PBR Allstar

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Content Count

    49

  • Joined

  • Last visited

Posts posted by PBR Allstar

  1. Posted

    Okay,   Forget everything.  
     

    I opened the driver file and installed the usb driver, fumbled through selecting different ports,  and well I think I’m back in the vinyl game!

    Not sure what is up with the Serial port but I’ll just let it go for now.  
     

    thanks again to everyone that has helped the last few weeks, especially S&D for the patience and detailed responses.  

  3. Posted

    6 minutes ago, slice&dice said:

    Hi again. Let's see if I understand you correctly. You have the cutter RESPONDING to your cut command, but the cutting head is not moving (x, z) and only the grit rollers (y axis) are spinning resulting in the vinyl going back and forth, ostensibly according to the design parameters. Can you verify that the movement of the vinyl appears to be consistent with the design? In other words, if you were indeed to obtain cutting head movement, does it seem like the design is being traced correctly, except for the x,z process actually not working?

    Anyway, if the answer to the above is YES, then something is preventing the cutting head from sliding along and also not lifting/dropping the blade.

    Let's see your reply to this troubleshoot attempt, and go from there.

     

     

    I was just sending you a pm when you replied!  LoL. 
     

    the cutter head movement when I press “cut” Is the exact same as when I press “reset” on the cutter.  It advances and reverses on the y axis, goes to the right stop on the x axis, then drops the blade for a split second on the z axis.   It doesn’t have any relation to the size of the design selected to be cut. I’ve tried several different files.  

  6. Posted

    I feel dumb,  it’s been so long since I set this thing up originally that it’s all foreign now.  
     

    Got a new computer running Win7 Pro, SBE installed fine,  all the previous problems that I had with work not transferring to the cut window, etc seem to have been resolved,  now I just need to get the computer to talk successfully to the cutter!

    It seems to be working partially,  as in not giving me any comm errors but all it’s doing is advancing and retracting the vinyl over and over again as if I was hitting reset on the cutter until the “sending output to cutter” status bar completes a couple cycles then it stops.     I do have it plugged in with a serial cable now (previously I had a usb cable as the old computer didn’t have a serial port) 

     

    thanks in advance

    D679F604-E7F4-41A4-8903-E6E4D32971D2.jpeg

  7. Posted

    2 hours ago, slice&dice said:

    I have been very happy with my DELL Optiplex 960 (running 7) -- lots of usb ports (front and back) and a legacy serial DB9 port.

    Paid $60 for it.

     

     

    I’ve looked at some of the optiplex machines,   I’m thinking win7 might be my best bet?

  8. Posted

    Okay,  so my issues with SBE turned out to be a dying computer. That said, I need a New/Refurbished PC  
     

    which is the best Windows version to run SBE?  
     

    I’m looking for links and suggestions (I just need a tower). Would like something with a serial port.  I will only be running SBE and Inkscape on this machine, once or twice a week tops so it doesn’t need to be able to accomplish more than that and maybe the occasional image grab off the internet.  
     

    any suggestions or feedback appreciated, links also very much appreciated.  Budget is a concern for me at the moment. 

  9. Posted

    2 hours ago, darcshadow said:

    Should be ok as a cutting computer, plus side it has a serial port. 2gigs of memory is a bit on the low side, but again, for just a cutting computer it should be good.

    I “should” be able to add more memory fairly easily though, correct?  The DDR2 that it takes is basically free nowadays I think. 

  10. Posted

    Okay,  computer has been diagnosed with a failing hard drive and iffy USB connectivity which I was told was the sign of a failing motherboard.   
     

    so,  I’m looking for another tower to just kind of get me by for now on a budget.  All I run on this machine will be SBE and Inkscape.  I found this one but am here asking for opinions/options?  Keep in mind budget and I want pretty much plug and play due to my low grade tech skills

    thanks again in advance.  
     

    Dell Optiplex, Intel Core 2 Duo 2600 MHz, 500Gig Serial ATA HDD, 2048mb Memory, DVD ROM, Windows XP Professional-Power Cord (Renewed)

    https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0085M34H6/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_v.zkFb3SKQKZB

  11. Posted

    13 hours ago, haumana said:

    If you're working with Windows 10, it will never be in perfect working order. Hahaha. Sad, but true. Things will work for a while, and then comes along a fabulous Microsoft (forced) update, and then stuff doesn't work anymore. I ran into that issue more than several times. I hope it all works out for you.180903505_shakeemjoi.gif.e19dedc27d6dda295fc0eddc6d3cb144.gif

    I was told by darcshadow via PM the Tripp Lite cables work better than most with windows 10 because they update their drivers along with windows updates?   
     

    I still want to get my primary machine up and running again, but really wouldn’t mind having a back up option.  

  12. Posted

    57 minutes ago, haumana said:

    Definitely scan the HD for any bad sectors, you never know. I've had brand new HD's shipped to me be d.o.a. <_<

    I’m going to drop it off with a local computer tech,   I’m honestly in over my head at this point as far as making sure the OS and hardware is in perfect working order. 

  13. Posted

    12 hours ago, darcshadow said:

    regarding talking to the cutter with Windows 10. You're best bet, assuming your computer does not have a comm port, would be to get a tripp light usb to serial adapter and talk to the cutter through the comm port and null modem cable.

    Is it pretty straight forward at that point or is there still a lot of hoops to jump through?   I have SBE running on my win10 laptop but have only really read headaches about trying to make it talk to the Cutter?

  14. Posted

    2 hours ago, haumana said:

    If you're trying in straight text in to SBE, there doesn't appear to be any overlapping, so there is no need to weld or punch.

    If it's flipping or rotating, it's something in the software. Try checking (or unchecking) the Mirror option on the cut screen and see if that helps.

    Well,  I went a bit more aggressive with the registry cleaning and now I can’t even restore it and it just keeps cycling through a “windows did not start normally” screen.  
     

    I checked all the mirror settings but it’s not a consistent problem like that.  Some files open fine, others totally screwy.  
     

    I really feel like it’s an OS problem and the way it’s interfacing with SBE.  Like I mentioned,  I installed the program from the same USB drive on my windows 10 machine and it’s all flawless (minus the whole actually understanding how to make it communicate to my MH cutter)
     

    I’m going to wipe the whole thing and start over.   I have everything backed up so it’s not a big deal.  

  15. Posted

    I’ve been really busy and have put this down for a while but I’m back to try and figure it out again. 
     

    here’s where I’m at:

    unistalled/reinstalled has done nothing

    installed SBD on my win10 laptop and it works fine, all my files look fine in the edit window and cut windows

    unistaled, ran CCleaner, restarted, ran again, restarted and installed SBD,  still doing the exact same things as before. (Jumbles when opened in cut screen, freezes when pressing cut in design screen, sometimes a phantom box will appear even if it’s drawn in a new file)

     

    images are of a new file, one text word, welded/grouped, pressed cut.  Once a jumble transfer, once a frozen screen with phantom selection box.  

    C3195D9A-D3B3-4475-BCF5-08E22DB491F2.jpeg

    BA788579-FF17-4403-AC8D-1E3C94DBDAB7.jpeg

    EB6B6E31-5B74-4A26-B69A-8BE07564C8E9.jpeg

  16. Posted

    Okay, here’s where I’m at. 
     

    I loaded SB 7.0.0 on my work laptop which is windows 10,  I took my master backup of all my SBD files and they all open perfectly and open in the cut window perfectly.   I made a separate copy of all the SBD files on my graphics computer to try on the laptop to see if it was file corruption, and those all opened perfectly and transferred to the cut window perfectly.  
     

    Ive uninstalled/reinstalled SB twice now on the my XP graphics computer using the windows Add/Remove program wizard but I’m still having the same issue.  Weird thing though, it’s not removing the desktop icon for SB, and it just sits on the desktop dead so I’m wondering if the program is not completely uninstalling? (I’m not the most computer savvy)  is it also safe to rule out a driver issue to the plotter seeing as my problems exist well before I’m trying to communicate with the plotter?

    I feel like I’m missing something with the Uninstalling of the program?

    Lastly,  how big of a pain is it to get windows 10 to communicate to my MH721-mk2 plotter? 
     

    thanks for all the help thus far,  I’m very grateful for the resource.  

  17. Posted

    13 minutes ago, slice&dice said:

    Consider ourselves lucky to have it available at all -- USCUTTER keeps that directory open for our refererence, it's still a nice resource despite the lack of support and no updates.

    I'm surprised you're getting this type of glitch. I would rebuild the cut file from scratch, and verify there's no gremlins lurking in there.

    The only real bug I've encountered with SBE is when trying to copy/paste images straight from an Internet page. That'll crash her.

     

    S&D, What do you mean By rebuilding the cut files?

  19. Posted

    30 minutes ago, darcshadow said:

    If it just suddenly started acting funny, what on the computer changed? Was a windows update pushed?

    Literally nothing.   This computer is just running Inkscape and SB.  It’s running Windows XP and actually it hasn’t even been connected to the internet in several months.  The problem happened once before a couple weeks and I just closed the cutter, reopened it and it was fine.  
     

    I have all my SBD files backed up on a jump drive,  so today I’m going to install SB on my work computer and see if they all open in the cut window normally. 
     

    All the files were created in SB and have worked previously.  I can make a simple text design in SB, weld it, and it will want to freeze or cut funny, but some of my simple files will still want to cut just fine.  

  20. Posted

    5 hours ago, haumana said:

    May I ask if you do the original design in SBE, or was this an imported vector file from a different program?

    Would you mind sharing the vector file with us? Then we can do a test layout in different programs. If you don't feel comfortable sharing it publicly, that's all good too. If you PM a few of the regulars here (who have offered you support), we're usually pretty good about testing your file and will let you know the results we get.

    I’m at work right now but yeah I can do that tonight.  

  22. Posted

    After years of trouble free service, SB started really acting up for me today. 
     

    when I go to cut one of three things is happening

    1: program totally freezes

    2: program totally freezes and I get a phantom “select” box in the lower right corner

    3: It opens the cutter and gives me the most jumbled image ever (yes, it cuts jumbled as well)

    B8D83B13-D99E-463F-9D2A-FCE83720C9DD.jpeg

    9CF0B8D9-7D9C-413F-9309-E10F5564EA36.jpeg

    80B5BB92-7AB7-444D-BCD5-32E18A837256.jpeg