New Laser on Order

[Ron Moorehead]

Just ordered a 30 watt Pinnacle ZX (LaserPro Explorer) and should be here late next week. The question I have in reading about the Explorer is, it has a USB port for the interface to the computer, has anyone tried to use a Ethernet print serve with this laser or even better a wireless print server? If so did you get it to work and what brand and model did you use.

Thanks….

[Mitchell Andrus]

Laser Pro Spirit. You've got to watch out for USB devices. I have my laser at the end of a 10 foot cable and there are times the signal doesn't make it. If it was further, I'd get an amplifier. I tried a USB splitter, but found there was better signal strength when plugging in directly.

Wireless? May work, but may be slow. Not minutes per file slow, but a few extra seconds. A worse problem may be the loss of a key bit of file info causing another download attempt or corrupted file.

[Mike Hood]

Hi Ron;

I'm just up the road in Lake Stevens, WA. (Pinnacle ZX / Explorer 40W).

Haven't tried a print server, but I do run a PC beside the laser on a Wifi connection. I can print from anywhere, and then just load the machine and hit "start" in the shop. Handy for teweking designs after hours and cutting later.

[Larry Bratton]

Don't know what kind of setup you have, but if you set up a Windows XP network and put a wireless router in the group, you should be able to add your printer driver as just another printer on the system. Each computer that runs it will have to have the driver on it ,then you should be able to print to the machine from any other computer wirelessly (assuming you have proper hardware). If convenient, set up a desktop computer close to laser ,install your print driver on it and USB connect to the laser. Then, if you want to print to it from other computers, you will be able to add that printer as just another printer to your laptop or other. My laser is an Epilog but the concept should be the same. I have 7 computers on this XP network, 5 desktops and 2 laptops. The laptops connect to the system wirelessly, the others are hardwired via ethernet cable and hubs.

I'm telling you this, but I didn't set mine up on my network for a reason. I work off a laptop most of the time in another building. I go to the laser to run it because I want to watch it close, especially vector cutting, so I just connect via USB. But as far as it being slow, no, I print to 2 or 3 other printers from my laptop and it's no slower than a straight USB connection for example. Shouldn't be any different.
Good luck with your new laser, your gonna love it!