ok switching to serial and its not working

[routesmith 0]

Hi everyone, yes I have had this cutter for 3 years now and I am just starting to use serial now. How much vinyl have I wasted on USB? I care not to comment about it

can someone give me some pointers, I have verified the com port in bios in hardware manager and in SBE all are matched and using hardware handshake,

I would even be happy to use parallel, but neither of them work

thanks,

Wayne

[JoeBlow 5]

Put in a card

http://forum.uscutter.com/index.php/topic,30729.msg239576.html#msg239576

Joe

[routesmith 0]

Even if I have a serial port? I bought this new to me machine to dedicate to my vinyl cutting.

Wayne

[JoeBlow 5]

If you're using a serial cable you will need a driver and then add your plotter as a printer in Windows.

Joe

[routesmith 0]

oooooh REally!! thanks Joe. I guess I can get the driver from the support site eh?

thanks

Wayne

[routesmith 0]

crap I just read it has to be a null modem cable.

off to Rat shack

[routesmith 0]

went and got a null modem adatper, that didnt help

[MZ SKEETER 4,708]

are you following these instructions... ??  from support

USCutter MH (Refine) Series QUICK INSTALL INSTRUCTIONS:

SignBlazer, and most other vinyl/ tint cutting software, interfaces with the vinyl cutter directly, without installing any Windows drivers. The exception is if you choose to use the USB cable, in which case you will need to install the USB drivers located on the mini CD-Rom. In other software programs such as Flexi, the Roland PNC-1000 driver will work. Each time you change the settings after an unsuccessful cut, you may need to reboot your computer and power cycle the cutter to clear the buffer.

NOTE: Sometimes during shipment of the cutter, the carriage pops off the tracks it should sit on. Make sure the white wheels behind the carriage are sitting ON the tracks and not in front of the tracks. Just press up on the carriage to re-seat. Also, make sure you connect the black ground wire to the bottom of the cutter, and then to the stand. You should see where it connects to the bottom of the cutter, and you can loosen any screw on the stand to connect. The ground wire comes in the box with the other cables, blades, etc.

* Parallel Port (25pin cable)

In most cases, the parallel port will work simply by connecting the cable and setting up the SignBlazer software to cut/ plot through the LPT1 port. Be sure to use the cable that came with the cutter, and not an extended cable. If you have connection issues you can try the following steps:

1) Verify all cables are connected properly and try rebooting the computer and cutter.

2) Uninstall or disable all printer drivers that might be using the LPT1 port. This can be done under Printer & Faxes on Windows based machines. You WILL NOT see this cutter/ plotter listed in printer & faxes, but since it uses a driver through the cutting software, any other installed devices that used the LPT1 port could cause interference.

3) No other devices or switchboxes should be connected, or daisy chained to the parallel port.

4) Change your parallel port mode to ECP if it is not already. This is done in your computers BIOS and is not recommended for novice users.

* Serial Port (9pin cable)

Simply connect the cable to your computer from the cutter and set the SignBlazer software to cut/ plot through the COM1 port. If that does not work, you may need to try COM2 if you have had other devices hooked up to the serial port in the past.

* USB

If you need to install your cutter through the USB port, you will need to install the USB drivers. USB drivers are available on our support site under Downloads, then MH/Refine Series Downloads. The USB driver is the very top selection, simply click on it and run it. It will self-install and when finished tell you that "FTDI drivers have been successfully installed." Once the drivers are installed, you can plug your USB cable in to the computer and Windows should tell you that "new hardware is found" and then "your hardware is installed and ready to use." You then need to check your device manager under the ports category to see which COM port the USB installed to (usually COM3 or COM4). Once you find out which port it installed to, you can then tell SignBlazer which port it is using and select the correct Device.

If you do not have internet access to download the latest USB driver, the mini CD should have USB drivers on it as well. Just plug in your USB cable to the computer and a found new hardware wizard should appear. Do not let Windows search for a driver, but instead select

[routesmith 0]

yep, done the serial part 7 times now

[routesmith 0]

and Tom from tech support says that Serial, Parallel and USB are all affected by static the same way. yay

[rrc1962 0]

If you're using a serial cable you will need a driver and then add your plotter as a printer in Windows.

Joe

You don't need a driver if using the serial port.  All you have to do is make sure the communication settings are correct.  Here are mine in FlexiPro.

Bits per Second: 9600

Data Bits: 8

Parity: None

Stop Bits: 1

Flow Control: Hardware

Hardwires (Check boxes)

DTR: Checked

RTS: Checked

DCD: NOT Checked

DSR: NOT Checked

CTS: Checked

And of course, make sure the correct com port is selected.  COM1 in my case.