darcshadow

Any while they are bottom of the barrel, they can be made to work well if you take the time to tune it and work out all the kinks. I've had one for about 15 years that has served me well as a hobbiest. Just have to know the limitations of the machine.

I can't. If the blade exposure is set correctly it is physically impossible to cut through the backing. But if you've got things working for you again, great. What did you do to fix it?

One note to add, you said you have your blade depth set correctly, but then you said it cut nearly all the way through the backing paper on L and M. That says you do not have your blade depth set correctly. If you did, it would not be possible to cut into the backing paper like that. That aside, it kind of sounds like you have an alignment problem, or a cutting strip problem. Hopefully tech support can help.

It's an op-amp, look for a small 8 pin chip with 741 on it. Found a photo of an older board, I believe the chip you are looking for is marked U208. Looks like the part number on that one is LM148

Sounds like you got ahold of a tech guy that didn't actually know what he was doing. If the cutter moved when you applied the battery then there is nothing wrong with the carriage, it's the power getting to the carriage. As Skeeter said, it's most likely the Z-chip, which is nothing more than a simple op-amp IC. On older MH boards this chip is in a socket and easy to replace. Newer boards, it's soldered on. Still replaceable, just not as easy.

The stripes are just thin rectangles that I cloned. I then merged them all into one object. After I got done with it, I decided it probably would have been easier to create the stripes vertical or horizontal. The cloning process is easier that way. Then if you really want them rotated just do that after you merge them.

Is that normal vinyl you're cutting?

What did you try that didn't work? The H is 16 straight lines, and the circle is a standard tool in any vector software. I know slice already gave you the file, but this is something that if you can't recreate yourself you probably should look into finding a different hobby. The only "hard" part about this design is arching the text to match exactly and even that, most vector programs have a way to do it.

Be sure you have the baud rate set correctly. Mz Skeeter is right in that they have limited memory, but I have never ran into that as a problem and I've cut some stuff with tons of nodes. If the comms are setup correctly, the computer will send data to the machine, it'll start cutting, when the memory fills, the computer will pause sending data till the cutter request more. In theory, a cutter only needs a few K of memory as long as the comms connection is stable.

Looks like you're on the right track, just matter of tuning things.

I don't have SB with me so I can't tell you exactly right now. In Inkscape, the process would be to "break apart" the image which would result in a solid image that can then be used with the intersect command. Although if we take a step or two back in your process all you should have to do is do an intersect command with the original image and the lines image. Here's an example of how I would do it in Inkscape. I have created an image of stripes and I have the tiger image. Next I'll move the tiger image over the stripes. Then select both images and use the Intersect command

I'm not sure there is a tool to do it directly in SB but what I would do, turn the outline into a solid so that it covers the entire design. Next draw a box that covers everything outside the design that you don't want. Punch the design out of the square, then punch the square out of the entire image. That should leave you with only the part of the image you want.

You most likely have a null modem cable. Google it to see the wiring, it'll be clearer than trying to explain here. Random cuts could be static. With having the vinyl on the roller like you have it is not getting grounded anywhere. Set the roll on the rollers and have the stand grounded, that should take care of any static issues and possible the random cuts.

The last photo is how you are suppose to connect it. The USB-2-Serial adapter does NOT connect to the cutter. The 2M length shouldn't be a problem but if you have a shorter USB cable it can't hurt to give it a try.

Did anything happen or change that caused the behavior to start? Mine started doing that on the second cut after I "upgraded" to windows 10. I have to power cycle the cutter after every cut. Try a different computer, try windows 7 or older. If that doesn't make it work, motherboard would be a safe bet. If the cutter is very old, it's probably not worth fixing, just get a newer cutter.