Connecting to an HP DesignJet 450c

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Connecting to an HP DesignJet 450c

At work we have an old (but working fine last time it was plugged in) HP DesignJet450C printer/plotter. I'm on a mac pro (late 2010) and could benefit from using it - but I've not found online whether there's a reliable way to connect (Apple doesn't test OS X with usb/parallel port adapter cables) and print (HP does not offer a Mac OS driver, and the only 3rd party driver I've read about online (from UK's Microspot) was mentioned in conversations from 2002 - so I'm nervous that their driver would not be compatible with the current 10.10.2.

Does anyone know anything about how to do this or even if it can still be done?

Thanks in advance,

RK

Mac Pro, OS X Yosemite (10.10)

Posted on Mar 6, 2015 6:31 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

greg sahli

Level 7

25,508 points

Mar 6, 2015 6:57 AM in response to Robert Kent2

Try the Gutenprint driver.

http://gimp-print.sourceforge.net/MacOSX.php

USB-parallel cables don't provide the bidirectional feedback (handshake) that many drivers need to function correctly - causing mid-page or single-page stall of the printer.

Try a different USB-parallel adapter, or, get a parallel print server and put the printer on the network. Used ones are about $25 on ebay.

Or, find and try "usbtb," a substitute USB print backend (comm w/ the printer) that fakes bidirectional feedback.

(caveat - I haven't used usbtb since mountain lion)

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Answer 2

greg sahli

Level 7

25,508 points

Mar 7, 2015 6:33 AM in response to Robert Kent2

I meant for you to buy a parallel print server to put your printer on the local network - the best long-term fix for this problem.

Sorry I didn't emphasize that!

Here's an example:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/HP-Jet-Direct-170X-J3258B-External-Print-Server-/3712249 10863?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item566…

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Answer 3

Robert Kent2 Author

Level 1

9 points

Mar 6, 2015 7:26 AM in response to greg sahli

Thanks for this - the documentation says the printer is supported, and that it should work with OS X 10.9 - so with fingers crossed I'm going to order the cable (which says it does provide bi-directional feedback). No print server on the network, so if this is going to work it'll work because I can connect directly to the printer via the cable. I should know more next week.

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