Need Help Connecting Gerber Edge to Omega 5.0 running on Windows 10

[Peter Corp]

I am trying to connect up a Gerber Edge LE (I think) to Omega 5.0 running on Windows 10.
New computer has no parallel ports only USB. I have successfully connected the USB to serial ports leads.
I am using the Gerber USB to parallel lead P83301A.
I have got to the point where I send out a job from Composer to be printed and I get the message Missing parallel port device driver. I have got the Gerber fast fact sheet 3551 and tried to work through the steps.
My GQ Mgr version shows ????. There was no Warp9fix on my Omega CD so I downloaded it from the Gerber downloads. I also downloaded the parallel support files.
When I get down to step 11 on the FastFact 3551 there are no Non plug & play drivers.
I have tried copying Par1284 to the windows drivers but I don't seem to be able to get any further.

Where do I go from here?

 

[Jburns]

Hello,
I would try right clicking the icon on your desktop, -- Look for compatibility options - Run as Windows 7? maybe that will work.

Also - did you open your GSP tray, install Printer, then add the Gerber Edge LE with USB? It then should be an option to print from. Since you are using the gerber USB cable, the printer should state USB nest to it in your device list.

 

[Fred Weiss]

I had a similar problem and got a Gerber tech involved. We went through a bunch of updates and reboots ... none of which worked. He then had me change to a different USB port and again to a third one (all were USB 3 ports). The third one worked. His final words to me were to note which port it was in and never to change it.

 

[SlikGRFX]

If you don't get the USB to work you could install a PCI card with a parallel port on it.

 

[Awd_GT]

I am running an Edge LE on windows 10. Using omega 6.5.
I have my Edge printing on this cable:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IDU0T1Y/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_Xw15zbDZVZKK4
There are times (especially when the computer has been on for days, or left sleeping for days) that the pc must be restarted or the cable had to be unplugged and plugged back in. But other than that this has been plug and play for me for under $10.
For my gerber envision I had to install a serial port to get it to operate. The system did not recognize any serial to usb cables I tried.
If you decide to go to the serial card route my advice is purchase the one with two ports. I purchased the one with only 1 port (because it was $5 cheaper) just to have future options.
Hope some of this may have helped.

 

[Joe House]

I had a similar problem and got a Gerber tech involved.

- Fred, were you using Omega 5 with Windows 10? I think the main issue is Omega 5.0 compatibility with Windows 10. I would recommend upgrading to Omega 6.5 for the smoothest system and better support from GSP.

For my gerber envision I had to install a serial port to get it to operate. The system did not recognize any serial to usb cables I tried.

- I've been able to succesfully get EnVision and other Gerber plotters to work with both the Gerber USB to serial adapter and Keyspan Adapters. Unlike the Edge, you need to set them up on Com Ports in the Add Plotters dialog box, not a USB connection. And the settings need to be correct and I usually have to turn off FIFO in the advanced port settings in the Windows Device Manager. Much easier, more forward thinking and compatible with laptops as well where this is the only option for adding a port.

 

[Fred Weiss]

- Fred, were you using Omega 5 with Windows 10? I think the main issue is Omega 5.0 compatibility with Windows 10. I would recommend upgrading to Omega 6.5 for the smoothest system and better support from GSP.

No Joe. This all happened when I upgraded to version 6.5 from version 5 on Win 10 OS. The version 5 did not work well for sure with Win 10. Prior to that I had been running Omega 5 on an XP Pro SP3 OS with no problems. The Win 10 computer was nearly new and included LPT and Serial ports which Gerber Omega no longer recognizes. I am attaching Gerber PDFs that cover LPT compatibility limitations for both version 5 and version 6.

 

[Peter Corp]

I had a similar problem and got a Gerber tech involved. We went through a bunch of updates and reboots ... none of which worked. He then had me change to a different USB port and again to a third one (all were USB 3 ports). The third one worked. His final words to me were to note which port it was in and never to change it.

I have tried all 4 of my usb ports but always get the same prompt when I send the job to the edge: Missing parallel port device driver file.
When I plug in the USB to parallel cable in device manager I get two icons appearing. One is USB compound device and the other one is USB to parallel port driver (LPT3). Under properties I have changed the driver to LPT 2 as GPQ Mgr only has LPT ports 1 or 2.
The usb to serial converter is only one icon that has two device functions - serial converter and serial port (virtual port).
Installing the edge in GSPTray as a usb gives the message Communications error on Gerber edge 2-2(USB)
Do you have any further suggestions?
We have had Omega 5 running on windows 10 since March 2016 and have not had any problems. It took me quite some time to get the USB to serial converters working back then but now we are running fine with 3 vinyl cutters and a router connected.
These machine are distributed over two computers.

 

[WildWestDesigns]

Looking at the specs of Omega 5.0, it looks like functionality goes through Win 8. Even with using Win 8, they suggest making sure to have build 70, especially if using USB to Parrallel cable. I would imagine that that would apply to Win 10 as well.

It seems like there are alot of tweaking going on, if your Win 10 machine has internet access and does updates, any one of those updates could kill what you have done and at best have to redo it all (which it sounds like having to do a portion of that now, don't know if it was update related or not, but considering a big new update just come out on Tuesday for most people, I wouldn't be surprised).

I would probably suggest updating your version of the software or (and this would be my favorite option), VMing an older MS OS (if you have valid install media and keys) and run it through a VM, if your computer also has the resources to handle that. For me, I have found it easier to run VMs (especially of legacy OSs) then to try to tweak an unsupported OS to get it to do what I need it to do.

 

[Peter Corp]

I have tried all 4 of my usb ports but always get the same prompt when I send the job to the edge: Missing parallel port device driver file.
When I plug in the USB to parallel cable in device manager I get two icons appearing. One is USB compound device and the other one is USB to parallel port driver (LPT3). Under properties I have changed the driver to LPT 2 as GPQ Mgr only has LPT ports 1 or 2.
The usb to serial converter is only one icon that has two device functions - serial converter and serial port (virtual port).
Installing the edge in GSPTray as a usb gives the message Communications error on Gerber edge 2-2(USB)
Do you have any further suggestions?
We have had Omega 5 running on windows 10 since March 2016 and have not had any problems. It took me quite some time to get the USB to serial converters working back then but now we are running fine with 3 vinyl cutters and a router connected.
These machine are distributed over two computers.

I have finally managed to get my Gerber edge connected to the Omega 5.0 on Windows 10.
By re configuring the ports (seems like they were not properly configured when I installed the Omega 5.0) and then installing the Gerber Usb-Parallel driver (ref Gerber document 5101).
Everything is running now.
The GQMgr still shows version ???? but seems to be working.