HP DesignJet 450C, 455CA and 488CA

HP DesignJet 450C, 455CA and 488CA printer / plotters

The DesignJet 450C is (was) a colour entry-level printer for architectural, engineering, construction, cartography and mechanical design. The printers were launched in 1997 so they are over 15 years old now, there still seem to be quite a few in service in 2015.

Inkjet printers can last a long time when they are well engineered.

The DesignJet 430, 450C and 455CA replaced the DesignJet 330 and 350C, which had in their turn replaced the 230, 250C and 300, 350C. All were based on the chassis of the DesignJet 220. The difference with the later models is the use of improved ink cartridges first seen on the DesignJet 650 and the DeskJet 1200.

There are two main limitations on the DesignJet 450 series now:

Spares are beginning to dry up; there has been erratic supply of third party carriage belts from one web vendor during 2015 but we think that supply has now ended.

Due to small memory they might behave erratically when faced with complex jobs. Problems stem from a combination of driver design and memory. The default memory of 4 megabytes and maximum of 36 megabytes is small by today's standards - HP's smallest current DesignJet the T120 comes with 256Mb and the T520 with a Gigabyte.

If you can avoid raster fill patterns in documents then older printers are more likely to cope with today's demands. Problems tend to happen when people send documents that are too complicated for the memory in older printers.

The service manual for the 450C says: …

Raster Image Processor The raster transfer language (RTL) provides a solution to insufficient memory on the Printer. When all the data is sent to the Printer in the order left-to-right and top-to-bottom, the Printer is able to plot the data as it receives it. For this to happen, software (a raster-image processor) in the computer must first rasterize all the data. The software issues a command (referred to in RTL as no negative motion) telling the Printer that it will not receive data for any media location on which it has already plotted. The use of no negative motion is called flow mode. Data flows through the Printer without being stored in a display list, so the size of the file that you can send is almost unlimited.

Memory problems might be surmountable. I looked in the Linux CUPS driver and couldn't see a "flow mode" control but there is a graphics mode control which might be an alias for the same idea.

The DesignJet 450C came in two sizes:

  • DesignJet 450C A1 or D sized - C4715A - 610mm (24 inch)
  • DesignJet 450C A0 or E sized - C4716A - 910mm (36 inches)

There is also a PostScript variant:

  • DesignJet 455CA A1 or D sized - C6080A - 610mm (24 inch)
  • DesignJet 455CA A0 or E sized - C6081A - 910mm (36 inches)

The 455CA has RIP software for the Apple Macintosh.

The basic model was a tabletop device, the leg kit being optional.

The DesignJet 488CA is very similar to the 450 as well- it comes with PostScript software for Mac and Windows, the roll feed, stand and automatic cutter and is compatible with Apple ColorSync for reliable colour.

  • DesignJet 488CA A1 or D sized - C6082A - 610mm (24 inch) and DesignJet 488CA A0 or E sized -C6083A - 910mm (36 inches)

The 450C family includes the DesignJet 430 which is monochrome but HP used to sell an upgrade kit turning it into a colour machine.

If you were looking hopefully for parts for one of these printers we are sorry to dissapoint you. Repeated requests to HP distributors during 2015 have shown critical spares like belts and trailing cables are obsolete. There are a few available - we were quoted nearly £100 for a "refurbished" trailing cable in December 2015. The reason is obvious; to get that cable someone has to scrap a printer. And there is a problem; you can't really "refurbish" a trailing cable or a belt, all that can be done is to confirm it came from a working machine.

This may leave you feeling miffed that HP have withdrawn support; if so reflect on some competing brands (like Epson) with much shorter service lives. If, on the other hand, you are amazed at how good the HP was you have a choice of new printers.

The T120 will meet basic needs, the T520 can print in higher resolution, comes with the printer stand and is available in both 24 inch (A1) and 36 inch (A0) sizes. Either of those machines would be an appropriate replacement for the DesignJet 450C.

Control:

There is a control panel with LEDs and buttons. More controls are accessible by pressing setup- at which the printer creates a setup sheet. Mark this and feed it back into the printer to change settings.

Duty Cycle:

10 prints per day (300 per month)

Produces a 610x910 (Architects "D") mono line drawing in less than 1.5 minutes in fast mode. 4 Minutes for colour diagrams. Full colour images take 18 minutes.

600 dpi addressable resolution black, 300 dpi colour

Paper Handling:

Sheets and rolls to 24 inch or 36 inch width and 64 inch length. Rolls to 50 metre length.

Memory:

4MB basic upgradeable to 36MB

HP Memory upgrades are (were):

  • C3132A 4MB RAM SIMM
  • C3133A 8MB RAM SIMM
  • C3146A 16MB RAM SIMM
  • D3578A 32MB RAM SIMM

Obviously there would be very little point upgrading with less than a 32MB SIMM these days. 36MB would be regarded as a bare minimum for a plotter.

HP Partsurfer says the memory is: …

HP 32MB FPM SIMM. 32MB, 70nS, 36-bit parity SIMM memory module - (D3578A)

… and that is confirmed by several other sources. There is some chance you may have in an old "486" type of PC.

HP don't seem to sell this memory new (it used to be costly anyway). When I checked in March 2014 there were a couple of US vendors selling HP badged memory on sites such as eBay - presumably ex-equipment pulls - for about $20 ex P&P.

If you are having memory-related difficulties (characteristically, prints that take phenomenal amounts of time or never happen) then note what was said about RTL and "flow mode" above.

Interface:

IEEE-1284 Compatible Parallel (Centronics socket) RS232 25 Pin D female. Optional JetDirect EX

HP-GL. HP_GL/2. HP RTL.

HP-GL/2 is Hewlett-Packard Graphics Language. HP-GL/2 is a superset (upwardly compatible) with HP-GL except that XT and YT (x tick and y tick), RP (Replot), and PG (Page Advance/Eject) are not supported and should be done via PCL5. In effect, HP-GL/2 is a subset of PCL.

HP-RTL apparently originated as a subset of (PCL) Printer Command Language widely used on laser printers. RTL is used to embed raster-images (aka bitmaps) into plotter files.


System Compatibility:

Windows and AutoCAD drivers. 455CA has RIP software for the Apple Macintosh.

Consumables:


Black - 51640A

Cyan - 51644C

Magenta - 51644M

Yellow - 51644Y

Spares:


C4705-60082, Carriage Belt, d-size,

C4706-60082, Carriage Belt, e-size,

C4713-60098, Encoder Strip, d-size,

C4714-60098, Encoder Strip, e-size,

C4713-69039, Pen Carriage Assy, d&e-size

0950-2623, Power Supply

C4713-60017, Spittoon Assy, d&e-size

C4713-60181, Trailing Cable, d-size

Options:

Roll Feed Kit: 24 inch, 610mm C4717A. 36 inch, 910mm C4719A.

Roll feed Spindle Assembly for 24 inch models - C6238A, 36 inch C6239A

Legs Kit: 24 inch, 610mm C6069A. 36 inch, 910mm C6070A.

Memory Upgrades: 16MB SIMM C6231A. 32MB SIMM C6232A.

HP Cleaning Kit: C6247A

Colour Upgrade Kit - C4718

As mentioned above, this printer was produced in 1997 and original spares are no longer available from HP. There are online vendors selling compatible products.

Copyright G & J Huskinson & MindMachine Associates Ltd 2013, 2015. Some pictures derived from HP User and Service guides. These technical pages do not constitute an offer for sale; just our knowledge at the time of writing. See the catalog. Sales pages on this Web site use cookies to store user information. We also use Google Analytics to track site usage patterns.