Big bloke in Aus

Back again, yep I think Skeeter and TrackHawk are on the money. Sat down with it last night and can cut lettering up to about 5 letters, or more as long as they are simple. I can cut big circles so it doesn't seem to be a size issue. BUT - if I try and cut a word in, what I call, bubble style text, it will only get a letter or two in before it cuts a straight line at a 45 degree angle, usually in the same direction each time. I'm guessing that the greater the complexity of the cut or task cable just can't transmit the data correctly. As TrackHawk I think I'm looking at a comms issue, and not the main board. Ill order the trip Lite. I read up on what it does and it seems to actually do something vs just be an adapter, which is what I thought they were to start with. Interestingly the USB to r232 cable that I have is made from a clear style plastic. Looking at it last night I realised what skeeter was saying about "buying a USB to serial cable as cheap as the cheap Chinese chipset in the vinyl cutter" you can see the micro chip in it and a few simple wires, again which points me at the comms issue, not the computer or the cutter. Oh and Ill also try changing the BAUD rate to 9600 and see what that does - but - anything I can find on the CS models, even the instruction manual says to set the baud rate at 38400. That's an easy test. Thanks again everyone. Ill let you know how I go.

Thanks for the response and for the welcome. I will follow up with triplite adapter. The computer I am running doesn't have a serial output, well it does but its like 13 pin or something, its not the same as the r232 on the cutter. Actually that's something that I could look at too.

Hi there, so in an effort to introduce myself and try to get some help and give back to a forum that I never knew existed and I have read so much on already I thought I would start my own thread. So after stumbling across what a vinyl plotter actually is and does I was like 'Yes I need one of these in my life!'. My kids love their sport and I figured that I could get a plotter and start making name tags for drink bottles and names for shirts and all sorts of cool stuff. Anyway after a while I came across a CS1200 with 6 boxes (maybe 30 rolls) of sticker and T-shirt vinyl and a heat press for $300. I'm in AUS. And bang it was in the ute and on the way home. That was about 3 months ago. Since then I have uploaded Artcut and then Signblazer. First I found that the USB port didn't work, so I switched to a r232 (I think that's right) cable and bingo. Running with artcut the cuts were hit and miss, it seemed that if the picture or word was too big I would get 3 or 4 letters in and the blade would want to run off into the sunset across as much of the vinyl as possible. I researched and researched and then some more. Static electricity maybe? Operating the machine on a tiled floor in the Australian summer, moderate humidity I didn't think it could be static but ran the diagnostics. Made a pen attachment, flipped over the roll of vinyl so it would draw, ran the string line across the back of the machine and even a wire from the stand to the floor - this made no difference. Try to cut the word "dingo" and it would get to DIN- and then go for a jog again across the page. A few weeks later after more research I tried sign blazer - running the trial version (because I don't have an activation Code) I found on this page I had more success. Even managed to do an A4 sized Rolls Royce Logo and a descent sized letter sign. But after that I am getting much the same results. Sometimes I get a clean cut and most other times I get half a word or not much at all. Especially if its a double stacked word, as opposed to one word after the other in sentence format. Its doing my head in, I just wanted to make decals for the kids and their jerseys. It shouldn't be this hard, I must be doing something wrong.. or its broken? In my frustrations and research it seems that vinyl plotters are somewhat of a dark art and hats off to anyone that has mastered them. My next items to try will be; 1. Another serial cable - Maybe one that's longer or more expensive - Anyone have any suggestions on brand? 2. Could it be the main board / mother board? I have managed to locate them at approx. $150AUSD. How do you diagnose a blown motherboard 3. Is it something I am doing with the settings? I have the baud rate at 3800, got the right com port etc (that was an interesting process in setting up) Any help would be greatly appreciated. Ill try and keep this post going as best I can until I get it sorted out. The only other thing to add is that it seems the Pcut cs1200 and cs630 are much the same machines as the ct1200 and ct630 with the CS being the predecessor to the CT. Thanks in advance.

Hi again, just thought I should come back and update the thread, at the very least as a thankyou to the response and to keep the information sharing going. After spending a solid 3 days googling all there is to know about pCuts and the different models, problems with getting the cutters t0 respond etc it seemed the constant issue was the usb vs serial port cord argument. Some people the USB would work one day and then not the next, the USB would work on some computers and not others. So I bought a USB to serial rs 232 for $6 and bang - machine came to life! So excited, the kids think that I'm the greatest. So far all I have been able to achieve is text but they are happy with seeing their names. I also had to change the baud rate for the cs1200 to 38,400. on both the port and the artcut software. I'm running windows 7. The only issue that I have now is that I have to flip and reverse the image to get it to cut the right way, and sometimes its good and other times the cutter throws a big slice right through the middle of the work. The only other thing that I will throw in, is that it seems information on the pcut CS range, the 630 and the 1200 is somewhat limited compared to their other models.

Hi there, I have the exact same issue with my (new to me) cs1200 same cutter generation just twice as big. I’m running Artcut (New to all of this) and your issue is the same as mine, although in Artcut I can locate the cs1200 vs the ct1200. Did you ever figure it out?

Hi there, I have just bought a Pcut CS1200(G?) and I am having the exact same problem... exact same message on the screen etc. Can you tell me how you managed to get around the issue? I have been at this for 3 days... this is the closest that I have come to on Google to figuring out how this works. Just wanted to be able to make stickers etc for the kids. Thanks,