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View Full Version : ULS X2-660 set up



Pete Hunter
06-18-2008, 6:23 AM
I work for a company in St. Louis, Mo that just bought a Uls X2-660. We are trying to connect it with the pc that will be used with. The problem with this is the pc is 40 feet away from the laser. We tried using a powered usb hub with an extension cable but it will not reconize it. The only two options that we can come up with are to run a wireless print server or to buy the ethernet adapter and connect it into the network. Has anybody else run into these problems? I appreciate all the help I can get on this one and by the way I enjoy reading this forum. The information in here is invaluable.

Jack Harper
06-18-2008, 10:29 AM
40 feet and one hub leaves you short. USB 2.0 has a maximum transfer distance of 5 meters without a repeater and 30 meters max with repeaters. You have to have one repeater every 5 meters up to four, your computer is the first, making five. Also, if you are going to use a hub as a repeater, then make sure it is 2.0 and not the older underpowered 1.x.

For a cheap source of cables try provantage.com, I just ordered 4 USB 2.0 16ft A/A Certified Active Extension Cables for my Epson 9600 printer for which the network card would have cost almost $400. The cables only cost $15.90 each, far better than the $40+ you will pay retail. With all this said, run the numbers it may be cheaper to buy your card. The network card will be faster and more reliable, making it worth some premium.

Kevin L. Waldron
06-18-2008, 10:19 PM
I have recently purchased a ILS150 machine and faced the same problem of usb extension. I have tried everything powered hubs, catv adapter to usb, powered extension cords etc.

Forget it!!

Due to the nature of ULS interface nothing will work in the transmission back and forth. I finally bought a cheaper computer and networked back to the design machine. The ILS computer is within 9' cable length. I have confirmed this with ULS.

I am still having fits with there interface it is very buggy and I have the latest. As a matter of fact it has blown up on me for the last 3 days on as many files and I have sent files to tech. Tech actually has a computer of mine because the usb port would not work right next to the machine(new machine).

Kevin

Bob Cole
06-18-2008, 11:49 PM
As others have said, USB won't work for that distance. I have an X-660 and purchased a Dlink DP301P+ (LPT to Ethernet print server). Works great. I have over 100 ft between the laser and switch. With this you could go up to 100M (328ft) per the Cat5 specs before you would have to connect a switch/repeater.

Easy setup using LPR. It took me just a few minutes to setup. If you need more help or have questions, PM me and I would be glad to assist.

Pete Hunter
06-20-2008, 4:53 AM
Thank you for the input. We have noticed the same problems with the bugs.

Scott Shepherd
06-20-2008, 7:19 AM
I am still having fits with there interface it is very buggy and I have the latest. As a matter of fact it has blown up on me for the last 3 days on as many files and I have sent files to tech. Tech actually has a computer of mine because the usb port would not work right next to the machine(new machine).

Kevin

Not sure what problems you're having, but if you have the latest, then you may be using a beta version of the driver. I don't know the driver revision numbers, but on the PLS, the last stable version of the driver that I am aware of us 2.18.30, and I've seen or heard of revisions all the way up to 2.19.38. I don't believe anything after 2.18.30 was a stable, official release. Might be the same thing going on with you. Instead of trying to use the latest driver, see if you can get the last stable release instead of the beta.

I've run several of the beta versions, some work great and then you'll get one that's buggy, you report the bugs (as you should in beta versions) and the next version normally fixes the bugs.

Worth looking into, it might solve the issue (or might not!).

Mike Mackenzie
06-20-2008, 12:33 PM
Kevin,

Believe me when I say that I feel your pain when it comes to the software for the ILS. We have several systems running here and we find that version 4.20.28.6 has been working the best. We are using this version on both the ILS9 and the ILS12.

I can tell you that the software department is working very hard to correct the bugs. For your piece of mind you may want to use the version listed above.

I can guarantee they will correct the problems it will just take a little time.

Paul Brinkmeyer
06-20-2008, 2:44 PM
I don't know the driver revision numbers, but on the PLS, the last stable version of the driver that I am aware of us 2.18.30, and I've seen or heard of revisions all the way up to 2.19.38. I don't believe anything after 2.18.30 was a stable, official release.


I could share a list of issues I have had with 2.18.30, actually that is when the software really started to act up. I get a lot of database alarms with this version.

Scott Shepherd
06-20-2008, 3:52 PM
Paul, hopefully they will work them out shortly for you. Only reason I said that was the last stable release is I was using the beta version of the drivers, up to 2.19.34, I think and I started seeing some issues. Called my rep and he sent me another driver, had the same issues, finally, had me go back to 2.18.30 and told me that was the last driver he installed on a recent system, so I assumed that was the stable version. It may not be.

I had a conversation with the reps at a show yesterday and there's some serious driver work being done behind the scenes right now and hopefully it will resolve any issues and lay down a platform for the future that's superior to the method they use for updating now.

I got the impression it was right around the corner, weeks away, rather than months, so keep in touch with your rep.

Pete Hunter
06-24-2008, 8:15 AM
One of the biggest issues has been that The usb is not plug and play. Once the print driver has been loaded and found the laser you cannot plug the usb cable into any other port. We figured this out with the usb hub. The computer would see that the laser was there but would not print to it since the usb cable from the laser was now plugged into the hub. From what I can see it is a pain to set up a computer that is not dedicated to the laser itself.