# Can you make the Roland GX-24 wireless using aiport express?



## Sverno18 (Jan 13, 2010)

HI all,
I am set up with a Roland Gx-24 and a Mac OSX with the cut studio plug in for Illustrator. I am hoping this solution can be made wireless considering my office space. Has anyone had any experience or luck with Apple's "Airport Express"? I am optimistic, however I would love some feedback. Thanks in advance

-Steve


----------



## charles95405 (Feb 1, 2007)

Does not the printer or cutter or other external device require the built in electronics to work wirelessly?? I had a GX24 and do not recall it having any such capabilities.


----------



## allhamps (Mar 15, 2007)

Charles, I believe you are correct. The device you want to operate wirelessly has to have that capability, ie a wireless card or built in WiFi type connection/software. I really do wish some of these cutter folks WOULD move into 2010 and make these things wireless. I have no heat in my "office" in my basement, other than a space heater, so I take my laptop upstairs and do all my design work. Then I have to run down to the cold, to transfer everything to the desktop and start the cutter. Would be nice if I just had to run down once to turn it on and set the material, and I could send the cutting through my wireless laptop. It would be even better if my husband got around to running some heat in that room


----------



## moe_szys1ak (Jun 16, 2008)

charles95405 said:


> Does not the printer or cutter or other external device require the built in electronics to work wirelessly?? I had a GX24 and do not recall it having any such capabilities.


It certainly helps, but it is not necessary to have wireless capability with the specific item to work wirelessly. If you have a wireless base station with usb ports you can plug in external hard drives, printers, etc. and you will be able to access them wirelessly. So, in theory, the Airport Express should work with a cutter, though there may be other issues that I am unaware of that would prevent such usage.


----------



## deenastee (Mar 31, 2006)

I think moe is right. My pc see's the cutter as a printer, so with a wireless print server it should work.


----------



## loloxa (Sep 5, 2007)

It does work.
I have been using this setup for a while,and it works 90% of the time flawlessly, although there is one thing to keep in mind, files with lots of nodes might and will, most of the times, give you cutting errors due to the lag in wifi, and somehow the cutter does not like packets with lag and will send you in to cutting errors. USB protocol has a constant flow of packets, tcp-ip on the other hand can delay packets on netowrk congestion, this works for most aplications with tcp-ip in mind but the interface for the gx24 does not enjoy congestion and can throw errors in some files.

HOWTO:

add printer>Network Printer>URL:your_airport_ip>port:9100.

remember t always have the plotter turned on and plugged to the airport before turning the airport on.


----------



## Sverno18 (Jan 13, 2010)

Thanks for the reply. I was waiting for someone with actual experience with this setup. I did end up getting airport express but I am having trouble with it. The Gx-24 can not be added as a "printer" in the print set up. It works fine with the USB of course but with the airport, it gets all the way to the cut studio plug in up to the point when you hit "cut". The "cut" button never becomes active. Any tips on setting it up properly? Thanks for the help in advance.


----------



## loloxa (Sep 5, 2007)

try adding it as a network printer with my previous tip, if it does not work, reply with your problems.

also you can check through the airport express set up application if your cutter is being recognized ( it shows the name of the cutter in the printer list).


----------



## DTFuqua (Jun 26, 2008)

All this is kind of a moot point if you ask me. Don't you have to go to the plotter to load the vinyl anyway? Don't you want to make sure it is cutting properly?


----------



## Sverno18 (Jan 13, 2010)

Still no luck.
i added the IP address and made sure Roland Gx-24 was on the list in Utility. This is most likley something simple but still no luck. 

The cutter was turned on, plugged in the express, and everything seems to be normal other than the lack of cutting of course.... 

Any other thoughts or things I am missing? Thanks again.


----------



## loloxa (Sep 5, 2007)

What Os are you using? if the printer is not connected the "add printer utility" should not allow for a new port to be added. when you choose cut can you select the Roland printer you have created? Is the status "Ready" for the printer? And remember always turn on the airport express after the cutter is plugged in to the current and in to the airport via USB.


----------



## Nvr2Old (Oct 14, 2009)

Sverno18 said:


> HI all,
> I am set up with a Roland Gx-24 and a Mac OSX with the cut studio plug in for Illustrator. I am hoping this solution can be made wireless considering my office space. Has anyone had any experience or luck with Apple's "Airport Express"? I am optimistic, however I would love some feedback. Thanks in advance
> 
> -Steve


Just a suggestion, I have a similar situation in my home/office, but instead of finding a wireless solution for my cutter, I just attach my cut files to an email and send them to my dedicated computer for my cutter. Then I go into my office, open my email and cut from that file.
If you can get Airport Express to work with your cutter, I will be very impressed. I have had many compatibility issues with Airport Express and ended up going back to a standard wireless router.
Also judging by the thumbnails it appears that Loloxa is using Windows not Mac. That can make a huge difference when trying to set up a wireless network to use peripheral devices.


----------



## loloxa (Sep 5, 2007)

Nvr2Old said:


> Also judging by the thumbnails it appears that Loloxa is using Windows not Mac. That can make a huge difference when trying to set up a wireless network to use peripheral devices.


I'm running virtual windows under osx/ or Linux(ubuntu), so I can use the original bundled cutstudio application. My virtualizaton layer thanks to VBOX from sun.

My point for wireless connectivity is more than not having cables runt through out the floor in my shop, as I like to have a good computer at the desk , and not one dedicated for each of my printers/cutters. Or imagine all your devices clustered around one PC.

In this way I can have the cutter receive cutting operations from anywhere ( even over the Internet), so it's not a must , but certainly helps.


----------



## ericsson2416 (Aug 29, 2007)

Was anyone able to make their GX-24 wireless on a non-mac network with the airport express? Or would the airport express work on an all PC network? We're moving into a new space and have to make our cutter wireless.

Thanks


----------



## ericsson2416 (Aug 29, 2007)

As an update we were able to get our GX-24 to cut wireless. The airport express directions were fairly straightforward but I would suggest having someone familiar with Mac and networking there to just watch over your shoulder for problems. We installed it on a windows 8 computer and had to download updated versions of CutStudio and the drivers.


----------

