Reviving an old pen plotter

[User Bp]

I'd like to revive an old B size pen plotter that
can use either HPGL version one or GPGL commands.
An old Windows 2000 Professional computer will be
the host, but I'm having trouble finding usable
drivers within my "recreational" budget, which is
very small.

Graphtec offers drivers for their current plotters,
but there seems to be no way to dumb down the language
and resolution to match the old plotter. Likewise,
Older Roland drivers are said to support plain HPGL
plotters but the driver, once installed, gives no
hint of any such option.

I'm aware of Winline and will probably try it, but
since this is just for fun the price is an obstacle.

Thanks for reading, any guidance appreciated!

bob prohaska

 

[Rich Webb]

On Tue, 20 Nov 2012 04:39:33 +0000 (UTC), User Bp <bp@www.zefox.net>
wrote:

I'd like to revive an old B size pen plotter that
can use either HPGL version one or GPGL commands.
An old Windows 2000 Professional computer will be
the host, but I'm having trouble finding usable
drivers within my "recreational" budget, which is
very small.

Graphtec offers drivers for their current plotters,
but there seems to be no way to dumb down the language
and resolution to match the old plotter. Likewise,
Older Roland drivers are said to support plain HPGL
plotters but the driver, once installed, gives no
hint of any such option.

I'm aware of Winline and will probably try it, but
since this is just for fun the price is an obstacle.

If I was doing something like this I'd probably make a black box that
sat between the PC and the plotter to perform the command translations
on the fly. The "black box" could be an otherwise unused old notebook PC
or a it could be spun up from a microcontroller. Sort of depends on what
you have sitting around in the spare parts bin...

--
Rich Webb Norfolk, VA

 

[Robert Baer]

User Bp wrote:

I'd like to revive an old B size pen plotter that
can use either HPGL version one or GPGL commands.
An old Windows 2000 Professional computer will be
the host, but I'm having trouble finding usable
drivers within my "recreational" budget, which is
very small.

Graphtec offers drivers for their current plotters,
but there seems to be no way to dumb down the language
and resolution to match the old plotter. Likewise,
Older Roland drivers are said to support plain HPGL
plotters but the driver, once installed, gives no
hint of any such option.

I'm aware of Winline and will probably try it, but
since this is just for fun the price is an obstacle.

Thanks for reading, any guidance appreciated!

bob prohaska



GOTO "printers" and select HP for tpe, then select FIRST item in list

which is for the HP-GL/2 printer.
...at least this is what my version of Win2K pro SP4 has..