Plot with a USB adapter?

[Mulage]

New member here, and I'm wondering how I can print to our hp designjet600 plotter using a parallel to USB adapter. I'm having to use the laptop lately it only has usb ports and no parallel ports I purchased and adapter but not having any luck, when I set up the printer in AUTOcad to (v.14) I only have the options of the serial, parallel or network ports. any help with this?

 

thanks!

[Tankman]

Did you load drivers for the HP DesignJet 600 on the laptop?

[Mulage]

yeah I loaded the driver that i downloaded from hp and set it up the same as my desktop

[eldon]

When you have a USB adapter connected, the first thing to do is to check whether it is being recognized by the computer.

 

To do this, you have to go looking. So start at Start and then go through this path - Control Panel - System - Hardware - Device Manager - Ports (Com & LPT). If you do not have Ports reported in Device Manager, then the computer does not know that the adapter is there. If you do have Ports, then you can click on that and you can see what the port is called (LPT1 or LPT2). Knowing this, then to set up the printer in AutoCAD, you know which port to set it up for.

 

I have recently had to do this for a USB to COM adapter, and the port was called COM5. Then when setting up the printer as COM5, the printer leapt into action

[Mulage]

well it shows that the printer is ready when the usb is plugged in, but the ports all are just labeled as usb001 thru 006 not having any luck

[ReMark]

Try selecting USB001.

 

What OS are you running?

 

I'm running AutoCAD 2009 and 2010 under Windows XP Pro printing to a HP DesignJet 500 using a USB to parallel "pig tail" with no problems. It can be done. I used this same setup back when I was using 2007 as my work desktop came without a parallel port as well.

[ReMark]

You might try going through the Control Panel and clicking on Printers and Faxes. Find your printer then right-click and select Properties. Is there a "Ports" tab? If there is you should see USB listed under the heading of Port and under the heading Description it should say something like Virtual printer port for USB followed by the heading Printer with the name of your printer listed. Do you have any of this?

[Mulage]

You might try going through the Control Panel and clicking on Printers and Faxes. Find your printer then right-click and select Properties. Is there a "Ports" tab? If there is you should see USB listed under the heading of Port and under the heading Description it should say something like Virtual printer port for USB followed by the heading Printer with the name of your printer listed. Do you have any of this?

 

yeah it does show this but, when I configure the plotter in autocad do it set it up as parallel or series?

[eldon]

That all depends on what sort of connecting cable you have

[Mulage]

That all depends on what sort of connecting cable you have

 

it's a parallel cable, so i should use parallel cable and then name it usb001 right?

[eldon]

The whole point of getting a usb to parallel adapter is that the port can be named LPT1. The only use for USB port names is for your plug and play printer. You must explore deeper into your system to see whether the adapter has been recognised and what it is calling itself.

I only have experience with Serial connections, but I would have thought that the Parallel connections should follow the same reasoning.

[ReMark]

Have you been able to turn out a plot yet?

[Mulage]

Have you been able to turn out a plot yet?

 

 

not yet my computer doesn't show the connection and does not label the usb ports that I can tell, I'm pretty good with a computer but this one has stumped me I have to say

 

but thanks for all the help guys!

[eldon]

It is best to get into the Device Manager in Windows, where you can see whether there is a heading labelled Ports (COM & LPT). Until the computer recognises the adapter, there will not be this heading.