My son and I picked this up from the side of the road the other day. It's a 42" HP Designjet 500.
It looks like the belt is falling apart and it's throwing an error code for the Service Station.
Parts should be under $300 and an hour or two to install them.
Is it worth repairing? We would mostly be printing floor plans for work, the occasional map, and posters for his kids.
While I am not a fan of H/P small-format printers, the large-format jobs are typically solid and reliable.
Having picked it up for free, I would invest $300 in seeing if you can make it run. Nice find!
I've got an HP1200C at work. It's a nice machine. The only issue I have had is getting updated drivers as windows went to 10/11. I would make sure you can get drivers and then go for it.
We’ve got an HP Design Jet at the shop, not sure of the model but it’s about 8 years old and replaced a similar unit that we had previously. They have their quirks but mostly reliable in our experience.
I think my office has that model and it's a good one. I haven't printed off a plotter in years but a poster size printer is cool anyway.
We have a design jet at work. I use maybe twice a year, and every time I print to it there is some kind of issue that requires service to come out.
Its gonna be a financial black hole for occasional use. Those things are not made to sit, they are made to run production,
Floor plans for work - work should pay for those, if they are needed use their printer, or if you are your own entity, have them printed at Staples and expense it.
Maps - You're on your own for that one.
Posters - these are not really made to do posters. They will drink the ink and the result will be less than stellar. Get posters made by guys with the proper large format printers like Walgreens.
Best suggestion is call around to local printer repair shops, tell them you got it from work and were tasked with getting rid of it, and see if they want to buy it for spares or refurb. I have sold quite a few plotters that way and always been happy with the money paid and lack of struggle.
If you can find drivers and software to run it, full speed ahead. Do you need service manuals? Dried print heads can be brought back by dabbing their nozzles on moist, lint-free cloths.
Depending on your expectations and needs, you may be thrilled with the poster quality. Message me for any help you need.
~Wide format printer tech
Drivers might be a problem. I could have had a couple of 36" HP plotters from my office for free - except HP never made 64bit drivers for them. So if you have an old computer you can use as a dedicated print server it might be worth it.
Ink cartridges for these may be (probably) pricey and they'll dry out from lack of use.
And as mentioned, they do NOT like to sit. We had one in my old office that we used for color plots and it was a constant headache because it would get use maybe once a month. It became cheaper/faster to have color plots done by a local printing vendor.
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