Plotter

HP DesignJet 600

Roll-fed 600dpi plotter using (original) DeskJet Black Ink cartridge printheads.

The standard memory installed in this plotter is 4MB, upgradeable to 20MB to enable larger / more complex plots to be printed.

Serial and Parallel interface - choose from control panel - currently (5/1/2014) connected to quorra using a long parallel cable.

Switching on

Before switching on, make sure that the paper roll is in place, positioned against the right-hand alignment mark, and not torn so as to prevent the printhead from moving.

Switch on, button at the left-hand side. The printer will go through an extensive self-test routine, which includes sweeping back and forth across the paper to see how wide it is.

When ready, the display will say so.

Printing

There is a driver installed under Windows XP on quorra. Other operating systems may also have drivers - these have not been tested (see here).

There are probably more printer settings that need to be checked when printing on a device like this, where the paper size is not obvious. The paper roll is A0 (841mm) width, to check that this is the current selection when the print dialog is opened from the application that you want to print from.

The only other option to check is under printer / advanced options, where there is an option to 'print as bitmap image'. This should not be selected, as it slows down transmission of the data increasing the possibility of errors (e.g. an A4 document printed at 400%, which was the test piece, requires the transmission of 210MB of data in 'bitmap image' mode, compared with under 2MB otherwise using the plotters internal intelligence.

After a job is completed, the plotter waits for over a minute (see the display) for the ink to dry before cutting the paper (this is for when transparency film is being printed). Do not try and manually feed or cut the paper during this time - it will take you longer than this to re-load and align the paper once more.

Ink

The DesignJet 600 takes a pair of ink-cartridge / printheads, type HP26 (or equivalent). A supply of remanufactured ones is currently available.

Testing and Settings

Testing and printing has so far only been done from a .PDF file under Windows XP. No changes were made to settings from the printer's own control panel, which are set to: ... {to do}

Other operating systems and document types have yet to be tested. Please update the following list when done:

OSX is not supported in anyway

Operating System	File Type	Working OK
Windows XP	.PDF	OK
	.DOC
	AutoCAD
	.PPT
Mac OS	.PDF
	.DOC
	AutoCAD
	.PPT
Linux	.PDF
	.DOC
	AutoCAD
	.PPT

Network

The printer now has a JetDirect card install and has been assigned the IP 10.0.0.97

Future

A spindle needs to be fabricated to keep the paper roll from drifting in position.

Links and references

http://www.linuxfoundation.org/collaborate/workgroups/openprinting/macosx/hpijs#Printers