Screens for Fiery or just Remote Desktop?

[bcr]

Hi folks,

Have a bit of a dilemma as to whether to bother connecting new fiery controllers up to monitors and keyboard/mouse vs. just using remote desktop to access them from a computer on the other side of the room?

Are there are any technical/practical restrictions if I set them up without screens?

I must admit I do like the idea of having a large monitor behind each machine if only to display the time remaining for large printing tasks.

Getting two Ricoh C5310's in an in-house repro room, with external E-47b controllers. There'll be a high power PC in the far corner. Machines will be mostly for legal printing, copying type jobs - lots of tabs and punching. One operator there part time and the rest self service.

 

[SoggyWinter]

I haven't had issues with RDP into an EFI machine. Some machine bios/firmware looks for a keyboard at boot and will error without one, but booting without a monitor attached shouldn't be a problem. You can usually turn off those hardware checks anyway.

 

[rcreveli]

I used to run command workstation on my desk & logged into each machine (4).

 

[bcr]

Ah good to know it's not strictly necessary, thanks!

Might still try and get some screens on wall if only because the speedometer and time remaining view looks cool lol!

 

[msaeger]

It's nice to have a monitor on them just so you can see what is going on with windows more easily. Like windows is trying to update and causing it to take a long time to start up. You can do everything from command workstation on another pc so you don't need one but if there is space to put a monitor I would.

 

[Shawnd]

I have two and keep a monitor/kb/mouse on one of the fierys, it sits unused most of the time as I do everything from CWS. I will RD into the fiery if I need to reboot it or use taskmgr to see what is going on.

The monitor/kb/mouse on the fiery is mostly for the techs to use in my setup.

 

[donnied]

As a tech, I prefer to have each Fiery have a Keyboard, Monitor and Mouse setup, if just to monitor the Windows side of the Fiery, updates, startup status and such, which are a generally the vast majority of problems that occur with Fiery's.

 

[[email protected]]

I usually recommend to my new customers that they 1) place the Fiery controller on the floor behind the printer (on a stand to keep it away from dust or any possible water leaks) and then connect the keyboard/monitor/mouse placed on the paper deck (LCIT), and 2) connect a keyboard/mouse to the printer's touchscreen. Yes, you can use the "Fiery Console" as we call it on the touchscreen but that's a remote connection to the Fiery so it's not as responsive as being directly connected.

 

[Shredder]

We do very few print jobs, is there a way to rip them on the cloud and send it to our printer? I would love to save on the expensive print controller.

 

[PricelineNegotiator]

We do very few print jobs, is there a way to rip them on the cloud and send it to our printer? I would love to save on the expensive print controller.

I am very interested in this idea.

 

[msaeger]

We do very few print jobs, is there a way to rip them on the cloud and send it to our printer? I would love to save on the expensive print controller.

On the Ricoh machines except for the 9200 you can use the imbedded controller to print and if you get one that has a scanner there is a document server where you can save jobs on the machine and reprint them. I would guess other brands have something similar but I don't really know for sure.

What kind of print jobs are you doing?

 

[Shredder]

Printing packaging... 10-20 files repeatedly thousands per.

Minolta charges $10k for embedded controller for print production devices. Costing me more than the printer to just print ~20 files even 40. It seems like such a waste. Normally I would buy a used one but since this is a top end model they are rare to come by. I haven't seen one in almost a year.

 

[msaeger]

Is the embedded one they are saying is 10k an embedded fiery? What model machine are you getting?

 

[bcr]

On the Ricoh machines except for the 9200 you can use the imbedded controller to print and if you get one that has a scanner there is a document server where you can save jobs on the machine and reprint them. I would guess other brands have something similar but I don't really know for sure.

What kind of print jobs are you doing?

Are you saying they have a basic internal controller in addition to e.g. A fiery, rather than in place of it?

I have that now on some KM bizhubs but curious if the C5310s I'm getting with E-47b external fierys have that too.

 

[msaeger]

Are you saying they have a basic internal controller in addition to e.g. A fiery, rather than in place of it?

I have that now on some KM bizhubs but curious if the C5310s I'm getting with E-47b external fierys have that too.

Yes the machine comes with what they call the "GW controller" that is the print controller that all of the office type machines use the printing part gets disabled when we install the Fiery. It's something integral to the machine not some extra piece that could be left off. The GW controller still gets used for scanning even with the Fiery. I see Fierys on the print for pay type places but I have seen in house print shops that don't get a Fiery.

With the GW controller it's the experience where you open the file, pick the driver, choose your options, and hit print. If you don't like the color you need to tweak your file there is no calibrating or color management. You also need the file to be ready to go there is no imposition in the driver you need to do that before you print it. You can choose to store the job on the document server and reprint it from the printers operation panel.

 

[[email protected]]

There are 3 controller options for the Ricoh Pro C5300:

1. •• An external Pro-Level, Windows 10-based, Fiery controller (E-47B) with optional workstation furniture.

2. •• A Linux-based Fiery controller (E-27B) which can be connected to drive print data to the mainframe, and other functionality.

3. •• A Ricoh proprietary GW+ Controller which offers an optional Postscript printing function.

So, if you opt for #3 the GW (Grand Works) controller, you will get a very capable quality RIP however there will be no queue control (e.g. Hold queue), includes interpreters for PS3, PCL 5c & PCL6, with IPDS available, and drivers for just about any O/S. What you won't get is Pantone matching, all the usual Fiery options, robust VDP handling, and sophisticated color controls. If your files are heavy with lots of transparency layers and/or images you will be waiting longer to rip the file than with a Fiery.

There is however a function within the GW called Document Server which will allow you to hold print and scan jobs in memory for reprint purposes but of course, the amount of storage space is limited as compared to the Fiery.

Either way, you will be able to take full advantage of all the hardware aspects of the printer system.

I'm guessing the other printer companies may offer something similar but I'm not really familiar with their current offerings.

 

[Shredder]

Is the embedded one they are saying is 10k an embedded fiery? What model machine are you getting?

Minolta C6100. The fiery's are external but the Minolta Controller runs $8k and is embedded. I don't have either.

Yes the machine comes with what they call the "GW controller" that is the print controller that all of the office type machines use the printing part gets disabled when we install the Fiery. It's something integral to the machine not some extra piece that could be left off. The GW controller still gets used for scanning even with the Fiery. I see Fierys on the print for pay type places but I have seen in house print shops that don't get a Fiery.

With the GW controller it's the experience where you open the file, pick the driver, choose your options, and hit print. If you don't like the color you need to tweak your file there is no calibrating or color management. You also need the file to be ready to go there is no imposition in the driver you need to do that before you print it. You can choose to store the job on the document server and reprint it from the printers operation panel.

For production printers Minolta does not include a controller. For the Bizhub line they do. I believe they used to call it emperon controller. It really irritates me that they don't have a simplified controller built in as I am repeating the same jobs over and over again.

 

[bcr]

Yes the machine comes with what they call the "GW controller" that is the print controller that all of the office type machines use the printing part gets disabled when we install the Fiery. It's something integral to the machine not some extra piece that could be left off. The GW controller still gets used for scanning even with the Fiery. I see Fierys on the print for pay type places but I have seen in house print shops that don't get a Fiery.

With the GW controller it's the experience where you open the file, pick the driver, choose your options, and hit print. If you don't like the color you need to tweak your file there is no calibrating or color management. You also need the file to be ready to go there is no imposition in the driver you need to do that before you print it. You can choose to store the job on the document server and reprint it from the printers operation panel.

Good to know, thanks!

It will be used in a repro printing from total flow via fiery but will also have users printing to it from output manager. Useful to know about the GW controller for when it gets setup.

 

[proditus]

If you go the RD route, make sure you proxy the ports and DO NOT USE default 3389 ports. DDOS attack are imminent on those ports. Learned it the hardway

 

[tommyboy]

I usually recommend to my new customers that they 1) place the Fiery controller on the floor behind the printer (on a stand to keep it away from dust or any possible water leaks) and then connect the keyboard/monitor/mouse placed on the paper deck (LCIT), and 2) connect a keyboard/mouse to the printer's touchscreen. Yes, you can use the "Fiery Console" as we call it on the touchscreen but that's a remote connection to the Fiery so it's not as responsive as being directly connected.

Hello Deckm00, I have the E-27B rip with the Ricoh 5300S. I've found that since the RIP doesn't have a GUI, I cannot select a method of shut down, so in case of having Hydro surges when I'm not around(gone home for the day or weekend) there can be no damage caused to this very sensative Linux based RIP. The RIP had to be re-built twice since both items were installed a few weeks ago. Now, after seeing how much work goes into re-building this small RIP, and losing all the jobs that were held there for different reasons, I am quite afraid of it happening again.
Would you suggest turning the RIP off every evening before going home? I only suggest this because if squirrels cause transformers to shut power off in this area(which happens quite often), or a bad storm, that can also happen, I really don't want to have to re-build this RIP again.
I like your idea of connecting a monitor and keyboard/mouse so I can access the RIP. Is that something easily done?
Thanks,