andygeekboy

MH 871 MK2 Going South Mid Plot

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So I purchased a MH 871 MK2 Aug 18, 2016, I set it up with the anti-static cable and removing the paint on the stand as directed.

I'm using the keyspan triplite usb adapter on a windows 8 machine and running vinyl master - cut

I've had varying successes but that last few times cutting have been a bust, I've attached the vdoc of what I'm trying to cut.

It cuts the large lettering great but midpoint thru the bottom section it craps the bed and starts cutting a perpendicular line through the vinyl (ruining it)

I've heard about the static issues and the large file issues but I don't think this is a large file problem as it's really only text.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.


Thanks

Dog Trainer plus MPT2.vDoc

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So, I moved some cabling around as someone had success trying that.

Put in the pen attachment and it worked great.

Swapped the pen for the blade and the same issue came back grrrrrrrr

I'm thinking it must be something to do with the static issue, stumped as to what to do next...

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sounds like it has to be static - you said that you grounded the stand to the plotter - are the rollers insulated on the ends with plastic?

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nope again that is the knurled rollers - the ones on the the stand that the vinyl roll sits on

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Ah ok, they're all metal too.

The vinyl I used when the plotter went west was trailing on the floor if that makes any difference,

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the idea of grounding the stand is so the vinyl laying on those rollers can discharge thru the stand , thru the wire and to the plotter that is grounded - otherwise the static can build up in the vinyl and discharge thru the carriage to the mainboard.  the higher end machines like the graphtec and rolands use metal stands, metal rollers and no rubber insulator feet

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Thanks man, 

Just tried to print the same thing on a shorter (not touching the floor) piece of vinyl, it cut better but still not 100%

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***update

installed a serial card in another comp, after screwing around with the settings got it to cut great, the same file that I couldn't cut last time cut perfect.

I did however move the plotter around a bit and also put the vinyl on the rollers as opposed to the floor like last time.

Thanks for the help @Dakotagrafx

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Something I used to do with my old budget cutter (P-Cut) was to spray some Anti-static spray around the thing before bigger jobs. It made a LOT of difference with static. Sounds like yours was more a problem of the USB chipset which is one of the most common issues with the MH. IF you have further glitches and suspect static try the spray. It's cheap and easy to find in fabric stores or even walmart. 

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goose - in the first post he says he is using the tripp lite keyspan so I don't suspect the chipset is the issue.  good advice on the static as that is what is the recurring suspect

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If it is static, which it kind of sounds like, double check your grounding of the stand. If you have access to an Ohm meter, or a DMM, check the resistance from the rollers on the stand to the ground pin on the cutter's plug. Ideally it should be in the milliohm range, but anything under a few ohms should be good. Removing the paint as you mentioned should work, but a better, more secure method would be to attach a wire to the stand and a ground on the cutter.

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10 minutes ago, darcshadow said:

a better, more secure method would be to attach a wire to the stand and a ground on the cutter.

Thanks Darc,

Could you elaborate?

i have the wire coming from the base of the cutter to the stand, I'm assuming you're talking about something different?

thanks

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On ‎9‎/‎11‎/‎2016 at 6:03 PM, andygeekboy said:

Ah ok, they're all metal too.

The vinyl I used when the plotter went west was trailing on the floor if that makes any difference,

It looks like you have the issue solves, at least on this job. Just to add my two cents, I used to experience this issue as well and it was very discouraging. I would sell some graphics that were about 7-8 feet long and it would happen all of the time and waste all of that vinyl. Your job is fairly small so you really should be dealing with it. I still do jobs with longer runs and one thing that has virtually eliminated these static issues is to unroll some vinyl before cutting. If I know my job will use up 4 feet of vinyl, I unroll a little more than that from my vinyl roll before initiating the cut. This, and slowing the cut speed down, has eliminated the issue for me completely. Don't forgo the grounding process because that does help. It just didn't solve the problem for me. Hopefully you get all of the kinks worked out.

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On ‎9‎/‎12‎/‎2016 at 10:23 AM, andygeekboy said:

Thanks Darc,

Could you elaborate?

i have the wire coming from the base of the cutter to the stand, I'm assuming you're talking about something different?

thanks

Ok, I miss interpreted your original post, that should be good. If you have access to an Ohm meter or DMM it'd still be a good idea to take a measurement just to verify the path to ground, but a wire from bare metal on the stand to bare metal on the cutter should be good. Three reasons that come to mind that this would be working would be the cutter chassis is not grounded (it should be but stranger things have happened), the power cord has a bad ground wire, or the ground of the building is faulty. All 3 are pretty remote possibilities, but I've seen stranger. Lived in a house for a short time where the ground was not ground and actually had 120V on it.

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52 minutes ago, darcshadow said:

Ok, I miss interpreted your original post, that should be good. If you have access to an Ohm meter or DMM it'd still be a good idea to take a measurement just to verify the path to ground, but a wire from bare metal on the stand to bare metal on the cutter should be good. Three reasons that come to mind that this would be working would be the cutter chassis is not grounded (it should be but stranger things have happened), the power cord has a bad ground wire, or the ground of the building is faulty. All 3 are pretty remote possibilities, but I've seen stranger. Lived in a house for a short time where the ground was not ground and actually had 120V on it.

Thanks @darcshadow

The electric in my house is pretty whack so that's probably not helping.

I'll see how the new setup works and report back :)

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*Update

After reading some helpful souls solution (somewhere here) about what he did to correct the issue I went ahead and did the same.

So, here's what worked for me (total things done)

  • Anti-static wire between plotter and stand
  • Anti-static kit (wire draped across vinyl) anti-static kit
  • Installed PCIe serial port and used null modem cable (the one supplied with the plotter)

I'm not sure exactly what 'fixed' the issues I was seeing but they've gone away since changing the above.

One thing to note is that I do have the tripplite keyspan adapter and that didn't solve my issues, I have a feeling my issues were all static related so using the keyspan wouldn't have fixed them but I thought I'd mention it anyway.

So right now (touch wood) my MH is working like a champ!

Thanks to everyone who helped in someway, directly or indirectly :)

 

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