CONFUSED Epilog Owner

[George McGinnis]

Is anyone here running an Epilog Radius using a newer computer system? I want to upgrade to a newer XP or Vista system to run my engraver, but I'm really confused. I was told my engraver would not fuction properly and would have alot of problems with laser quality if I did upgrade. Epilog does have drivers still available on there web site for the radius. Ver 4.3 for win98 which is still better than my ver.2.0 that I am running with win98. They also have a newer version for XP and vista. I tried calling Epilog tech support and really did not get any answers to the question. NOT A VERY GOOD EXERIENCE. I am still very new to the laser and would like to get into photo engraving but can't afford to buy photograv if I can get the same results with a newer version of epliog drivers.
Sorry this is so long of a post
George

[Bob Davis]

I ran a radius on Widows 98 for 8+ years - excellent machine. I also played around with changing over to XP, but ended up going back to W98. I think the main problem with the beta XP driver was that it had a slightly changed engravable area and couldn't engrave right to the edge of the page (or something like that) so I didn't pursue it further.
The W98 driver was bulletproof, intuitive and gave predictable (well, most of the time) results. We still run an old engraver on W98 without problem.
I have no experience with photograv, but I think you'll obtain good results using "The Gold Method" with Photoshop.
I think it's a bit unreasonable to expect Epilog to support a machine that has been out of production for around 8 years.

[Tom Bull]

I had a nice conversation today with Epilog tech support about my 8 year old Legend, I'm third owner, and they were very helpful. My experience has always been outstanding with them, despite the age and provenance of my machine. I switched from Windows Me to XP with no snags at all, just installed 32 bit driver.

[Peck Sidara]

George,

If you're not happy with the answers received from tech support, ask to speak to Dan (support supervisor). If that doesn't work, ask for Eric Mitchiner (service manager).

Additionally-I/we are here on the creek to offer some guidance as well. If you have specific questions, feel free to PM me or email me at pecks at epiloglaser dot com.

Both the Radius manual and all available drivers are available to download from our website here: http://www.epiloglaser.com/downloads_radius.htm
and http://www.epiloglaser.com/laser_manuals.htm

I'm not certain of the difficulties one would expect (or what tech support is telling you) using the 32bit XP/Vista drivers on the Radius but this driver has been out for over 5-7 years.

I'm assuming you have both 98' & 32bit computers available for use/test. I recommend downloading both, test and determine which one works best for you. Keep in mind the Radius' input is only via Parallel port.

If there are any specific questions as to the operations, give tech support another try or follow one of the above channels.

HTH,

[George McGinnis]

I have decided to go with pecks method and try it both ways. Then figure out what works best.
The gold method sounds like it is used by a bunch of people here on the creek. I might have to try and find the programs or break down and buy photograv. Hard to start out with a slim budget.
Thanks Everyone

[Bill Cunningham]

If you don't have Photoshop (or the bucks to buy it), there is also a step by step breakdown for the Gold method for use with Corel Photopaint on the laser forum someplace. Search will probably find it.. I'm not sure if the Radius has the clipart/photo choice in the driver, but if it does, it works fine with everything but Glass, Granite, and wood. For those you need to use a Gold or Photograv processed image..

Found something.. This thread will give you most of the infor you need to do phtos without photograv
http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=91076
(http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?t=108840&highlight=Photopaint+steps)