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Sc2 contour cutting issue.

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I'm having a weird issue when contour cutting. With a cutting blade in, the machine goes crazy....cuts are inches off, sometimes the machine stops and acts like its stuck, or jumps all the way to the right, and grinding like it's trying to go further....with the pen tool in, the outline is flawless.  When using the cutting blade for normal cutting of letters and such, its perfect.  Any idea?

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Sounds like static from the vinyl.  Make sure the cutter is grounded to the stand.  Use a Static Guard type product, in the area,  dryer sheets in the vinyl rolls, wipe down the cutter with one, as well as your vinyl.  Run a humidifier in the area.   Buy a Tripp-lite Keyspan Adapter, that is the brand name. Use with the cable that came with your vinyl cutter. It's a better connection. 

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Using all the stock cables...it does it when using any length vinyl, or paper....and only does it when contour cutting. Id think if it were a static issue, it would do it other times than just contour cutting no? Ill order the serial adapter, but not sure that is the issue either, as this is a brand new laptop using usb 3.0. 

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This is why UScutter sells a Static kit.  It stops the static from the vinyl.  It touches the vinyl.   Some say it works, some say it doesn't.   https://www.uscutter.com/Anti-Static-Kit-for-Vinyl-Cutters,  This is what most likely happens with value cutters.   Nothing more that I can add. 

The value cutters do not have TRUE USB like higher end cutters, so we always say get a Tripp-lite Keyspan Adapter, as a much better connection. 

grounding.JPG

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You should be looking for the Tripp-lite Keyspan Adapter com port Number in device manager.  Not a printer.   Make sure it is on 1-4 com port number, nothing higher.  Once you find that number, go into your cutting software set up and use the same com port number.  They must match.   After downloading the driver reboot your computer. 

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Yup. Did all that. It still cannot locate anything on any ports. Tried auto detect too. Nothing.  The computer recognized the tripp lite, but vinylmaster can't find anything when its connected.  

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Yup. Did all that. It still cannot locate anything on any ports. Tried auto detect too. Nothing.  The computer recognized the tripp lite, but vinylmaster can't find anything when its connected.  

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Ill also add, i changed the plug the machine is plugged into for power, after verifying the ground on the plug was good, added a wire to ground the cutter to the stand, and sprayed the cutter with static guard....it's still doing the same thing.  Every file cuts perfect,  except for contour cuts. So i have no idea what the issue is. I'm ready to give up on this cutter. 

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  How do you have the Tripplite Keyspan Adapter hooked up? What is the com port number for the Tripp-lite Keyspan Adapter in device manager?  Show some screen shots.   You don't look for a cutter in your ports. You look for the Tripp-lite Keyspan Adapter. If it is installed correctly it shows up in your device manager.   Make sure the cutter is turned on.   Are you using the null modem cable that came with your cutter? 

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The tripplite is com4 in device manager.  I'm not talking about finding the cutter in device manager,  which is why i specifically said it doesn't find the cutter INSIDE vinylmaster.  Same cables that came with the cutter. Cutter is turned on. I've been vinyl cutting for 10 years,  and bought this for my wife. Nothing i do makes this cutter work the way its supposed to. You say its static, but why would static only effect a contour cut, and not a normal non contour cut? Just makes no sense. 

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So how do you have the Tripp-lite connected to the vinyl cutter?  The USB end of Tripp-lite should be connected to your USB port (computer.)  Then the null modem cable, that came with your cutter, should be screwed in connected to the Tripp-lite, then the other end of Null modem cable screwed in to your vinyl cutter.    Choose Com 4 in Vinyl Master. The com port numbers have to match.  If those com port numbers don't match, then change the com port number for the Tripplite and also change it in Vinyl Master. See if any of the numbers will work.   If you can't get working, call support tomorrow so they can look. 

 

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Using a comm port VM doesn't find anything. You have to specify everything and then VM just sends the communications commands.

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I have the same problem here with VM Cut 4.3 and a new SC2.  Vinyl cuts perfect, contour cutting is loosing steps big time.  I turned the speed down from 300 to 100 and I have the pen barely touching to make sure there isn't too much drag causing lost steps.  I can hear it stumble and studder and grind slightly.  Does it with nothing in the knife holder.  But yet, it cuts vinyl fine.

 

I personally think there is something wrong in VM Cut because the cutter calibration for the knife offset, and scaling works fine,  but the laser offset simple and full do not work.  They never drop the blade or pen to make any marks and you can hear it buzz like it received a move command but lost steps.  Like the speed and accel is set way too high.

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9 hours ago, Skinner said:

I have the same problem here with VM Cut 4.3 and a new SC2.  Vinyl cuts perfect, contour cutting is loosing steps big time.  I turned the speed down from 300 to 100 and I have the pen barely touching to make sure there isn't too much drag causing lost steps.  I can hear it stumble and studder and grind slightly.  Does it with nothing in the knife holder.  But yet, it cuts vinyl fine.

 

I personally think there is something wrong in VM Cut because the cutter calibration for the knife offset, and scaling works fine,  but the laser offset simple and full do not work.  They never drop the blade or pen to make any marks and you can hear it buzz like it received a move command but lost steps.  Like the speed and accel is set way too high.

Your cutter will have the best connection on a serial cable or a Tripplite Keyspan Adapter, that is the brand name. with your null modem cable.  The USB is not true USB, like higher end cutters..  It is a cheap Chinese chipset. The Tripplite Keyspan Adapter, has saved many people from headaches, It is mentioned hundreds of times on this forum. Find the best price. 

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To partially update some of the items I found about VM and the SC2.

#1  It doesn't  support the VinylMaster Laser Calibration (fast) or (Full).  So no matter what, the spooler calibration for the laser pointer won't work properly using that method.  Even though this cutter does not support ARMS, you must use the ARMS OFFSET calibration in order to adjust the offset or fine tune it.  Initial calibration is done via Power Up and Right Arrow key, then ARMS offset allows you to fine tune it.

#2 The SC2 or at least mine, has a very weak stepper motor/driver for the X axis.  If you look at it wrong it buzzes and looses steps.  With nothing in the cutter holder, anything over 200 in speed will loose steps.  If you barely touch it while moving it looses steps.  Either is a bad design or there is something wrong with this one.  I have over a dozen CNC's in here from small stepper motor designs to huge servos, and it's evident this stepper is loosing steps and it undersize, or the settings for the max speed and accel is incorrect.  My inkjet will crush your finger if you stick it in there, not this thing.  This means if a pen tool is used, you have to set the pressure so light it barely writes, and turn the speed down to 200 or less, or it looses position.  Hopefully this is just my machine that is this weak and I can fix it by replacing the motor or driver board.

I do embedded programming so I have some industrial chip set USB to Serial adapters.  Retail versions usually miss data and they don't adhere to timing very well so I learned my lesson years ago on that.  Knowing that, I have not tried one yet and I do plan on trying it soon just to see if it helps.  I will follow up on that part later.

 

 

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The SC2 does not have ARMS,  ARMS is Automatic.  The Laser pointer 3 has ARMS. The Graphtecs have ARMS.  The SC 2 is manual registration. 

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4 minutes ago, MZ SKEETER said:

Your cutter will have the best connection on a serial cable or a Tripplite Keyspan Adapter, that is the brand name. with your null modem cable.  The USB is not true USB, like higher end cutters..  It is a cheap Chinese chipset. The Tripplite Keyspan Adapter, has saved many people from headaches, It is mentioned hundreds of times on this forum. Find the best price. 

We posted about the same time so I didn't see your reply while I typed mine.  I do plan to try that, however it's most likely not the answer to my particular problem.

If it were the internal USB to Serial converter, it would do it regardless of Pen / blade combination so I'm not buying that will solve it, however due to all the warnings here, mainly from you, I plan to try it regardless due to my knowledge or cheaper USB emulator chip sets.  I've bricked a full items over the years due to cheap converters and most of my eprom and flash methods will randomly fail using the retail converter, or give the impression they completed when they didn't.

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Just now, MZ SKEETER said:

The SC2 does not have ARMS,  ARMS is Automatic.  The Laser pointer 3 has ARMS. The Graphtecs have ARMS.  The SC 2 is manual registration. 

Do you have an SC2?  Not being rude but I understand it doesn't have ARMS, but they included the "SemiAutomatic" version of ARMS in the firmware.  This came from the manufacturer and Tony over at iFuture, and I tried it and it works perfect.  In semi-automatic mode, the commands sent are different, and you still have to manually align the pointer to the alignment marks.  You're right, it shouldn't be called ARMS offset, but it is, and it works.

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Just to follow up on 3 different items, to hopefully help many others having some of these issues.

1)  MzSkeeter is absolutely correct the USB Serial chip set in the SC2 is pretty bad.  I installed one of my industrial converters and it never buzzed or lost position again.  Since the entire file is sent to the cutter, I can only imagine it becomes corrupt or missing portions due to the bad transfer.  I've been thru this before when our techs go to Walmart and buy converters then corrupt everything.

2) 4 items must be done.  A) Do the initial laser pointer alignment when you power up the cutter and pressing the right arrow.  This is a little hard because the jog mode moves pretty fast.  Get it as close as you can.  Then B. Spooler, Calibration, Do the Blade Offset  C) the scaling, then do D) ARMS Offset.  Yes, Arms Offset.  It allows you to really zero in the laser with 4 points.

 

 

image.thumb.png.54826f69ad93ad2cee10adf24ee52560.png

 

 

 

3) When you choose the contour wizard,  you have 3 modes to choose from.  Manual, Semi-Automatic, and ARMS.  Choose semi-automatic.  Once you do that, you can put in your material, jog to the square by the alignment mark and press origin.  Then when you select cut, it will tell you to do the origin deal that you just did, press next.  The cutter and laser will turn on and tell you to align with mark 1 using the keys on the cutter, then press enter.  It will rapid over to mark 2, and repeat for all 4 marks.  It will ask if you want to cut now, say yes.  It will do a perfect contour cut.

There are about 3 versions of instructions floating around.  Use the link MZSkeeter provided.  Pay close attention to Step 2 and Step 6 because it's different than what in the user manual.

 

Here is two sources for using ARMS OFFSET calibration in VM4.3.

Tony is a developer at future for VinylMaster.


 

Subject: RE: VM 4.3 Software Arrow keys in Calibration dont work [#335478]
Date: Tue, 7 Dec 2021 17:24:40 +1100
From: Tony Braun <tonybraun@iifutu******>
To: 'Richard Skinner'

Ok, your cutter does not support moving the cutter head using the software. It must be done using the arrow keys on the cutter.

 To calibrate, you use the ARMS calibration, NOT the laser calibration.

 

Peter M. (USCutter)

Dec 7, 2021, 14:54 PST

There are three likely reasons that you can see a cut not match up with a print when contour cutting:

1. The blade offset hasn't been calibrated correctly. If you are using VinylMaster software you can go in the Calibration section of the Vinyl Spooler and click the "ARMS Offset" button.

Edited - Inserted for brevity: -->  Then Peter talks about blade offset and scaling to be calibrate as well

 

 

 

Edited by Skinner
Typo and alignment
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On 12/9/2021 at 9:44 PM, Skinner said:

Just to follow up on 3 different items, to hopefully help many others having some of these issues.

1)  MzSkeeter is absolutely correct the USB Serial chip set in the SC2 is pretty bad.  I installed one of my industrial converters and it never buzzed or lost position again.  Since the entire file is sent to the cutter, I can only imagine it becomes corrupt or missing portions due to the bad transfer.  I've been thru this before when our techs go to Walmart and buy converters then corrupt everything.

2) 4 items must be done.  A) Do the initial laser pointer alignment when you power up the cutter and pressing the right arrow.  This is a little hard because the jog mode moves pretty fast.  Get it as close as you can.  Then B. Spooler, Calibration, Do the Blade Offset  C) the scaling, then do D) ARMS Offset.  Yes, Arms Offset.  It allows you to really zero in the laser with 4 points.

 

 

image.thumb.png.54826f69ad93ad2cee10adf24ee52560.png

 

 

 

3) When you choose the contour wizard,  you have 3 modes to choose from.  Manual, Semi-Automatic, and ARMS.  Choose semi-automatic.  Once you do that, you can put in your material, jog to the square by the alignment mark and press origin.  Then when you select cut, it will tell you to do the origin deal that you just did, press next.  The cutter and laser will turn on and tell you to align with mark 1 using the keys on the cutter, then press enter.  It will rapid over to mark 2, and repeat for all 4 marks.  It will ask if you want to cut now, say yes.  It will do a perfect contour cut.

There are about 3 versions of instructions floating around.  Use the link MZSkeeter provided.  Pay close attention to Step 2 and Step 6 because it's different than what in the user manual.

 

Here is two sources for using ARMS OFFSET calibration in VM4.3.

Tony is a developer at future for VinylMaster.


 

Subject: RE: VM 4.3 Software Arrow keys in Calibration dont work [#335478]
Date: Tue, 7 Dec 2021 17:24:40 +1100
From: Tony Braun <tonybraun@iifutu******>
To: 'Richard Skinner'

Ok, your cutter does not support moving the cutter head using the software. It must be done using the arrow keys on the cutter.

 To calibrate, you use the ARMS calibration, NOT the laser calibration.

 

Peter M. (USCutter)

Dec 7, 2021, 14:54 PST

There are three likely reasons that you can see a cut not match up with a print when contour cutting:

1. The blade offset hasn't been calibrated correctly. If you are using VinylMaster software you can go in the Calibration section of the Vinyl Spooler and click the "ARMS Offset" button.

Edited - Inserted for brevity: -->  Then Peter talks about blade offset and scaling to be calibrate as well

 

 

 

This was great help. I'm dealing with the same issue now my X & Y axis is about -2mm in each direction. I'm not sure wat I need to change to get the contour cut to align with the print.

Thanks

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The very first thing you should do, if you haven't already, is to calibrate your vinyl cutter to your cutting software.  Meaning,  make a square 3-4" square and make sure that your cutter is cutting exactly the size it is supposed to be cutting.  Measure it . Should be the same size on all sides.   Until you have your cutter calibrated to your cutting software. Nothing will cut the correct size. That is in your cutting software.  That applies to any vinyl cutter.  There are so many steps in an inch, and it must be correct. Second, put your cutter on a Tripp-lite Keyspan Adapter with the null modem cable that came with your cutter. Tripplite is the brand name. This has mentioned hundreds of times on this forum. 

Can't help people, when they don't say what they have tried to do, or  show any kinds of screen shots of their problem. 

 

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