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vinylagain

Blade doesn't go up all the time!

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Help! I have cut the exact same text 10 different times at the same settings and the blade cuts lines across each at different spots. The blade goes up between the words sometimes and sometimes it doesn't. A couple of times, the blade did not even come up after it was done cutting, so when I advanced the vinyl, it cut a line down it! I have adjusted the force and all of the other settings like people have suggested before. Theproblem is, it doesn't it differently on each word each time! Arggghhhhh!

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I'm using Sign Blazer and I just got my plotter last week. Very frustrating. I watched the carriage and blade as it was cutting and it was just as though it didn't know to pick up when it needed to. Strange thing is, that it does it at different times and places. When it is not cutting, I can push it and it springs right back up. Like I said before, once when it was done cutting, it stayed down and I had to push to button to get it back up...

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Well, it is on a shelf that it mounted to the wall with shelf brackets. Not sure if that is grounded enough or if there is something else that I need to do.

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Could be a hardware issue with the carriage, or possibly the motherboard failing to send the signal to the carriage. This part is controlled magnetically, and with the Refine series especially, a graound wire should be hooked up to keep static away from the machine. Especially if the unit is in a carpeted area, or an area with high humidity, or if the material you are cutting generates static....such as pulling vinyl from a tight roll.

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I didn't get a wire with the cutter. I can get a wire, where do I connect it on the cutter and then what do I ground it to?

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I didn't get a wire with the cutter. I can get a wire, where do I connect it on the cutter and then what do I ground it to?

Loosen a screw to the bottom panel to connect one end, and the other end could go to the stand or something nearby that is metal.

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Okay, I grounded the cutter and tried it again. I cut 1 word six times and it still cut diagonal lines in different places on each word. Now what?

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I have to ask...are you using the version of Signblazer that came with the cutter or did you download one?

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When I installed it, it checked for updates and found none. Can the software make a difference? It says "2008 SignBlazer Elements" on the CD.

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you should be ok then. I have heard of the line of death many times but random lines like you are getting sounds more like a hardware problem. Ken will keep tabs on you,he should be able to help.

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Thanks. I installed the update from Tykite (Thanks!) and it still does the same thing. I now believe that it is a hardware problem and not a software problem. Unfortunately, I have a job that was due last week!!

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Hey not sure if you got this fixed yet but I have a 24" PCUT from ebay and it does EXACTLY the same thing so my FREDDY KRUEGER post in sign blazer software forum.

I called them and spoke with Brad, nice guy but no solid answers as to what is wrong.

1) the machines are grounded via the 3 prong plug, the 3rd round prong is grounded to earth via a 8 foot long copper ground rod out side of every home or building hooked the a power plant.

2) I checked to be sure that the stand was grounded to the plug with an ohm meter and YES the stand is grounded (I knew it was anyway)

3) I can now say it does it just the same on the serial port.

4) I can't say it's done it on any lettering I have done (that I can recall anyway) just my graphics, several that were drawn in signblazer, nothing imported.

5) It is not a feed issue with the vinyl, the blade simply DOES NOT RAISE, it cuts it's way from start point to start point

6) I uncheced the weed feture and it still does the same thing, almost each and every time it will finish one copy then cut it's way to the next copy start point destroying what it just finished, if you are lucky you may get a clean last copy.

7) even if I just cut ONE single copy I still have about an 80% chance it will do a random cut from a stop to a start point.

:) This is not a "NODE" issue, if it were it would be uniform each and every time, this is a roll of the dice thing.

So my conclusion,,,,,

Something in the software is NOT telling the cutter to lift the blade,,,,,,,,

*****OR****

The cutter has something screwed up in it's self.

My guess is your machine (vinylagain) and mine were built in the same batch and there are some bad parts that were unnoticed.

I now I am getting that "I JUST GOT SCREWED" feeling and really wish I had spent more on a different manufacturer's cutter,,,,

Of course I can't say this one doesn't cut,,, it just don't know when to stop!!!!

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Lose the "just got screwed feeling". If it is indeed the cutter Ken will do whatever it takes to get you going. I know it's frsutrating but please be patient as he is the only tech support guy. If you haven't already done so, send kenimes a pm with your contact info and he will call you.

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I hope you are right,,

Just pretty frustrated right now, this thing is basically brand new just been setting in my office for a couple months and I'm now just getting time to mess with it and now I can't use it.

It is now cutting through my letters randomly in both Arial Rounded Bold and Brush Script, and it's still random even through the copies the death cuts are random.

By the way I have the cover off the cutting head and the head assembly it's self is grounded too, it's just a magnetic coil and my guess it uses variable voltage to adjust the cutting force.

So I don't think it's the head as it's just a coil, it will work or it won't,

The problem is with what sends voltage to the head or signals for that act to happen.

I'm curious if "vinylagain" got this problem resolved? This thread was dead for 2 weeks with no resolve mentioned.

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