WSMC633

Couple Small Problems

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So I just bought the 24" Laserpoint.  So Far I'm pretty Happy.  I'm just having a few small issues. After I send a job to the Cutter It's cuts everything out perfectly but when finished the Cutter Says "Waiting" on the Display.  None of the Buttons on the Cutter will work incuding taking it off-line.  I can send another job and it will  except it and start cutting.  However when the previous job is done, it leaves approx 6" of material hanging out of the front of the cutter after (after I cut my used material off w/ scissors).  When the next job starts it sucks the Vinyl back and right out the back of the cutter and starts cutting on the plastic strip since there is no vinyl in the cutter.  How can I make it start cutting without "rewinding" the Vinyl out the back of the cutter?  Also What is going on with the "Waiting" Message?  All of my cuts are completing so it's seems different than the other problems I found on here. 

I'm using a MacPro. 4 GB Ram, Keyspan->Serial Adapter (based on suggestions I read on here). Signcut 2.1

Thanks!

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When it finishes a cut, is the carriage pressing either of the red kill buttons? These will lock the machine up. You can set the origin on the cutter by pressing the Online button, then using the arrows to move the carriage left or right, or advance or retract the material, then press the button in the middle of the arrows to "zero" out your starting point (origin).

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Thanks.  That was the first thing I checked.  I've got my origin (0.000) set about an inch to the left of the red button.

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Do you reset your origin after advancing the material to cut off your completed cut?

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Do you reset your origin after advancing the material to cut off your completed cut?

In SignCut? Because the Cutter Displays Waiting at that point and nothing on the control panel will work.

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I meant on the cutter itself, but if none of the buttons respond that would make it difficult. The Reset button does not work either? How about if you trunt he machine off, then right back on? Will it come up to Online and allow you to use the buttons?

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Yes turning the machine off and on does allow me to use the control panel.  That's what I've been doing though it is certainly not an ideal solution.  Power supplies are no real fond of being contantly power cycled!

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How about if you unplug the USB cable from the cutter when it is displaying "waiting" and locks up? Will that free up the control panel?

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How about if you unplug the USB cable from the cutter when it is displaying "waiting" and locks up? Will that free up the control panel?

Nope. Unplugging USB after the cut does not free up the Display.  It still says "Waiting"

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I'm at a loss.....you wouldn't happen to have another Mac you could try do you?

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Actually yes I do.  Duh... Why didn't I think of that??? I have a MacBook Pro I can try it on. 

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Give it a shot and let me know if we get better results. Would like to know if it is a cutter issue or computer issue.

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Ok, I tried with my notebook and got the exact same problem.  Once I communicate in anyway with the cutter from SignCut it goes into the 'Waiting" mode.

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Ok, at this point I'm ready to throw this cutter down the street.  Aside from the "waiting" problem I'm having I can no longer get this thing to cut properly. It cut great for a week, making about 60 Decals. However, now it will not close letters.  Meaning on every single letter the lines do not meet. I can't give customers decals with little torn tags hanging off all of the place.  I've tried every blade offset in increments, lubeing the blade, changing blades, adjusting the overcut, and the "Perfect Cut" settings.  Wasted a ton of Vinyl and time.  I'm baffled as to why it would cut great, before, then all of a sudden start screwing up.  This is happening with both small text  ~1/4" tall and text that is over 2 inches tall. I've seen that this cutter is capable of doing a great job.... Because it did!  But why overnight would it start screwing up like this?

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Ok, at this point I'm ready to throw this cutter down the street.  Aside from the "waiting" problem I'm having I can no longer get this thing to cut properly. It cut great for a week, making about 60 Decals. However, now it will not close letters.  Meaning on every single letter the lines do not meet. I can't give customers decals with little torn tags hanging off all of the place.  I've tried every blade offset in increments, lubeing the blade, changing blades, adjusting the overcut, and the "Perfect Cut" settings.  Wasted a ton of Vinyl and time.  I'm baffled as to why it would cut great, before, then all of a sudden start screwing up.  This is happening with both small text  ~1/4" tall and text that is over 2 inches tall. I've seen that this cutter is capable of doing a great job.... Because it did!  But why overnight would it start screwing up like this?

I have my own private thread here. :o  Anyway,  After more experimenting and combinations of settings, I ended up with "Perfect Cut" turned off and Overcut set to .30 (I have everything set in Metric right now....Makes the math easier :o)  Anyway, I seem to be getting clean cuts...... for now.  I also have another Keyspan on the way, Maybe that will clear up the "Waiting" Problem.  I know there has been a lot of discussion with the USB Port being Flakey. But Is there a USB driver for the Mac so I can just try it for communication.  I looked on the disc that shipped with the cutter and on-line but I couldn't really find one.

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Awesome. Thanks for all of the help on this.  If I can just work through the problem with "Waiting" Problem I'll be one happy camper!

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Yea, that is certainly an odd issue. With it doing this on another computer, I am leaning towards a hardware issue. Keep me posted.

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Yeah me too.  I've swapped the Serial Cable and I have the other Keyspan coming on Wed.  That should really narrow it down.  I'm going to try installing Signblazer on Windows and try it that way also.  Unfortunately I run Windows as a VM in Parallels.  So  it will still be using the Mac Hardware, so all that will really do is verify it's not SignCut doing something strange.

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Hello,

Regarding the problem with perfect cut, it may be the perfect cut.  :o , Did you read the manual about how it works?, it makes an initial cut outside

of outerobjects and drags the knife into the right angle before cutting the object, therefore you will get a little cut-line at the original-point. The point of

this is to let the dragging-knife sweep to the right angle before cutting the object, which results in cleaner-cuts, however you will have the little cut-line

on the vinyl (the waste vinyl which you remove) instead. Nowadays with SignCut-X2 V2.21 the perfect cut is mostly not needed as we have the

"Angle Optimizer" which tries to keep the knife at the same angle when starting to cut objects, yielding the same result.

Regarding the Waiting-message, it could be due to two things. One is that our driver doesn't terminate the cutting correctly on Mac, and if so, we will

ofcourse fix that. Another thing could be that the serial-pin signals are set wrong after cutting, causing the plotter to be waiting. But it seems as it could

be a driver issue.

Please download the attached driver, unpack it (doubleclick) and save the unpacked file under the "/applications/SignCut/drivers/" folder. If i dialogue pops up, choose to replace the file. Now restart SignCut-X2 and see if it helps.

USCutterLaserPoint24.zip

USCutterLaserPoint24.zip

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Yes, I read the Manual regarding how the "Perfect Cut" works.  In this case I assure you it's not "A Perfect Cut"! It would work fine if the lines met and closed, but they don't.  Instead i have unclosed Letter's with a tab sticking down.  It also cut's into the body O's, B's Q's etc. when cutting out the inner portions.  I'm cool as long as it keeps cutting as it does now :D 

Thanks, For the Driver.  I will Definitely try that when I get home.  I'm a broadcast Engineer, so I'm pretty familiar with Machine Control etc.  So what you're saying does make perfect sense.  I will admit that when I get home from work and I'm working on my side business, sometimes the Technical side of my brain has shut down for the day. :o

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Hello,

Regarding the problem with perfect cut, it may be the perfect cut.  :o , Did you read the manual about how it works?, it makes an initial cut outside

of outerobjects and drags the knife into the right angle before cutting the object, therefore you will get a little cut-line at the original-point. The point of

this is to let the dragging-knife sweep to the right angle before cutting the object, which results in cleaner-cuts, however you will have the little cut-line

on the vinyl (the waste vinyl which you remove) instead. Nowadays with SignCut-X2 V2.21 the perfect cut is mostly not needed as we have the

"Angle Optimizer" which tries to keep the knife at the same angle when starting to cut objects, yielding the same result.

Regarding the Waiting-message, it could be due to two things. One is that our driver doesn't terminate the cutting correctly on Mac, and if so, we will

ofcourse fix that. Another thing could be that the serial-pin signals are set wrong after cutting, causing the plotter to be waiting. But it seems as it could

be a driver issue.

Please download the attached driver, unpack it (doubleclick) and save the unpacked file under the "/applications/SignCut/drivers/" folder. If i dialogue pops up, choose to replace the file. Now restart SignCut-X2 and see if it helps.

Well I tried it.  It didn't solve the problem.  Could this be an incompatibility with OS 10.5?

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Ok, as of now I've tried it on a MacPro and a Macbook Pro both running OS 10.5.  I just tried it on a Macbook Pro running 10.4.  Same Problem.  I've tried 2 different Keyspan Adapters, and 2 Different Serial Cables.  I've tried the Driver as shipped and the driver Hans Posted on all the machines. All with no success.  The variables are down to the driver still having an issue or the cutter having an issue.  Do you agree?  Any idea for the next step guys?

Thanks again for the help on this.

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Ok, as of now I've tried it on a MacPro and a Macbook Pro both running OS 10.5.  I just tried it on a Macbook Pro running 10.4.  Same Problem.  I've tried 2 different Keyspan Adapters, and 2 Different Serial Cables.  I've tried the Driver as shipped and the driver Hans Posted on all the machines. All with no success.  The variables are down to the driver still having an issue or the cutter having an issue.  Do you agree?  Any idea for the next step guys?

Thanks again for the help on this.

I would suggest replacing the motherboard. You can email me directly with your cutter serial number, and I can give you your warranty options: kenimes@uscutter.com

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