CE5000-40 (CraftROBO Pro) on Win10, USB

[Harry Seward 0]

Greetings.  I cannot get Win10 to display my CE5000 in Printers & Scanners.  I installed the latest driver from Graphtec website.  I then pluged the plotter in and Windows makes the sound that it detects the hardware, but that's as far as I get.  I tried a restart and still no go.  I also tried a manual install of the drivers, and that also didn't work.  I intend to use Graphtec Studio 2 for cutting, but naturally it's not working since there's no plotter installed.  What's the secret sauce?

Edit:  I installed Cutting Plotter Controller.  The functions in there seem to communicate with the CE5000 and does what the respective controls indicate so there is some sort of connection.  Just not as a 'printer'.

Edit 2:  It seems no one has been able to successfully get this plotter running on Win10 so I have just set it up on a platform I have had success with, which is Cutting Master 2 in Illustrator CS 4 on a Win7 machine, and it's working great.

[MZ SKEETER 4,709]

removed by me

[Harry Seward 0]

I had this plotter set up on an XP->Win7 machine with an old version of Illustrator using Cutting Master for nearly 20 years.  I've got a decent handle on how everything works in that realm.  I know the plotter isn't a printer, but when it's properly installed, it shows up in the Printers & Scanners section of Windows.  The plotter is already in GP-GL, as is required for it to have been working with CM.  Everything is different on Win10, and I don't want to spend the money to purchase a new version of Illustrator for this one purpose when Graphtec has a standalone solution.  The plotter manual was written long before Win10 was even a concept, and in fact says nothing about installing drivers anyway.  The software crashes when I go through the plotter selection process described in the software manual.  I'm not asking you to do anything you haven't "volunteered" to do.  I still have the option to go old school with another computer, but I wanted to try to find someone that's gotten this plotter working under Win10 with Graphtec Studio, and pick their brain.

Anyone else?

[MZ SKEETER 4,709]

removed by me.  

[Harry Seward 0]

The furthest back compatibility mode goes in Win10 is to Win 7.  I tried that and it didn't help.  Compatibility mode has never really worked all that great.  It's not at all like running the native OS.  USB Printer Support does indeed show up in device manager when the plotter is connected and powered on, but that merely shows that a USB printing device is detected by Windows - that's why it appears and disappears.  But that's not the specific driver for the device.  USB Printer Support shows up there with any printer, even before the correct driver is installed.

If you aren't running any plotters in Win10, this question isn't for you.

[pawdell 15]

  Is there a chance that the cutter was plugged in to the Win 10 machine before installing the driver from Graphtec? Windows has been known to attempt to install a driver that it thinks will work. That Win driver seems to block any other drivers installed after.

  If so, I would disconnect the cutter from the computer, uninstall any/all drivers connected to cutter and reboot. After reboot, first install the driver from Graphtec and then plug the cutter into the computer.

HTH

Paul

[haumana 1,220]

Have you tried any of these steps? 

https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5900b1a3c534a5aa8149a65c/t/593199d6a5790af7dff4fb0b/1496422874581/CE5000+SetUp+Manual.pdf

[darcshadow 1,626]

What exactly are you trying to do that you need it to show up in the printer & scanner window?

[Harry Seward 0]

Thanks, Paul.  I remembered that from the first time I ever used the plotter (and other devices over the years), so I made sure to not connect it until after the drivers had been installed.  

[Harry Seward 0]

 

Have you tried any of these steps? 

https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5900b1a3c534a5aa8149a65c/t/593199d6a5790af7dff4fb0b/1496422874581/CE5000+SetUp+Manual.pdf

Yes, all of them.  I have used this plotter for nearly 20 years on an older windows machine.  On the Win10 machine, I get as far as E1.  The "new hardware found" notification comes up and then disappears after a few seconds, but it never shows Graphtec CE5000.

[Harry Seward 0]

 

What exactly are you trying to do that you need it to show up in the printer & scanner window?

I'd like to be able to use this plotter on Win10.  I really don't care if it shows up in Printers & Scanners, but the fact that it's not indicates Win10 is not recognizing the drivers.

[haumana 1,220]

While I understand that you're not trying to get this done in SBE, SBE serves as a very good way to test a multitude of cutter/plotter issues, including connectivity/communication.  I know that for SignBlazer Elements, the COMPort need to be 4 or lower.  I would recommend you download SBE, check Device Manager and change the COMPort that Windows has assigned if necessary, then see if you can cut/plot out of SBE.  Windows 10 is notorious for automatically downloading and installing updates, which can sometimes cause issues with the cutter.  You may need to go the extra step of getting a null modem cable and connecting it to your machine with a keyspan adapter.

[darcshadow 1,626]

If the Cutting Plotter Controller works then the plotters is connected and functioning correctly and the problem is the software you're trying to use. You mentioned the Graphtec software but did you actually install it? The graphatech web page says use Graphtec Studio 2, Ver. 1.0.197 for the CE series. Supported os included windows 10 and 11.