# Buying a Roland PNC 1000 Camm 1



## mhmitszach (Dec 1, 2009)

EDIT: Sorry. This probably belongs in the subforum.

I just found a Roland PNC 1000 Camm 1 on craigslist for $250. The seller and pictures seem to say it has had very little use. There not any cables or software included, only a blade. Says it turns on and tracks.

How can I go about checking it to make sure it is fine? I don't think I'll have access to any vinyl to try out a test cut.

I have previous experience with the PNC 950, and it seemed plenty fast enough and accurate enough for anything I would ever need. I'm assuming this model is slightly newer or at least similar.

I probably have access to the roland cut choice software with dongle (whatever it may be called) and finding an old mac to run it shouldnt cost more than $50. We later used flexiletter on the pnc 950 and it worked alright, but was pretty pricey. Alternatives if old software/mac doesnt work out? I'm not against using windows, since I've got a computer that would work.

I'll need a serial card or serial to usb cable, correct?


Overall, do you think I should buy this?

-Zach


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## mhmitszach (Dec 1, 2009)

I see that the PNC must have vinyl sized 10, 15, or 24 inches wide. You cannot use smaller pieces. Will be a huge caveat for me as I plan on doing smaller cuts/utilizing left over pieces.

The US cutter mh 721, 25 inch is basically the same price. 

How would that compare to the roland?

Or should I just hold out for like a used roland pnc 1100?


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## gadgetsboy (Sep 1, 2009)

mhmitszach said:


> The US cutter mh 721, 25 inch is basically the same price.
> How would that compare to the roland?


It Doesn't!! the only comparison i see (having used both) is they both cut vinyl. One does it well the other is a complete waste of money, suffers from bad tracking, breaks at the drop of a hat, has no support and if you happen to get taken in by the "Laser" model has a torch attached that does nothing. And then when you just think it cant get any worse it starts to cut oyster edged diagonal lines that us cutter can neither explain or solve

My advice buy a 10yr old Roland before you contemplate a chinese one

sorry if that sounds bitter but just go read the us cutter forum before buying i think you'll agree


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## MrG2 (Mar 7, 2014)

I've had a Roland CAMM-1 PNC-1000 for several years running on an old Mac G3 tower with the old Roland "SignMate Express" software. It does mostly what I need, but use Adobe Illustrator on same computer when I need a more complicated logo, etc. This plotter uses 15" and 20" wide vinyl (NOT 24"). Currently there is only one source for 20" vinyl is the U.S. and that's Richard's Distributing in Rockford, MI. Phone them at 1-800-848-1245. They actually cut off rolls of 24" to make the now rare 20" vinyl, and simply charge you the same price. This is Rich-Cal 6 year high gloss 3.0 mil vinyl and works very well.
To go from the old Mac OS9 serial port to the PNC-1000 you need a SPECIAL ROLAND CROSSOVER CABLE that was originally supplied with the plotter. It may will also work on a newer Mac under OSX but haven't tried this. Newer Macs and PCs have much faster RAM, etc so this old plotter might not be fast enough to support a faster system.
Also, Roland SignMate is no longer available, but these old ".sm" files can only be read by FlexiSign, since they made SignMate for Roland. They import just fine with newer Flexi8mac starter software running on an newer Intel iMac under OS 10.6.8. Just be sure you have similar fonts, etc.
You can also cut smaller sheets of vinyl on the PNC-1000 using a large pressure sensitive "sticker sheet" that will feed thru the plotter. These came with the original plotter but you can make these yourself.
Good luck!


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