10TKL 0 Posted August 13, 2018 I recently inherited an MH MK2 and am a mac user. It took me a couple hours to figure out the cheapest way for my mac to talk to the cutter, but I did it! I am an AI user already, so making SVG files was no issue for me. I downloaded a software trial called Easycutstudio and got everything talking to each other. The trial is free to test out, the software is SUPER easy to use and most self explanatory. I am really enjoying learning more intricate pieces of it too. I grabbed a jpg online of some tentacles and traced them out in Adobe Illustrator, imported it into Easy Cut Studio, click on cutter, chose my machine, and BOOM! It started working!! I was so amazed at how easy all of that was, and it didn't cost me a fortune to get started!! Once I get really savvy with it, i'll post some snap shots of the software in action. But I had to figue out what was best for my mac, and I couldn't find a lot of options out there. Hope this helps other people who might want to pick up a used older model cutter and are mac users! Thanks! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
MZ SKEETER 4,708 Posted August 13, 2018 Well good luck with your venture, if you start having a lot of problems, it is because you are using a MH MK2 on a Mac. It is advertised on all of UScutter sites that it is NOT compatible with a Mac. It is only compatible with WINDOWS, So if the cutter starts going haywire with weird cuts all over and just stops cutting. It is most likely because you are running it on a MAC. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
haumana 1,220 Posted August 13, 2018 19 hours ago, 10TKL said: ... I grabbed a jpg online of some tentacles and traced them out in Adobe Illustrator, imported it into Easy Cut Studio, click on cutter, chose my machine, and BOOM! It started working!! I was so amazed at how easy all of that was, and it didn't cost me a fortune to get started!! ... Okay, just going to preface it with, "anything you find online has already been designed by someone other than you - so by its nature is already copyrighted." Had to get the legal part out of the way. That being said - an easier way to vectorize a raster image is by using Inkscape. It's a freeware and there are PC and Mac versions - at least the last time I checked. Do tell, what was the cheapest workaround you found to get your cutter working with your Mac? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
darcshadow 1,626 Posted August 13, 2018 I've always wondered why they say they don't work with Mac. Even if the cheap USB chipset doesn't work with mac, there should be no reason you couldn't use the comm port. It is a standard RS-232 comm and you don't need drivers to talk to the plotter when using the comm port so all you should need is software that sends the correct cutting language to the plotter over the serial port and you should be good to go. Inkscape can do this actually, so in theory, you should be able to run a MH over the comm port from a Mac, or even a Linux system. (I might have to try that one of these days) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
