Sam Ismail <dastar_at_wco.com> wrote:
> I just picked up an HP 7475A Plotter ($5) and want to get it working.
> Anyone know where I can get a set of pens for it? Also, what software can
> use this thing? It has an RS-232 port.
Hmm, looks like HP discontinued all the pens and stuff in late 1995.
They now suggest calling some other vendors who I guess may still make
the pens. See
http://www.hp.com/cposupport/plotters/support_doc/bpp01965.html for
names and numbers.
Or just go to
http://www.hp.com, click on the "search" link,
type in "plotter pens" and click the <mumble> button. That will
get you to a bunch of documents of varying usefulness including
the above.
Sometimes you can turn up new-old-stock fiber-tip pens in the usual
places (swap meet, with other old computer stuff, &c). NOS in this
case means still sealed in a foil bag that has a "use by" date. I've
no idea how well the pens keep past that date, but those are the sorts
of things we used to use with the plotters in an office environment.
What might be better at this point in time is to look for refillable
drafting pens. I don't know, I've never tried to use those.
As for software, the FAQ says that there are Win3.1 and Win95 printer
drivers for these things! Imagine that...no, actually, I think I'd
rather not. What the plotter really wants to see is called HP-GL;
it's pretty much a command language with pen-motion primitives for
drawing lines and text. I can't remember how much you could get it to
do w/r/t shapes and filling or whether you had to do that on the
computer side and turn it into an HP-GL sequence for the plotter.
Check your ObClassic Graphics Package to see if it can spit out HP-GL.
-Frank McConnell
Received on Sun May 17 1998 - 00:12:40 BST