Epilog Crossover Cable

[Martin Boekers]

Greetings,

I am a bit frustrated with Epilog right now... I am having issues with getting my lasers running.
I am on a Government installation. I do have administrative rights on my computers.

Right now we have been down for quite a while while our IT dept addresses some issues.
I was under, the understanding that I could hook up a crossover cable so I could run each laser
directly from each computer. I called Epilog this morning and talked with a guy named Matt.

Basically he told me "I" can't do it as I am not on the IT staff, (I just manage the shop)
I am really frustrated right now.... I have purchased 3 lasers from Epilog over the last 10 years and
this is the first time I was told by Epilog that they couldn't help me through this process.

I'm sort of dead in the water until I can get the lasers running....

Is hooking a crossover cable directly to the laser so difficult that they can't run me through the process
over the phone?

Is a USB any easier? Should I go that way until they get my network running?



Thanks in advance for any help.

[Bill George]

Well if your going to go one on one with a Ethernet cable, I can't see why you can't do the same via USB, with the proper drivers. I do not own a Epilog so others may or I hope jump in.

[Martin Boekers]

Well if your going to go one on one with a Ethernet cable, I can't see why you can't do the same via USB, with the proper drivers. I do not own a Epilog so others may or I hope jump in.

I was told the USB method is unstable and that the crossover cable was the way to go when I initially talked with Epilog. They said it was an easy set-up and didn't say I had to be
a member of the IT staff to do this... I've always set up drivers, updates etc and was never told I had to be part of the staff of an IT dept before... :(

[Glen Monaghan]

It's been a while since I did this (ethernet from computer to laser) but I don't recall it being any problem. Well, other than needing a spare ethernet port on my computer, which only had one and that one was used for my LAN, so I picked up a USB<>Ethernet stub which is plugged into a spare USB port and installed the appropriate driver to create the needed Ethernet port into which I plugged the laser's cable. Main issue as I recall was to ensure both the laser and the corresponding Ethernet connection on the computer are talking on the same subnet with different addresses (eg, computer's IP address 192.168.3.1 and laser's IP address 192.168.3.2) and appropriate subnet mask (255.255.255.0).

I just googled to check my memory and found this:
https://www.epiloglaser.com/assets/downloads/driver-instructions/ext_driver_instructions.pdf
with relevant portion beginning at document's page 36 "Installing the Dashboard Driver Using anEthernet Connection and a CrossoverCable"

[Martin Boekers]

Thanks for the input!

[Steve Clarkson]

Marty.....I was running my laser with a USB cable from my laptop directly to the laser......then I had some problems with my laptop USB port so I had to switch to using the Ethernet cable. That switch wasn't simple......I was on the phone with tech support for atleast 20 minutes making the switch......you had to change things like the subnet mask, etc......I thought you could simply click on the "printer" and switch ports......but no way! I'm not familiar with government computer networks, so I can't say if you have the "authority" to do it....but it also makes me wonder if they can change it so you can use the USB. Additionally, I had a bad Ethernet cable at one point and had to get a new one......they told me I could buy one locally, but everywhere I went, no one had the exact one I needed, so I had to get a new one directly from Epilog. Lastly, I used the USB cable for years and never had a problem.....so if you can switch over to it to get yourself up and running, I would highly recommend that you do so. You can always switch back once the network is back up running again.

[Martin Boekers]

Thanks Steve!
I do have admin rights on my computers, as this is a separate network. I can add adjust/add drivers.
I'm surprised Epilog didn't tell me it was more complex than just plugging in and adding a driver for the
cable.

We got a new Fusion about 6 months ago and I was able to set it up, so I can do that much. :)

But, if you think I can get up and running with USA easier I'll do that. I'm at awards time and really backed
up with work.

I'm running Win 10 can you quickly explain the process for setting up as a USB?

Thanks!

[Glen Monaghan]

I'm puzzled as to why it's being called complex... Other than plugging in the cable and adding the driver, the only other thing you have to do is get the IP addresses & subnet masks to correspond on both sides, which is easy and well described in the manual I referenced.

[Martin Boekers]

I'm puzzled as to why it's being called complex... Other than plugging in the cable and adding the driver, the only other thing you have to do is get the IP addresses & subnet masks to correspond on both sides, which is easy and well described in the manual I referenced.


I'm with you... I didn't think it should be difficult. I just had to remember the old settings when the networks back up.

I ended up doin USB... I had to dust off and old Win 7 computer because my new ones are USB 3 and the laser didn't like that..

Thanks!

[Martin Boekers]

Thanks Steve!

I found a long enough USB cable and we are up and running! I had to dust off and old Win 7 computer as my new ones are USB 3
and it didn't like that... It wanted USB 2... ;)

But the main thing is I'm back running!

[Steve Clarkson]

That's all that matters!!!!!!!

I really don't think you will have any issues with using the USB.

[Kev Williams]

Any chance you have a network?

I have 15 machines in my house and many computers, 4 of which are essentially to run the machines. A 5th computer is my 'server', which some machines are connected to, and and houses a hard drive that stores all the jobs from Corel and Gravostyle.

With the exception of my win8 computer which is connected to my IS400 (all others are XP) and my new fiber (not sure if I can run it via network yet) I can access ANY job and run ANY machine from ANY computer via my network.

3 of your 4 machines are old enough I would think they could be networked. Makes my life easier!

[Mike Chance in Iowa]

I'm late to the game Martin, but you were correct that you should have been able to set up your laser via a crossover ethernet cable and it is disappointing to read that Epilog didn't assist you. They turned it into a much more complicated matter then it should have been.

[Martin Boekers]

Any chance you have a network?

I have 15 machines in my house and many computers, 4 of which are essentially to run the machines. A 5th computer is my 'server', which some machines are connected to, and and houses a hard drive that stores all the jobs from Corel and Gravostyle.

With the exception of my win8 computer which is connected to my IS400 (all others are XP) and my new fiber (not sure if I can run it via network yet) I can access ANY job and run ANY machine from ANY computer via my network.

3 of your 4 machines are old enough I would think they could be networked. Makes my life easier!

I have them on a network, but our Squadron has been installing a whole new system and it's been down/inconsistent for a few weeks.
I was looking (and found) a stop gap measure to get these lasers operable in the meantime. The USB did the trick. Once the network is up,
I'll go back to that. Thanks!

[Martin Boekers]

I'm late to the game Martin, but you were correct that you should have been able to set up your laser via a crossover ethernet cable and it is disappointing to read that Epilog didn't assist you. They turned it into a much more complicated matter then it should have been.

This is the first time I ever ran into an issue with Epilog... I think it was someone new, what he should of done was say "Hold on a second and let me get someone who may be able to help you"
In the end the USB worked easier as with the crossover cable after I was back on the network I would have to change all the settings back.