A 'blast from the past' Calcomp Pen plotter question

Ok, don't laugh. <g>
I was given a 12 year old Calcomp Designmate Pen Plotter by a company I used
to work for. I realize it's old technology but I just want to set it up at
home so I can generate some checkplots 'in house' (literally). I used to
use one a long time ago.

Is anyone familiar with this model?

I'm having a problem keeping it in 'Online' mode as it keeps returning an
Error (the error light slowly flashes). According to the manual, the type
of error (based on the speed of the error light flashing) is an Operating
problem error. Everthing seems to be ok...the pen turret is loaded properly
and the pens are in place correctly and everything else seems ok. What
happens is when turning the unit on, everything starts up ok, it goes
through it's motions but then when the pen carriage gets close to the pen
turret to grab a pen, the Error Light starts flashing.

Any ideas as to what could be wrong? tia for any help.

-jon rossen

 

In a previous post Jon Rossen says...

Jon:

I suggest you tie a line around this thing and tie the other end to your
boat and toss the sucker overboard.

Even if you do get it working and unless you plan on running plots every
single day, it will be nothing but a headache. Throw the thing away or
use it for a boat anchor.

 

Hi
I don't share the attitude that such a plotter is worth nothing, -- now
I still store a Calcomb 1042 , I would rather have a 1044 as that one
have tractor feed and do a whole 110 meter long drawing ---- nice
feature if what you need is full-scale work drawings, ontop an extra
Rompack make the 1042 into a Hp. workalike making you use it with
newest AutoCAD and any program that support Hpgl , --- now show me a
dot matrix that cover such arear, tell me what an alternative large
format printer will cover and what would it cost compared some of the
hardly used pen plotters that cost nothing, where transport are more
expensive than the giant itself -----. If you need long plots for some
reson, an old pen plotter could offer just that . Also trust your own
decisions, this is not about smartness or plotter trends but about what
you need ; here an old pen plotter could be just the right thing for
say a workshop , to produce works drawings ful-scale --- bet that the
final furniture or the final amature build aeroplane don't care a nut ,
if the works drawings are made with a noble pen plotter or an
overbooked printer.

-------- I don't know the designmate plotter, so I don't know if an
Rompack that make it a Hp clone exist , they do for the 104x serie
Calcomb plotters , still these range from double A0 to A0 wide intire
roll long drawings; you see data for vectors are easier to store than
all informations for each dot.

Anyway it's a little like starting up an old Semi-Diesel or maby rather
a steam engine ; unless you know your Com port guide inside out, know
the difference in protocols and know a way to slow down data, -------
well if you get one of these acturly work, you can consider yourself a
computer guru and ontop you have the most perfect thing to produce
noble pen drawings ( there are a great difference see ,plotters are not
just about producing heavily colored posters ) .

P.C.

 

<snip>

Thanks Clinton and Bob,

Heh...I sort of figured I'd get advice like Bob's...the only problem is I
don't have a boat. <g>

The suggestion about the fuse seems intriguing...I don't recall seeing that
mentioned in the manual. I don't thing the issue here has anything to do
with drivers as it occurs when I run the internal 'demo plot' feature and
unless I'm mistaken that doesn't have anything to do with I/O to/from the
computer. Sorry I didn't make that clear when I originally posted.

Also, the troubleshooting guide states that there are two types of errors
when the yellow light blinks; one is denoted by a series of short flashes,
the other is denoted by a series of long flashes. I'm getting long flashes
and that suggests operational problems which seems to be specific to issues
related to the hardware itself (e.g. pinch rollers not down, pen turret not
installed, etc--things like this). The short flashes represent
'communication' problems and I'm not getting this...this is the type of
error that seems driver, port, parity PCI, HPGL releated.....etc etc and as
I said, I'm not getting that.

thanks again,

jon rossen

 

In a previous post Jon Rossen says...

Jon:

I really didn't mean to be so negative, but I once had one of these
plotters and can tell you from first hand knowledge that even when they
work the way they are supposed to they don't work very well.

Thus, my "boat anchor" solution.

 

Hi Bob,

No problem... I appreciate an honest response even if it is negative.

Howvere, you have had a different experience than I have with this plotter;
I used it rather successfully for 1.5 years. Sure, the pens are a bother
but if you keep them clean, etc. the potential problems will be minimized.

The folks that gave me the plotter are the same folks that I worked for 12
years ago and this is the plotter we had in the office. I was the guy that
did most of the plotting. It's been awhile since I've used it reguarly so
I'm a bit rusty on the troubleshooting process...hence my posting.

-jon rossen

 

Just some guesses here, so take them for what they are worth;

- A contact switch that tells the plotter that the head is approaching
the turret is not working.

- There is friction as the head approaches the turret, and the plotter
is sensing the additional current the steppers are drawing.

 

<snip>

I figured it out!! It turns out there was a piece of the metal exterior
housing that was just slightly bent down so it was getting in the way of the
head being able to reach the turret. I bent it back up and everything works
fine now.

Bob, with all due respect, I think I am going to prove you wrong; this thing
is going to prove to be very useful for me. <G> I'm doing a rather
ambitious home remodeling project (replacing the foundation, numerious
floorplan and other structural changes, kitchen remodel with small addition,
bathroom remodel, and various cosmetic upgrades throughout the house. I now
have the ability to create full size arch sheets and checkplots without
having to go elsewhere and not having to spend the $$ to buy another
plotter. I used this model successfully 11.5 years ago and still think
these is no reason I can't repeat that.

-jon rossen

 

In a previous post Jon Rossen says...

Jon:

I wish you good luck. From my point of view I spent too much time
cleaning and filling pens to make it a really useful tool. Nothing like
having a large plot that takes over an hour with a pen plotter be ruined
because a pen ran out of ink about 5 minutes before the plot is
complete. Happened more than once.

 

Hi

" Nothing like
having a large plot that takes over an hour with a pen plotter be
ruined
because a pen ran out of ink about 5 minutes before the plot is
complete. Happened more than once. "

Now if I remember right, with CalComb the plotter keep an account of
how many feet the pen have been drawing. When as many feet been drawn
out as you type oin at the pen setup , the plotter changes pen to the
number pen you typed in ----- say black are pen one and four , you type
in that pen 1 must draw 200 feet and then change to pen 4.

--------- Now it is true that you realy must read the manual , have a
manual, and a source of pens. Guess over time that will be the real
problem with these old monuments, -- how to find decent pens, at a
resoanable price.
BTW. for a much simpler Graphtech A1 , I used for rather aketches, I
simply cut emtied the pen ,found cheap drawing pens that fitted into
the now emty pen and that way saved a lot of money , producing my own
pens from standard writing pens.

P.C.

 

I FOUND THIS LONG AGO BUT I DON'T REMEBER THE SOURCE

"Pen plotters can take longer to clear their buffers than other plotters, so
you may want to increase the port timeout setting to avoid receiving error
messages. For information on changing the parallel port timeout setting, see
Related Topics in win2000user manual."