emwoodrow

I'm going to try a completely different route. I'm going to cobble together a desktop with a serial port today and load it with Win2K.

I'm exporting from Corel, not Illustrator.

What the heck. It can't hurt anything to try. I'm also going to hit Radio Shack tomorrow to see if I can get away with a higher end usb to serial cable. If not I'll order the Keyspan. I just really don't want to wait that long to play with my toy. I feel like a kid on christmas morning and Santa forgot to bring batteries.

I understand that I'm not going to get all the bells and whistles with a low end cutter. I just wish they had been forthcoming. The fact that USB connectivity doesn't work seems to be common knowledge among regular users here. It would stand to reason that the support guys know it too. Still some sales guy decides to list it as a feature knowing some poor guy on the helpdesk is going to get chewed out over it.

Well, here's the file. It is nothing but a contour for some text. Nothing crazy. envelope white.eps

Condescending much Dan? Forgive me for expecting the USB connectivity to work on a device sold as supporting USB. As for researching, I have been doing so for 2 days. It does actually take some time to hit on the right keywords to realize it is a USB issue, especially since it took a full day to get the right drivers to get it to connect at ALL. Secondly, you seriously think that it is acceptable for a company to sell an item with false claims if the faults are pinned in a user forum? As for giving the support team a chance, I don't blame them and I sure as heck won't take it out on them. I used to do support. I know what it is like to get screamed at because some moron in management/sales made promises that us techies couldn't possibly fulfill. Liz

Support said that Signblazer doesn't work with the SC. I actually didn't know I could upload the actual file here. I haven't found that button yet

I'm using signcut pro, and the driver was installed by US cutter tech support today via remote control. The hub was just a last ditch effort after the adapter didn't work. You know if the dang USB connectivity doesn't work and the adapter is required then why the heck don't they just say so? I would have ordered the freakin Keyspan adapter when I ordered my cutter! I can't find a keyspan locally, so I will have to pay overnight shipping if I want to find out before Monday if I have wasted my money.

It communicates and runs the cutter, but it still goes crazy, or just stops in the middle of the job. Another thing I have noted is that the blad does not raise at the end of the job. Here is the pic I sent to tech support. I traced the cut it made with a marker to make it easier to see. It is just a contour around some text. I tried two different adapters. 1 was a generic usb to serial adapter, and the other was a usb to serial hub. It does this every single time. The cut preview shows it cutting properly. I also tried another pretty generic design and it just quit mid-job. I'm tired. I'm frustrated, and I have actual paying work piling up.

I have fought with this thing for 2 days. Suddenly it is not such a good value.

No dice on the keyspan adapter. Of course, by the time my husband got home, it is too late to call. I'm back to expensive mistake.

I've already gotten past that step. I have seperate blade holders for 45 and 60 degree blades and tweaked the depth on them doing small designs and tested the recommended pressures for my 4 current materials. Now I'm testing larger stuff and it's going bat-guano-crazy. From what I'm reading, hopefully a keyspan adapter will fix me up, but my husband has our only one in his laptop bag, and I'm not buying another until I know that is the fix. That's what I'm using pen and paper to test.

Let me clarify, I was expecting heated responses, not replying to existing ones I thought were heated. They got me set up and mostly going. I'm still fighting it, but at least I got past my first big duuuh. Why test cut expensive materials when you can stick the pen in and use paper? duuuh.

I understand the desire to be cost efficient, but bad documentation is just being penny wise and pound foolish. On my rhinestoning board the consensus is don't bother trying to set it up yourself, just call support and have them log into your machine remotely and do it. So in saving money on documentation, they are WASTING money on man hours, not to mention the fact that many people buying these machines are members of use-specific boards and if you tick one off, you lose their recommendation on the board. From what I have heard, the support team will probably get me through this (hopefully). Still, I think there is room for improvement without breaking the bank. It would probably sell more cutters for them and cut back on their user support overhead. The user manual is only 17 pages long. How long would it take one of their support people to write it in actual English, then publish it on the support site? I have seen it time and again with my old clients. Support staff swears up and down that they don't have time to do documentation because they don't even have enough staff to support the users. Then when they are prodded to it, they find that they actually DO have enough staff when users have the tools they need to help themselves and the support staff doesn't have to spend all day on the phone walking people through menial crap. I know people on this board are probably very loyal so maybe seeing someone "bashing" the company raises some hackles. I'm really trying more for constructive criticism.

I just got my US Cutter SC series cutter today and I had such high hopes, but I'm really starting to wonder if I made a big expensive mistake. The first thing I noticed when I opened the box was... no documentation. Not even a quick start guide. OK. I found the included CD and searched around on it a bit. I found a folder for the SD called Manual. The document inside was in a language vaguely resembling english. It is completely unintelligible. No Windows 7 drivers. Great. I called the support line and was guided to start.uscutter.com, somewhat snarkily. (No, there isn't a sticker on the box telling me to go to the website) OK. That would have been nice information to have at the outset, but I'm game. I followed the instructions, but when I go to set up Signcut, my cutter isn't listed. Reinstall the patch for SD. Nope. Unistall, then reinstall both signcut and patch. No dice. Support is now closed for the day. Fine. I go to the support page hoping for a manual that is actually in English. There I find manauals for every type EXCEPT the SC series. I'm hoping support can get me through this tomorrow, but how can you not have a READABLE, readily available user manual? I can't even install it as a printer, and I did desktop and server support for 10 years!!! PLEASE!! Invest in a contract technical writer. It will pay for itself in reduced support costs in NO TIME.