500PS Designjet Experience?

We've had a 24" for quite a while and really like it with no problems.

Just bought a used 42" at a real good price that I'm happy with.

One big problem is drivers for Win7. If your plotter has older firmware (pre 3.07) it will not work with Win7. But you can set it up as "shared" on an XP machine and Win7 can go through that with no problem.

Another issue is that HP no longer supports them so there will come a time when parts may be difficult to come by.

You should be able to get a good unit for under $1,000 - and probably under $800.

Thanks Dave.

That's the price point I'm looking at. I'll be driving it with a WinXP machine.

Hp support? I've been doctoring this 450 with eBay parts for 5 years, so anything newer will be a luxury.

Rick

Some bailing twine and Sherburne Chrome brought the old girl back to life.

Persistent tinkering delays the inevitable.

Rick

I used a 42" 500 for 8 years with only minor maintenance. Key thing to look at in a used unit is the square feet or meters of paper that has been run through it. There's a menu that lists the usage on the print heads, drive motors, etc that will give you a good idea if the unit will need costly repairs in the near future. Mine was not a 500ps so I'm not familiar with its specs, but you'll definitely want a unit that has the HP/GL2 card included. Without this card the printer is not capable of printing multiple copies. Doesn't sound like a big deal until you need 10 copies and don't have time to baby sit the plotter.

I lost my 500 when I split my business partnership so now I run an 800 that I rehabbed back in the fall. They are basically just a 500 with black panels instead of gray and the HP/GL2 and network card included. Somewhere I have a detailed manual that tells how to disassemble and repair the unit if you are interested.

Squinty:

My 450C hasn't worked since September 2008 due to the belt shredding and causing some problem of not taking paper after I replaced the belt. It sat in a local repair (printer) shop from the 30th of September 2008 until January 2011 when I took it to Phoenix to have another outfit try to get it fixed. When I brought it home in January, I messed around with it some to see if I could remember just exactly what it was doing. Anyway, the little white bar strip on the platen came loose and was stuck on the bail. I guess my question is, if any of the parts are salvageble to use for replacement parts if needed. As of yet I haven't heard anything either good or negative about mine getting repaired. Am asking just as an option if they say they can't find any parts.

Charles

I found my parts here, Charles.

The service was great, shipped the same day and provided a link to the service manual. The manual has a pretty good section on the service test your can perform to isolate your problem, maybe a paper motion motor?

I would up reseating the cartridges, what seemed like, a thousand times, rebooting the plotter every time. I see a different plotter in my future.

Good luck,

Rick

Thanks Squinty.

I have the service manual. When the belt shredded it must have done something to the unit that is not easy to determine. I need to call the outfit that has it in Phoenix to see if they have even looked at it yet. When I checked with them last, about a couple of weeks after I dropped it off, they said that they hadn't been able to do anything with it yet and would call me when they found out something. What I'm afraid of is that, it may have damage the circuit board or maybe done something to some of the moving parts that have to do with the platen and the pen carriage. It really made a scrunching noise when the belt went.