So my 18 year old HP 350 broke the drive belt again and I decided to buy a new plotter that I knew would work with the current batch of Windows O/S's out there. Getting towards the end of my career I decided to be practical and buy an economy model so I sprung for an HP T520. I am sure the plotter will work fine (for a while) but a big let down from my old HP 350. I don't know how much cheaper they can make these units. I think there was more metal in the legs of the 350 than there is in this entire plotter.
It did take me about 3 hours to get the "easy to install" software to get the drivers in the right place on my computer. I am using just a USB connection and they really think that everyone will be using a network, that may have messed up the install. So far everything is working fine but there was an "extra" spring rolling around in the box so I am wondering where that belongs. I guess you get what you pay for, sometimes.
T.W.
I just ordered the T520 last week and it's currently 15 miles away ready for me to pick up on Monday. I do maybe 1 survey a month that requires anything larger than 11x17 is the reason I even bought this model. If I have an extra spring I will let you know.
The T520 is almost 4 years old, and I'm reluctant to buy into something that may be replaced in a few of years. The 450C went EOL in about 3 years; the 500 lasted a little over 8. I may hobble along for awhile by running my 450C through my otherwise-retired Win7 machine.
Jim Frame, post: 371088, member: 10 wrote: The T520 is almost 4 years old, and I'm reluctant to buy into something that may be replaced in a few of years. The 450C went EOL in about 3 years; the 500 lasted a little over 8. I may hobble along for awhile by running my 450C through my otherwise-retired Win7 machine.
Jim - I considered that when I purchased it, I figured that was why HP was giving a $250 discount. My last plotter, a HP350C, was purchased as a leftover but it worked fine for 18 years. I would have held out for a better model but my needs are meager, printing maybe two mylars a month and then check prints so I don't need heavy duty. I was just surprised at how "basic" the unit is, I am sure it will work as intended, I just don't know for how long. I probably should buy some spare print heads before it goes EOL, just so I have spare parts.
T.W.
Neil Grande, post: 371081, member: 8175 wrote: I just ordered the T520 last week and it's currently 15 miles away ready for me to pick up on Monday. I do maybe 1 survey a month that requires anything larger than 11x17 is the reason I even bought this model. If I have an extra spring I will let you know.
I've had my T520 about six months. Very happy with it, it will last a long time it gets used rarely. Most of the stuff I do is 8.5 x 14 and some 11 x 17.
Just a heads up your printheads will dry out if you don't use them often enough so it's a good idea to print a page every two weeks or so just to keep things running.
I just bought my first plotter. I got an HP T830. I've only had it a week, but I'm impressed so far. It scans and copies too, so that is why I went with the T830. I only print a few hard copies a month (mostly PDFs are emailed these days) so I hope it will last a decade. The scanner was the main reason in spending the extra loot. My one complaint about the scanner is it only scans to JPEG or TIFF format and then I have to convert to PDF with Acrobat, but it does a nice scan and the copies look great. I can't tell a difference in the original mylar v the copies it makes.
Nate The Surveyor, post: 371099, member: 291 wrote: Just a heads up your printheads will dry out if you don't use them often enough so it's a good idea to print a page every two weeks or so just to keep things running.
Nate: Yes that is a problem with color, which I never use. I really didn't want another HP because of their time out chips in some of their ink cartridges. I had a desk top printer, very nice artist grade and the color cartridges expired due to time (I seldom print color). Once the color cartridges didn't work neither would the black, it is all or nothing. I was pretty mad because I knew there was plenty of color ink left but I kept getting the message that because the cartridges had expired I might damage the printer. I finally bought all new cartridges used the printer a while and one of the print heads went but the system would not tell me which one, I guess they expected me to replace them all. They were right though, the expired cartridges resulted in damage to the printer, I threw it away and bought a new one.
My HP350C plotter had the cartridges with the built in print heads which I liked, now a new system I will have to watch out for.
Thanks for the heads up.
T.W.
The ink game is facinating. Give away (or sell at cost) the printer...then make a profit off ink cartridges.
I have a designer 100. I cobbled together a driver for it, so it runs w Windows 7. It was a forced install of a HP 110 plus driver, and it works fine.
Also, I used a syringe of Windex, to purge the old ink from all the lines. Put new heads, and cartridges in it. Works fine.