Set up the press connector

The press connector is the one small program that sits beside your press and brings jobs down into the folder your RIP watches. These are the steps for connector 0.1.5 on Windows. We do the first one with you, and watch the first job through.

So far we have tried the connector against a stand-in press, not yet beside a shop's own.

Before you start

• Which computer. The one that runs your RIP (ONYX) is best. Otherwise a computer that is on all day, signed in to Windows, and able to open the RIP's hot folders. One computer is set up for each site.
• Windows 10 or 11, 64-bit. A 32-bit or older Windows cannot run it.
• It needs to reach Studio. It only ever reaches out to Studio's own address. If your network goes through a proxy that Windows is set to, ask us for the entry to allow.
• You are a supervisor. Nobody else is shown the controls.

The steps

1. In Studio, press Presses. Under Presses, printers and cutters on your network, where the site has no connector yet, Set up this site once explains it and gives you the connector's file. Save it to the Downloads folder or the Desktop of the computer that stays on, and unzip it. Or put the unzipped folder in a shared folder every computer at the site can see, and open it from any one of them, once.
2. Open Start PostPress Connector. It starts by itself with Windows from then on.
3. If Windows says Windows protected your PC (SmartScreen), click More info, then Run anyway. The connector is not signed with a Windows publisher certificate yet, so Windows warns about every new program like it. If an antivirus program stops it instead, tell us rather than switching the antivirus off.
4. A window says what the connector is doing, then a page opens on that computer. In Studio press Show me a code. The code is six letters and numbers, shown in two halves, lasts 15 minutes and works once. Type it into the page when it asks. Studio changes to Connected by itself.
5. Studio lists what the connector found: printers, cutters and RIP servers on the network here. Tick the ones that are your presses, name each, and choose its model. A press that is on no list can be added by its address or name.
6. Name each press's hot folder under Integrations. See Name a hot folder for each press.

A supervisor can press Cancel this code to end a code at once, and can disconnect a connector. That stops its reports and fetches and deletes nothing.

After it is set up

• It starts with Windows, and a five-minute task of the same user starts it again if it is stopped. Neither needs an administrator.
• A restart with nobody signed in leaves it stopped until someone signs in, because starting earlier needs an administrator. Set the computer to sign in by itself.
• It checks for a signed update every six hours and takes only files signed by two of three release keys, each checked as it arrives.
• A shop with another site puts the connector on that site's network the same way. It has its own code and shows its own printers.

What it never does

It reads no job and no customer. It starts, stops or reorders nothing on your RIP. Its one write toward the RIP is the print file into the hot folder you named, and the one other thing it ever makes is an empty folder a supervisor asked for. See The press connector and hot folders.

If something is not right

See When the press connector is quiet.