Please Help With Setup Laser Pro Mercury Laser Engraver

[derek noyes]

I am brand new to the Sawmill Creek community and looking for a warm welcome. I recently purchased a used Laser Pro Mercury Laser Engraver in immaculate condition. all the paperwork and software is complete. it was purchased in December 2004 by a couple who used it to personalize dog tags.

The problem i am having is setting it up. the machine has 2 ports on the front (parallel and serial). my compaq desktop computer has neither, just usb ports. i purchased parrellel to usb adapter, made the connections, went through steps to add a printer, installed the drivers and tried unsuccessfully to print a file. it crashes the software and the print manager says error.

the instructions have me setting up the printer on the LPT1 port. it seems to me that this may be the problem. i did go to the printer i set up, clicked properties, changed the port to usb printer support, clicked apply and tried again with the same result.

i did notice there are drivers on the setup disk for usb to serial but did not attempt to load at this point.

i am so lost at the moment. if anyone has detailed walkthru instructions on how to set this engraver up through usb, i would be so appreciative. thank you in advance for your consideration.

cheers,
derek
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UPDATE: i have combed through alot of post and found members with similar problems. it appears the more i read, the more questions i have!

It appears i have several options and now wondering which is best:

1) install a LPT port card and eliminate adapters.
2) parallel to usb adapter (this is the method i tried and failed)
3) serial to usb adapter
4) wifi

Logistics: the machine is physically about 12 feet away from the computer. i cant have the wire running across the floor into the office so i was heading up through the ceiling, across and back down through the ceiling to the computer. my understanding is a parallel cable longer than 10 feet will cause quality problems. is there distance vs data limitations with usb connection?

again, thanks for any help with this.
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[Ron Moorehead]

You need to load the drives that came with the usb adapter, I have used them in the past and they will not work with out the drive installed.

[derek noyes]

the drives that came with the adapter are win 98 and ME. i am running xp so which do i install?

[Ron Moorehead]

What brand and model is the USB Adapter.

[Chuck Stone]

It is my understanding that you cannot run that machine on USB.
I've bought the cables, downloaded the drivers and talked to tech
support and they said no.

I wish you could .. I'm in the same setup but my computer is dying.
so I need to get another one. (ever try finding a current computer
with a parallel port?)

Best bet is to get a parallel card from someone like Tiger Direct or
NewEgg. They're not very expensive.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...t+card&x=0&y=0
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...l+port+adapter

[George M. Perzel]

Derek;
I have the same Mercury and rean into the same problem five years ago when I switched computers-never could get the USB-Parallel adapter to work so bought a refurbed computer for $300 on ebay which had an LPT port. Recently bought another as backup in case the first one crashes. Also-I have a 20foot parallel cable connection-no problem.
Good Luck
Best Regards,
George
Laserarts

[Roy Nielsen]

Derek,

In addition to what the others have said, you may have to find an old copy of Windows 98 to install on an old machine. For reference, you'd probably looking for a Pentium I or II, maybe III CPU to run 98. Windows XP uses a completely different kernel (the software that talks at the lowest level to the hardware), thus if you don't have and can't find newer drivers (Windows 2000 or XP), they are very unlikely to work on XP. Also, USB to parallel/serial adapters often don't work well when connected to things other than printers or external modems.

Roy

[Richard Rumancik]

Derek, there are XP drivers for this machine for using the parallel port; there is no need to go back to Win 98. If you don't have the XP driver let me know. A newer PC should work fine, no need to look for a vintage model. But install the proper parallel port board as others have suggested. Serial could be made to work but it will be way to slow to transfer raster files.

Not sure if my cable is 20 or 25 feet but it is pretty long. Try to find a higher quality double-shielded cable if possible.

[Hilton Lister]

I run mine on Windows 7 with a parallel port, no problems

[Bob Davis]

I've got one of these, running on Win 7.I've had similar problems to those noted above; tried USB/Parallel and also adding a card. Despite extensive effort and enquiries I was not able to make it work. I eventually found a web resource that indicated that in some cases the printer (laser engraver) will only work with an integrated parallel port. I ended up buying a new motherboard with built-in parallel support and ensured it was activated in the BIOS and it worked like a charm. I doubt that there is a different solution to the problem. Having said that, my lack of computer skills is indicated by the fact that (in this forum only) I can't use the enter key to start a new paragraph.

[derek noyes]

Thank you so much for all the advice. i did fix solve the problem. i purchased/installed a 1 port PCI Parallel Adapter Card (Brand:StarTech.com). It installed to the port LPT3 (only LPT1 & LPT2 existed before install). Then assigned the Mercury printer to that LPT3 port and Voila! I have more issues to troubleshoot before i am up and running with business and will create new threads for those topics. thank you again!

[Jerry Allen]

Yes you can use a USB to COM1 adapter cable!
I have used a Huge Pine (HL) for years.
The trick is that you need to also use a 25 PIN NULL MODEM ADAPTER.
Belkin makes one. You can also kludge your own from schematics on the internet.
The 25 pin null adapter plugs directly to the Merc, There is a 25 to 9 pin serial adapter in the USB adapter kitm and the USB adapter plugs to the 25 to 9 pin adapter.
Not pretty, but works fine.
If you kludge up your own null modem adapter using an old serial cable, make one end 25 pin and the other 9 pin and you can cut out the extra length of the included 25 to 9 pin adapter in the USB to Com adapter kit.

Note that this setup is slower than parallel, so go with parallel when you can.

Also tweak the COM1 port (I don't know if Com2 or others work--set with USB to COM driver) to 56k, 8bit, 1 stop bit, hardware (I think--I'll have to check it and that computer is torn down right now).


Sorry for this late reply.
I have not been around for years due to being sequestered by my (ex-)homeowners association.

I'm here trying to find a solution to load drivers for my Merc I on W7...

[Bill George]

I ran a CNC router for a few years on a USB to Serial adapter off Windows XP Pro, laptop that is.

[Jerry Allen]

USB to serial hookup on Mercury I on Windows 7
I am including this image with some info for those with a laptop or a netbook.
I have an Acer 1410 with Windows 7 PRO 32 using a USB to Serial adapter configured:
COM1, 56K baud, no parity, one stop bit, no flow control.
I have two different setups which both work fine, although I recommend the unit with the Prolific chipset because it is more up to date, and plug and play works pretty well.
Set up the com port first. Then plug it into the laser and load the 3.58 GCC drivers with the cable connected and the laser on.
Seems to install best that way. Windows will find the driver for the Prolific where you will need the Hugepine installer for the older cable.

An important point here is that a null modem adapter is required because of the type of serial port on the Mercury. DTE, I believe, as opposed to DSE?
The serial port transmit and receive lines must cross over.

If you are getting errors when you print, uninstall everything, printer and com port, and start over in the order as I have stated above.
Make sure to use the settings I used above.
I do not recommend doing this over using a computer with a parallel port, which is much faster.
This is just to show that it can be done, and that there is no problem with Windows 7 Pro 32 bit.
I cannot vouch for other versions.

Untitled-1.jpg

[George M. Perzel]

Welcome back, Jerry and thanks from all Mercury users for the tip-especially useful now that Winxp is in its death throes.
I was also able to get the Mercury 1 to print from Win7-but used the virtual WinXP that comes as an option to Win7 Pro. Ity was on a computer that had an LPT1 port so don't know what would happen with a USB-LPT1 converter.
Best Regards,
George
Laserarts