System Software for HP DesignJet 500/800 Series - manual upgrade

System Maintenance for HP DesignJet 500 & 800 series

Last updated: 18/01/05    REVISION: A.03.04

The System Maintenance Utility keeps your Hewlett-Packard DesignJet printer up to date with the latest system software.

• How to update your DesignJet 500 or 800 series
• Release Notes
• Release Notes from previous versions
• Upgrade Step by Step
• Troubleshooting
• System Software Utility Documentation
• Other Operating Systems

How to update your DesignJet 500 or 800 series

• If you are running the utility from Windows or Mac OS, follow the Upgrade Step by Step instructions to update your printer.
• If you want to upgrade your printer from any other operation system (such as Unix), see the "Other Operating Systems" at the end of this document.

Release Notes

These System Software release notes correspond to REVISION: A.03.04

Problems fixed with A.03.04 system software release (firmware):

• SE 79:04 was displayed when nesting different sized PS plots. The features of nesting & inked area did not work fine with different sized PS plots. The function which applies inked area before nesting was adding an extra row to the last swath, misplacing the last row of each plot. This extra row addition has been removed.
• The printer information option did not show the complete network setup information.  Now all Information related with ipx/spx, appletalk, Novell and Dlc/llc is displayed.
• When customer prints from Mac Os 9 through the 800ps PPD, selects ASCII Mode through driver and then selects “Automatic” from PS Settings in the front panel, the connection remains open after printing. Front Panel shows “Processing PS” instead “Ready”. Now the printer does not hang but goes back to “Ready status” because the communication is closed after printing the plot.

New features with this A.03.04 system software release (firmware):

• HP Designjet 500 printers (500, 500ps 500 mono) did not have have any kind of service print. From A.03.04 all of them have this functionality, so now customer can print the information page.
• Additionally to the old data printed with HPGL printers, now Designjet 500 & 800 printer series will contain 'new' IPv6 data in the information print.

 

Release Notes from Previous versions

These System Software release notes correspond to PREVIOUS REVISIONS

Problems fixed with A.03.03 system software release (firmware):

1. Media got cut, although cutter is disabled, when printing a document which consists of 2 plots from Unix application: the document has a header + a body, so it is treated as two plots.

New Functionality with this A.03.03 system software release (firmware):

2. Two new product names (HP Designjet 500 Mono) and (HP Designjet 500 PS Plus) have been added in order to support the new product "HP Designjet 500 Plus".

 

Problems fixed with A.02.14 system software release (firmware):

3. The printer provided incorrect paper length information. Customers couldn't rely on the paper lenght. Paper length value when roll is loaded, is now reliable with A.02.14 version.

New features with this A.02.14 system software release (firmware):

4. Two new product numbers (C7770F and C7769F) and a new product name (HP Designjet 500 plus) have been added in order to support the new product "HP Designjet 500 Plus".

 

Problems fixed with previous system software release (firmware A.02.12):

5. A.02.12 version solved HDD crashes due to the management of big files or multiple files in a queue; which tend to use the HDD intensively.
6. PS automatic format detection: Binary, TBCP or ASCII
   • A.02.12 Firmware version solved the problem that the PS interpreter did not recognize the input format very well.
7. Problems loading some cut sheets sizes
8. From A.02.12 Firmware version the printer is able to print PCL3GUI files when an image contains long white spaces

New features with previous system software release (firmware A.02.12):

9. Allows extra alerts using WebJetAdmin, this functionality will inform you about the printer’s status:
   • Serial-Number for Designjet 500/800 (Returns the device serial number).
   • Media consumption profile for Designjet 500/800 (Accumulated consumption for the whole life of the printer (in square feet).
   • Marking agent (Ink) consumption amount for Designjet 500/800 (For each class of ink, and for each ink delivery system color, returns the ink consumption during the whole life of the printer, measured in milliliters).
10. Include External Jetdirect support in the Designjet 500/800:
    • With this release the printer is able to print the configuration page of the external Jetdirect.
11. There are new colormap files added to answer customer’s concerns when they are not satisfied with the colors obtained with the HPGL/2 & PS drivers.
12. Changed "AppleTalk Types" depending on the type of printer you have.
13. mDNS Support (Rendezvous).

 

Once your printer is upgraded, you should see the new F/W revisions reported in your FP. Go to Setup menu > Printer Information >

1. Engine F/W: A.03.04
2. Formatter F/W: A.03.04  (only in DJ800 series, DJ500 Plus and DJ500 with HP-GL/2 Accessory card)
3. Hard Disk F/W: D.03.04  (only in DJ800 series)

Upgrade Step by Step

NOTE: HP strongly recommends that you upgrade the FW via USB if you are a Macintosh user.

1. Download and save the installation application to your hard disk. Be sure to remember where you saved it.
2. Ensure that all printers you want to update are turned on. Also ensure that you can print to each printer from the computer that is running the application.
3. Start the installation application. It will install all necessary files first. The application will then analyze each of the printers configured for the computer and report on its current state.
4. If any of your printers are out of date, the application will prompt you to update them. The update process sends a special file to your printer.
5. Once the update is complete, a descriptive drawing pointing the user to unplug the printer will be shown in the printer front panel. Then, unplug the printer, wait for some seconds and you can plug again. This will delete all pending print jobs. For this reason, you should not print during the upgrade process.

The update process may take several minutes. DO NOT TURN YOUR PRINTER OFF BEFORE THE UNPLUG DRAWING APPEARS IN THE PRINTER DISPLAY.

The updates sent to your printers are supplied with this application.  If you received the application some time ago, it is possible that newer software may have been released by Hewlett-Packard during that time so please check the HP DesignJet website for later software releases.

Troubleshooting

1. I cannot find my printer. Your printer must be configured for your computer. In other words, you must be able to print from the computer on which you are running the application. If you can do this, but you cannot see your printer in the list, select All Printers in the View menu. If you still cannot see your printer, perhaps your printer is not turned on or cannot be contacted. Try printing a simple page to see if your computer can connect to the printer.
2. I want my old version back! If you prefer the behavior of the printer before the update, you can downgrade the printer by selecting Downgrade in the Version menu. You will be prompted with a list of previous versions to choose from.
    

 

System Maintenance Utility Documentation

The utility is primarily designed for simple, automatic usage. However, you can use the application to view the state of your printer. The following is an explanation of the information and menus displayed.

Printer information Table

Lists each of the printers found, their state, model number, and versions. The following is an explanation of each column

Name: name of the printer as seen by the operating system.

State:  current state of the printer which can be one of the following.

• OK : the printer already has the latest software provided with this application.
• Upgrade available : the printer's software is out of date and can be upgraded by this application.
• Unsupported connection : the printer is connected in a way that cannot be used to communicate with this application.
• No connection : no connection can be made with the printer. Perhaps it is turned off, or disconnected from the computer, or perhaps there is a cable fault.
• Unsupported printer : this application is not designed to support this kind of printer.
• Canceled : you have requested but then canceled a software upgrade for this printer.

Model: the model number of the printer and its subcomponents.

Version: the version number of the system software for the printer and its subcomponents.

File Menu Commands

New : if you know you have a connected printer, but this application has not found it, you can use this command to tell the application where to find the printer. This command can be used only to find networked printers using IP or IPX.

Exit : exit the application.

View Menu Commands

All Printers : lists all printers found by the application.

Supported : lists all printers found and supported by the application.

Refresh : searches again for connected printers.

Media Menu Commands

Add Profiles : adds media profiles to the selected printer => not available for DJ500 & 800 series

View Profiles : lists the selected printer's current media profiles => not available for DJ500 & 800 series

System Menu Commands

Upgrade : installs the latest software into the selected printer.

Downgrade : installs an older version of the software into the selected printer. You may wish to do this if you have some problem with the latest version.

Emergency : this command should be used only when the selected printer's software is not working. The printer should be connected directly to the computer's parallel port. This procedure should be used only with the help of Hewlett-Packard Support Engineers.

Help Menu Commands

Contents : displays more information about this application.
 

 

Other Operating Systems

The "other operating systems" package is a gzipped tar file that contains the system software upgrade files (.fmw). These files can be send directly to the printer either via the parallel port or over the network to the printers IP address at port 9100.

Upgrade process

To send the files below an easy way it's to connect the printer to a PC thru the parallel port and opening a DOS session send the file to the port using the /b option so, for instance, from the directory where the file is placed to send the DJ500_A0304.fmw file:

• copy /b DJ500_A0304.fmw LPT1:

DesignJet 500 series

1. send formatter code image (only for DJ500 Plus or DJ500 with HP-GL/2 Accessory card available) (DJ500HPGL_A0304.fmw)
2. send engine code image (DJ500_A0304.fmw)
3. power cycle printer

DesignJet 800 series

1. send Hard disk image    (DJ800DISK_A0304.tar)
2. send  formatter code image   (DJ800PS_A0304.fmw)
3. send engine code image    (DJ500_A0304.fmw)
4. Power cycle printer

While upgrading the code of the formatter, so when file DJ800PS_A0304.fmw or DJ800HPGL_A0304.fmw is sent, the printer is in 'Processing' state and a job named 'FMTUPGRADE' (or similar) will be shown in the Job Management menu. Once the upgrade is done, the printer will return to 'Ready' state.

• Do not power off the printer before it returns to 'Ready' state, do not sent any other job/file to the printer.

While upgrading the hard disk image, so file DJ800DISK_A0304.fmw is sent, the printer is in 'Processing' state and a job named 'Upgrading to ...' (or similar) will be shown in the Job Management menu. Once the upgrade of the hard disk image is done the printer will return to 'Ready' state.

• Do not power off the printer before it returns to 'Ready' state, do not sent any other job/file to the printer.

Once the reflash of the Engine is completely done (after sending A0Xxx.fmw) a descriptive picture telling the user to unplug the printer will be shown in the printer front panel, so unplug the printer, wait for some seconds and you can plug again.

• Do not power off the printer before this picture is shown.