5AGraphix

Thanks, BannerJohn, your absolutely correct. My wife swears I have ADHD, since I do get into a lot of things. But I do know, especially if this venture is to span out to be more of a business rather than a Cricut on Roids hobby, it deserves the attention, education and patience and practice for it to bear fruit. As a student, pursuing my MBA, one of the things I've learned in business and it is applicable in life in general, is to be prepared. As Civil War General Nathan Bedford Forrest has been misquoted in saying, "Be there firstest with the mostests,". Being prepared with one's business is crucial to success. So instead of getting frustrated and angry, find the solutions and set realistic expectations.

I think the issue here is that the plotters are serial devices that uses a USB port using serial to USB conversion in the plotter's motherboard. The Keyspan which is a branded USB to Serial RS232 DB9 adaptor converts the DB9 interface on the plotter to USB which then allows you to add a serial port to the newer computer motherboards that do not have the RS232 connections. This is why, unlike your printer and or other USB devices, the OS/computer does not detect the plotter itself, but the serial port in the form of a COM address (Serial). So essentially, the plotters with built-in USB ports, (USB B connector) is simply the plotter's built-in USB-to-Serial adaptor. But as indicated, these are not all made the same. Some have better chipsets and better electronics than others. The Keyspan would allow one to bypass the "inferior" USB-to-Serial port built in to the plotter and use the native serial connection and allow for the Keyspan to do the conversion, which Ash and other seem to think is superior. I have yet made an opinion on this, since the relatively short time I had my plotter, I have not had any bad experiences with the built-in conversion. Albeit, intially, I did have a problem, which I quickly identified. When I attempted to use COM1-COM3 which is generally the "natural" RS232 interface address, my Asus Crossfire Formula board was not relaying the information correctly to the OS, possibly from a conflict due to the reserved address space for that COM address. However, moving it to a more "virtual" port address of COM6 seems to have resolved this issue. My experience with the US Cutter on board conversion is limited, but my experience with similar USB to Serial converters are quite intensive. As an IT professional in the Legal field, court reporters who have not migrated to the newest transcription devices require a RS232 DB9 port to communicate to the laptops used in depositions. Problem in those situations lies on the fact that none of our Lenovo laptops have a built-in serial port and Belkin and other convertors we have tried have very shaky 64-bit drivers for Windows 7. I have a collection of these at work and one day I will check how many are Keyspans, but I'm sure at least 1 or 2 are. So for this application we have resorted to using docking stations that have built-in serial ports which works just fine. After a quick check, it appears the the Keyspan uses the same chipset, FTDI as the built-in ones on our plotters. However, further research shows that the WHQL drivers are 32-bit WIN XP/VISTA not 64-bit, nor does it say Windows 7. So I don't really know, outside of the testimony here on how good these are. But for Mac Users, I would guess it is probably a good buy at $40 shipped to pick one of these up, since it appears to work on OSX 10.2.8 and higher.

Perhaps it is because I am new to this industry and may not be accustommed to perfection that this industry demands. But being in the computers and photography industry, I have learned not to expect perfection all the time. So it is somewhat puzzling to me that so many people are complaining about their US Cutter products, and the service. One thing I quickly learned in this business, which is true to most businesses; you get what you paid for. Getting a cutter sub $500 and expecting it to perform and be perfect like ones over $1000 seems a bit reaching and a little on the "premadonna" end. Understanding I paid $400 for my cutter, I did not expect the best, and somewhat got myself ready for some speed bumps ahead. But though the cutter may not be the best, it surely does the job and my limited experience with USC and their services has been nothing short of great customer service. There were a couple of problems when I received the cutter. USC did not ship or email the activation code for SCP, which was quickly resolved with a phone call the next business day. My second problem I just discovered, after receiving my cleancut blades from Ross, (he is an amazing person, nice to just shoot the crap with) we determined that albeit USC sent me the right, Roland holder, the cap of the holder was too small, as I am unable to insert the blade without removing the cap, which explains why only after a few days of using the plotter, the blade needed to be swapped. I called USC support a few minutes ago, spoke with Tom and he is sending out my replacement holder tonight, which should arrive later this week. Sure, my experience with my Laserpoint 24" has not been perfect by any stretch of the word. However, USC has been there without hassle to make things right. So I don't get the hooplah and moans about this company?

Sound like the fault is with the CISS. Does a regular, genuine Epson magenta cart run out that fast as well? Perhaps the nozzles are drying out too quickly, causing some clogging. Which would lead to a bad Magenta CISS Cart.

Of course, I am brand new as well, so keep that in mind with my comments. I am also an event/wedding/portrait photographer, along with my IT day job, so I too am very familiar with LR and PS. I use Ai and CDR and actually have a similar workflow. I save each layer and cut it, simply because I haven't found a simpler way. SBE, separates colors as layers, so this can save you the trouble. My signcut Pro license came a tad bit later, since USC did not ship my license with my cutter, so I am still trying to figure out how to cut each layer seperately without open and closing each layer in the cutting software.

Jeff, just to to the us cutter website and download the FDDi drivers and the software you need, it is under support then downloads. The FDDI download is a an executable installer. GL.

Okay, I figured it out and I have contour cut (ed?) lol. The key was using a contact sheet. The A4 paper and Letter sized paper I was using kept slipping off of the machine. Also, one very key thing, is that the quality of the vector or the vectorization of the bitmap has to be darn good. Another hint for noobs like me, who would like to start contour cutting. Use the contour effects from CDR or which ever proggy you are using. After getting the Cricut 12 x 24 at Michael's for $15.99, I was able to calibrate the software, cut and produce. I even made two shirts from the mirror cut contour. I also found answers to me question, the blade offset that we set is the distance between the centerline of the plotter and the blade. This is why a pen uses 0.00 offset, because the pen would be dead center of the centerline. When set too low, the corners would be rounded, too high and it will cut more than necessary adding pigtails, or "ears" to the shape. I order a roll of the Cadcut from Stahl's and it set to be delivered tomorrow, so I guess I'm about to find out if it is as good or better than the Siser. It certainly needs more heat and time than the Siser according to their instructions. BTW, thank you, Paco for you noob manual, I have it, the Signcut Pro/X2 instructions for contour cutting, and the Laserpoint 24's Owner's Manual on my iPad2 and was reading all three during my 1.5 hour commute home. Thanks again, all. I hope this helps someone new to cutting.

I am running Window 7 x64 Enterprise, Service Pack 1 and all the software, SBE, SCP, Inkscape, etc. runs just fine along with the FDDI drivers.

I followed the instructions that came with my roll, which indicated 305 deg F for 15 seconds.

+1 I'm a newbie as well, but I found SBE to be an easy way to convert raster lineart to vectorized formats. Convert to monochrome(Image [on the toolbar], mode, monochrome), then Vectorise. Inkscape is also a useful tool to vectorize. Path, trace bitmap. US Cutter seems to recommend using the brightness cutoff and set it to .980, but you will have to look at the preview by pressing update to checkout the results. I hope that helps.

Hi all, I've been lurking here for about three weeks, I learned a lot from BannerJohn, Dakota, et al. But I there are still some more (of course) that I am not all the way clear on. I've used my Laserpoint 24 since day one and it seems I get new challenges everyday. I have made a couple of shirts using Siser Easyweed and lots of vehicle graphics, etc. I would like to preempt my line of questioning to please keep in mind I am brand new to the industry- as I have only been cutting and heat pressing, etc. for about 3 weeks. So please forgive the naivete. 1. What is the offset that we have to set in software? What is that a measurement of? 2. Contour cutting...I tried it last night and failed miserably so, by 2am I decided to check it out again tonight when I get home. 1. Issue I am having is vectoring a bitmap that is pretty complex with shading, etc. But I got it to vectorize, however, it seems to be cutting much bigger than what printed out. 3.Have any of you tried Stahl's Econocut Heat Transfer vinyl's? If so, how does it compare to Siser's easyweed? That's it for now...I'm sure there will be more to come. Just from lurking here, I have learned a few things: 1. Laserpoint is not really like the Roland Gx-24, the laser marks the spot so that it can assist in calibration and designation, it doesn't "scan" the registration marks. (Did I get that right?) 2. Get Cleancut blades (I already called Ross and he's charged my credit card...can't wait.) 3. Use cast vinyl, the cheaper stuff adds to frustrations. 4. Siser Easyweed is one of the good stuff... Thank you, all in advance! BTW, I mod a photography site and another hobby site, the mods here are doing an excellent job! Garret