carolyn

Grounding

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Run the ground wire from a screw on the bottom of your cutter to the center screw holding on the wall plate of your electric plug outlet.

Roman-Here%E2%80%99s-Why-Your-Outlet-Doe

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11 hours ago, carolyn said:

How do you ground your cutter without the stand?

your plotter is already grounded thru the third (round) part of the plug - the issue of grounding and the stand comes from the vinyl being isolated from that ground  because the stand or whatever you have holding the vinyl roll is not grounded.   what do you sit your roll of vinyl on when feeding the cutter?   keep in mind to prefeed and don't allow the plotter to pull the vinyl off the roll 

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is there a particular way to ground the cutter to the stand, I think I fried another Zchip. I have the cutter grounded to the stand, it was cutting just fine since the repair, and in the middle of a cut, it acted like it jammed up and the blade stopped its vertical movement and messed up the rest of the cut. I tried the battery test from last time and it works fine, leading me to believe the motherboard is damaged again. I'm at a loss, not sure what I can do anymore.  Aside from upgrading the cutter ( which I plan to do eventually ) what options do I have to make sure this doesn't happen again. 

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Always use dryer sheets inserted into the ends of the cardboard tubes (vinyl rolls).

Spray anti-static.

Avoid placing the equipment onto carpeting. Dry air conditions are not good (a room with an a/c operating, for example), use a humidifier.

Make sure the ground wire is touching bare metal on the stand, not just the powder-coated surface.

There is also an anti-static kit sold by USCUTTER ---  https://uscutter.com/Anit-Static-Kit-for-Vinyl-Cutters

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6 minutes ago, slice&dice said:

Always use dryer sheets inserted into the ends of the cardboard tubes (vinyl rolls).

Spray anti-static.

Avoid placing the equipment onto carpeting. Dry air conditions are not good (a room with an a/c operating, for example), use a humidifier.

Make sure the ground wire is touching bare metal on the stand, not just the powder-coated surface.

There is also an anti-static kit sold by USCUTTER ---  https://uscutter.com/Anit-Static-Kit-for-Vinyl-Cutters

Thanks for the reply, should I do 1 dryer sheet on each end? where can I get anti-static spray? the cutter is on tile floor, however, the A/C could be causing an issue.

I was thinking of drilling a separate hole with a sheet metal screw to the stand, would this be a good idea? 

How well does the Anti Static kits work, they are only $15, so a small price to pay if they work well.

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Elimination of static charge is a step in the right direction. I just stuff the dryer sheets(s) into one end, and anti-static spray is available at walMart or Target, or Grainger or Amazon or ULine.

Drilling a new hole is a good idea, yes.

Not sure about the effectiveness of the metallic string in that kit, but it can't hurt anything! If you do decide to order it, bundle other items like squeegees, app tape, vinyl, weed tool, knife, blank banners, whatever --   to offset the cost of the USCUTTER flat rate shipping.

Best of luck, and doing an upgrade in cutters to a servo unit usually is a worthwhile investment anyway.

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Just to clarify, the static you are trying to eliminate is building up on the vinyl itself. The idea behind grounding the stand is the vinyl rest on the stand so the static will transfer from vinyl, to the stand, and then to ground through the grounding wire. The idea behind the grounding kit is you have a piece of metal making contact with the vinyl at all times. You do the same thing with a small, non painted chain, it just needs a ground connection.

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Just wanted to mention something on this in case anyone passes by.

There are two types of static that plotter owners generally try to eliminate: static buildup in the vinyl material (Most common) and static discharge between the cutter and the stand (arcing).  The two are very much the same problem.  You can solve these issues in MANY different ways as evidenced by the countless posts here and on the web in general.

The first step you should take is doing a check of your building's ground connections.  If you didn't wire it yourself and test it afterwards, assume it's bad.

On 1/5/2022 at 8:42 PM, slice&dice said:

Run the ground wire from a screw on the bottom of your cutter to the center screw holding on the wall plate of your electric plug outlet.

Roman-Here%E2%80%99s-Why-Your-Outlet-Doe

This is a great suggestion assuming you know the outlet is grounded, but you should ALWAYS verify this.  If your outlet is bad or someone who didn't know what they were doing replaced ANY item along that wiring branch, you could have a bad ground.  This is especially true if you operate out of an older building. While you could go off the assumption that a chassis ground will work effectively, induction is a bitch, and it only gets worse if you have carpet or a dust collection system.

Side note:  If you operate out of your home, pull your stove out and make sure that the neutral and ground bond has been removed, or better yet, have an electrician do it.

 

On 6/28/2022 at 1:00 AM, 1clo1 said:

is there a particular way to ground the cutter to the stand, I think I fried another Zchip. I have the cutter grounded to the stand, it was cutting just fine since the repair, and in the middle of a cut, it acted like it jammed up and the blade stopped its vertical movement and messed up the rest of the cut. I tried the battery test from last time and it works fine, leading me to believe the motherboard is damaged again. I'm at a loss, not sure what I can do anymore.  Aside from upgrading the cutter ( which I plan to do eventually ) what options do I have to make sure this doesn't happen again. 

Yes.  If you bought your stand separately, it may have came with a grounding kit.  I trust the one in attached photo about as far as I can throw it, hence why it's still in the packaging.  Metal to metal contact at multiple positions.  On my MH 1351, I have two ground connections.  They run from right beside where the rubber feet sit on the stand directly to a modified plug/cord that powers my machine.

 

On 6/28/2022 at 7:23 AM, slice&dice said:

Elimination of static charge is a step in the right direction. I just stuff the dryer sheets(s) into one end, and anti-static spray is available at walMart or Target, or Grainger or Amazon or ULine.

Drilling a new hole is a good idea, yes.

Not sure about the effectiveness of the metallic string in that kit, but it can't hurt anything! If you do decide to order it, bundle other items like squeegees, app tape, vinyl, weed tool, knife, blank banners, whatever --   to offset the cost of the USCUTTER flat rate shipping.

Best of luck, and doing an upgrade in cutters to a servo unit usually is a worthwhile investment anyway.

Upgrading is the best solution overall.  We can discuss mitigation all day long, but it's time consuming, and there are countless factors that can attribute to static problems.

 

On 6/28/2022 at 11:05 AM, darcshadow said:

Just to clarify, the static you are trying to eliminate is building up on the vinyl itself. The idea behind grounding the stand is the vinyl rest on the stand so the static will transfer from vinyl, to the stand, and then to ground through the grounding wire. The idea behind the grounding kit is you have a piece of metal making contact with the vinyl at all times. You do the same thing with a small, non painted chain, it just needs a ground connection.

This is great advice, but it's absolutely imperative that you do not use the antistatic kit and ground the stand at the same time.  Feedback discharge will very quickly fry an I/O board, especially if you're connected over USB rather than serial.

Vinyl Capacitor (Cardboard roll, release liner, material)
Rollers (including bearing grease which may contribute)
Plastic/Metal Roller Arm
Stand Assembly
Ground Wire
Plotter
Voltage Source

When you use an anti-static kit and a grounding wire between the stand and device, you are creating a battery that tries to charge itself by creating a very direct link between the chassis and part of the capacitor.  If you're connected over USB, you are introducing yet another ground loop within that system.  As for the electronics wizards that will try to challenge that with "Isolation Transformers" and similar arguments:  Electricity is nothing more than a magnetic field.  Measurable current is near instantaneous upon circuit completion while voltage is much slower.  Your Vinyl Roll is an effective capacitor so you have a large RC circuit sitting on top of everything else.  Low end machines do not have the technology onboard to detect, track, and counter this problem.

 

20220926_062803.jpg

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