Kurt Ofer

Our trusty HP230 needs repair. Our dealer (both HP and Canon) is recommending Canon IPF 700. With trade in rebate on our old plotter (believe it or not, they would give us $1000 for it), it would be only about $3000. HP will be twice that much. From posts herein and elsewhere, seems that folks are happy with their Canon IPF plotters. Anybody care to share any latest thoughts? We would be using it first with VW 10 on our G4s (I know, we're real cheapskates) with near term goal of upgrade to 12. Thanks. Kurt.

We are considering purchase of new Intel Core 2 Duo Mac. We're still using trustworthy VW 10. Will these work together? Also, do the Intel Macs still support Gimp Print (we're still using our HP 230 plotter).

This is a positive note. I just upgraded to Tiger. And we still are using our old, old 230; hey, don't laugh, it just won't quit. After the install, I couldn't get VW to plot using Gimp 4.2.6. So I changed the Gimp to 5.0.0beta from the Printer List window (I guess this came with Tiger?) and voila',it plots perfectly! Someone on this forum already said this, but isn't it cool that a plotter that is, what, 10 years old, is still supported by the OS. I also think it is cool that something that is 10 years old continues to work basically flawlessly. Kurt.

Peter. Thanks for your reply. I was still having trouble so I downloaded the latest GimPrint driver, 4.2.6, and I still can't get the fills to plot on the 230. If you could be so kind as to tell me exactly the settings you use to plot, say the fill of a rectangle that is the third down in the first column of fills (or what is listed in the box as a "pattern") that would be really helpful. If you don't mind. Kurt

Peter. Li'll 'ole VW user me part of the "team" that reports a VW bug? Wow, I guess I'm moving up in the world (or down, depending on your relative sense of things.) Anyway, we'll look into hatches for our 1/4" wall cavities and for things like insulation in 3/4" wall sections rather than fills. Thanks. K.

We are using VW 10.5.1/Panther and plotting to our old HP 230. The only fills that will plot are the dot screens; the ones in the top row of the pattern pallate. I have tried a bunch of plotter settings...line art or solid colors or photo or grayscale or black and white, and I only get the dot screens plotted...none of the others do. A workaround is to make a PDF of the file and then to plot from that, but that adds extra time. Plus plotting from a PDF makes the drawing a bit smaller so it's not 100% to scale (anybody know how to fix that?) Is there a combination of settings that you know of which will let me plot directly from VW and get all of the fills? Is Gimp-Print part of the problem? Thanks.

You should also understand that this occurred with VW 10.5.1, not 10.5.0.

Thank you. I just requested a new CD. Now what do I do with what has already been partially installed? Do I just throw the VW 10 file away? Are there any system level files that I need to delete also? Is there an uninstaller? I just would like the satisfaction that the upgrade was properly installed without duplicates which might cause problems later. Thanks again. Kurt

Thank you for all of your help. On the Jet Direct EX Server, you have to HOLD both buttons down to get it to output TCP/IP settings. Duh. And I also want to report that HP was EXTREMELY helpful also. They returned 3 of my e-mails with a complete answer to each. And this is for a plotter that has been out of warranty for 7 years and the Server out of warranty for 3. So I am very impressed with them, and it makes me want to stay in the HP camp when considering our next plotter purchase. Kurt.

I just installed 10.5 on G4/400/900MB RAM and got the message at the very end of the install, "there was an installation error and the installation is not complete." So I launch 10.5 and it says it is in Demo Mode. I quit the installer. What do I do now? Kurt.

Mike. Pushing server test button makes it talk to plotter verifiable via flashing lights, but no output. Outputting plotter test plot also no help given that plotter is downstream from server. Thanks though. Kurt

How do I determine the ethernet hardware address of my HP JetDirect EX Plus external ethernet adaptor to my HP 230 plotter? Look in the box it came in, you say? Verry funny, as that was thrown out years ago. We need address to update to OSX.3 and plot via Gimp Print. Thanks. Kurt.

Again, thank you all for the input here. In case any of you are lying awake at night thinking, "gee, I wonder if that guy bought the 500 ps?" Well, we got our HP230 fixed. (It's amazing how quiet it runs now after having it serviced after 6 years of continuous and trouble free use.) We are going to save our pennies and go for the 800 in a few months. The idea that it crunches the plot files on the plotter rather than at the machine is the biggest plus that I can see. Besides, when you add to the base price of a 500 ps the ethernet card, the HPGL2 card, the 42" wide capability...the 800 really doesn't cost that much more. I have come to realize that whatever digital equipment we purchase...computers, scanner, whatever...we always end up using it to its full potential rather immediately. So my theory here is that if I want to output a color D size perspective, the 800 will have a greater chance of getting the job done without a lot of fuss. I am also beginning to pride myself (the IT guy, who just like the ad, is the HR guy, the trash guy...in short, the owner) that we can go for a week or two without any system hangs, errors, or crashes on any of our 5 machines. So the stability of something like the 800, or let me put it this way, my perception of the stability of the 800 vs the 500, is also a strong factor in making our decision. But then again, this HP 230 will probably give us another 6 years of trouble free service!

Thanks everyone for your input so far. After I sent my querry, I realized that I should have said that we are running OS 9.2.

Our HP 230 just quit, and am considering purchase of the 500ps with Mac Plot over an ethernet network. DOES THIS COMBINATION WORK in your experience with VW 9.51? ANY comments on this would be greatly appreciated.