ago saying that the LCD lights on his front panel no longer worked after he moved the plotter from a commercial space to his home. It was fine before the move but died when they first plugged it in at the new spot. "We only moved it three miles and we kept it vertical and it didn't get dropped."

I said he should bring it by my workshop and I'd pop another front panel into the machine. He did. I did. It worked great. We were both quite pleased. I reminded him that plotters should always be plugged into a true surge protector and then they should be left on...as they really don't suck much power and turning them on and off is actually harder on the old electronics than just leaving them on.

An hour later he called to say he'd gotten it home, plugged it in and there was even a little spark as he plugged it directly into the wall outlet...he'd buy a surge protector tomorrow...

You might have seen this one coming. He burned up the replaced front panel. Obviously he has some electrical problem with that outlet. A surge protector would have saved him time and money -- a lot of each. He assured me that he'd always left his plotter on since he bought it from me, but the surge protector message had been missed. 

Lucky for him, I have one more panel I can sell to him.

Last week was a very hot and muggy week here in Minnesota...I had two plotters in my showroom plugged into an outlet without a surge protector...I know, I know...I tell everyone to use one all the time!! Well there was a power surge and POOF!
Both machines lost their LED displays at the same time. It was my fault...lucky that I had spare parts and was able to replace and that was all that was harmed! I will never ever go without a surge protector again!! 

Here's a great video that shows you how to load a roll of paper and then "align" the paper. 
YOUTUBE VIDEO
The alignment is to make sure the paper is square in the plotter...and the sensors will check when you are done aligning to make sure you did it right, if you didn't it will keep kicking the out the paper load. The only other thing that can affect this is the edge detection from the same sensor...if you get an edge detection error, the light that shines red or green on the black rubber roller is probably dirty and you can reach under and clean it with a cotton swab soaked in rubbing alcohol...do this while the machine is turned off.

From the manual -- how to use the SETUP function on the 488ca, 430 or 450c. What it doesn't mention is that you use a 8.5 by 11 inch -- letter size -- paper to print the setup sheet. With the setup sheet you can change the ink drying time, the color settings to monochrome, and many other things!

I'm often asked what type of cable does one buy to connect their old HP Plotter to a computer that doesn't have a parallel port. For those of you who remember, the parallel port is the 32 pin connection that was used (in the olden days) on all printers and a big fat gray cable connected the printer to the computer. 

Today you need to use the USB to Parallel Cable like the one pictured at the left. When searching for this cable look for "Bidirectional USB to Parallel Printer Cable."  The best idea is to buy a new one, unless you already have one that is proven to work.  USBs are tricky little things and there is nothing more frustrating than trying to get a driver loaded and thinking that you've done something wrong when it won't work and doing it over and over...only to later realize it is the USB cable that is bad! If the cable you are using doesn't specify "BI-DIRECTIONAL" it is probably not going to work right and yet it will appear that it is working. 

So, don't be cheap...go and buy a new one! You can buy it online for about $19. But remember, if it doesn't say Bi-Directional in the details on the packaging or product info, it is NOT the cord or cable that you want!

I'm often asked what's the difference between one plotter and another...here's a great chart by HP showing you the differences between the 400 series and the 700 series of Designjets.

If you don't have a computer with a parallel port you'll need to get a USB to Parallel cable at your local computer supply store. The next problem you will run into while trying to load the driver if you are using Windows 7 is that you'll choose the wrong port and nothing will work...because you will click on the LPT1 port when instead you should choose the USB port that I show in the photo above. Most USB outlets are not mapped, so choose the first one and if that one doesn't work, remove the driver and load it again, this time using the second or third USB port.
One more thing: DON'T choose to print a test page when you are done installing your driver...these are often bad and don't work and will clog up the print queue. Instead, just send any small file...a Word document, an email, anything...it should connect and print via your plotter.

One of the most common questions I'm asked is whether these old Designjets can be used with Windows 7.  It seems that people can't find the driver and get all freaked out thinking that there is no driver. HP doesn't list a driver, so what should you do?
Good News - The driver already is loaded in Windows 7! But it is hidden, so you'll have to find it. On your computer go to START, DEVICES AND PRINTERS, ADD A PRINTER, ADD A LOCAL PRINTER, CHOOSE A PORT (LPT1 if you are connecting through a parallel printer cable and VIRTUAL USB if you are connecting through a USB to Parallel cable.)

Now you'll be presented with the list of printer companies, choose HP -- In the box to the right side is a list of all the HP printers...Here's the hitch...the Designjets are NOT listed in alphabetical order, instead they were added as an afterthought and are on the very bottom of the listings. So scroll to the bottom and you'll see the driver you need.

If you get a warning about the driver not being "digitally signed" ignore it and install the driver...it came from HP so it is ok!

TAA-DAA!!

It seems like that old standard pl532en driver is all purpose and works for most machines that are running Windows XP -- but I've recently been asked which plotters does it actually work on? Here's the list:

HP DesignJet ColorPro CAD 

HP DesignJet 3500CP

HP DesignJet 3000CP

HP DesignJet 2500CP 

HP DesignJet 2000CP 

HP DesignJet 750C+ (E/A0) 

HP DesignJet 750C+ (D/A1)

HP DesignJet 755CM(C3198B)

HP DesignJet 700 (E/A0) 

HP DesignJet 700 (D/A1)

HP DesignJet 488CA (E/A0)

HP DesignJet 488CA (D/A1) 

HP DesignJet 455CA (E/A0) 

HP DesignJet 455CA (D/A1) 

HP DesignJet 450C (E/A0) 

HP DesignJet 450C (D/A1)

HP DesignJet 750C (E/A0) 

HP DesignJet 750C (D/A1)

HP DesignJet 755CM(C3198A)
 HP DesignJet 350C (E/A0)

HP DesignJet 350C (D/A1) 
HP DesignJet 330 (E/A0) 
HP DesignJet 330 (D/A1) 

HP DesignJet 650C(C2859B) 
HP DesignJet 650C(C2858B) 

HP DesignJet 650C(C2859A) 

HP DesignJet 650C(C2858A) 

HP DesignJet 600 (E/A0)

HP DesignJet 600 (D/A1)

HP DesignJet 250C (E/A0) 

HP DesignJet 250C (D/A1) 

HP DesignJet 200 (E/A0) 

HP DesignJet 200 (D/A1)
 HP DesignJet 220 (E/A0)
 HP DesignJet 220 (D/A1) 
HP DesignJet 230 (E/A0) 

HP DesignJet 230 (D/A1) 

Read more: pl532en.exe
- CNET Download.com http://download.cnet.com/pl532en-exe/3000-2116_4-182077.html#ixzz2PvebGlrg