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kettlecreek

MH721 draws line to home position

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Just hooked it for the first time today. I'm using Intel iMac.  Installed FTDI USB SerialDriver 2.2.7 and SignCut-X2 2.16.  Baud set at 4800.  Imported some text Illustrator CS2.  As soon as it completes the last letter, the machine cuts a line back to the starting position.  Also it stops without lefting cutter. Any ideas? 

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Is the baud set to 4800 on the cutter AND in the SignCut software? Maybe try leaving the baud at 9600 in SignCut because anytime you turn the cutter off and then on, the baud is defaulted to 9600 on the cutter.

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My cutter has the same problems. I am very un happy. Have tried everything. I even bought and replaced my main board. Can someone get me a cutter that works. :(

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I had both machine and computer set at 4800.  Switched to 9600 same results.  Played with setting, found that if I select weeding box it doesn't do it. BUT it doesn't draw the weeding box or if I stack multiples it draws all but the last weeding box.

Another question, on the Cutter display, what does VALE mean?  Currently set at 9600 baud + 5 VALE

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Not sure what the eVale is, just know that I never use it. Sometimes the blade drags if it is sticking to far out, or if the carriage is not sitting up on its tracks. Could also be a grounding issue because the carriage arm is controlled magnetically. Worst case scenario- it could be a hardware issue, either the motherboard or carriage having problems.

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I have the exact same problem and cannot figure it out. If anybody gets to the bottom of it please let me know

                                                                                          THANKS

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Guest fivestar

Yup mine did it again today too.  Seems like it's starting to become a major problem here.  I am thinking of bringing mine back to my house and running it on my home machine and seeing if it does it.  Mine only does it on cuts of around 36 inches and longer.

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Worst case scenario, it could be a motherboard issue. As a temporary solution, you could hit the reset button once the cut is finished, before the cutter wants to return to its origin. This way you could get your projects cught up, and once caught up, we could replace the motherboard.

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;D

  Good news. I was reading some of the other forums and decided that I had the exact same problem as other people. It stopped the cut short or cut a line to home position.

I went out and got a Keyspan USB to Serial adapter (Which Keyspan has no stock of right now). I could believe it, it works perfect. made about 15 cuts today and i love it.

The only other bit of information i can add is when your in the cutter settings if i pick refine selltopia than all my images are about 25 to 30% larger than the measurement

says it is, and as it were i did buy my cutter on Ebay through selltopia. But If I pick refine MH721 the cutter works perfect.also i found that using the keyspan adapter that as long

as the baud rates are the same on signcut and the cutter that i could use 4800 or 9600 it didnt matter.  hope this helps people out somewhat.

(P.S.  I'm running an MacBook Pro 2.33GHz  Intel Core 2 Duo, Mac OS X version 10.4.9 , and a US Cutter Refine MH721 bought from Selltopia.)

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Good news, and thank you for the feedback and update. I have seen the Keyspan adaptor work as a solution for Mac users with our Copam series, and it is now good to know that it is a solution for the Refine series as well.

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Guest fivestar

Sorry ken but mine is doing it on serial as well as USB, I cannot try parallel as my cable was bad from you guys and I never got a new one.  This is becoming more and more frequent with the refines and we need to find out exactly what is causing this problem.

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When I have had the Refine cutters come in to the shop with this issue, a motherboard replacement has solved the issue almost every time. 1 time it was the actual carriage.

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Sounds like this is a pretty widespread problem. I just bought the 51" refine and my friend bought a 24 incher and both of us are having the cutting to home problem. He is on a PC Windows Xp and Me on an Intel Imac... What is going on!!! ARGGG!!!

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Just wanted to add another voice here...

I'm using Signcut with a USCutter Refine 721 24" cutter on a Mac G5 Quad with 10.4.x vi USB with all updated software/drivers. The hardware completes all it's tests correctly and will cut the signcut sample but when I export a graphic to Signcut from Illustrator CS2 leaving all other Signcut settings as their default a cut is made from where the graphic was completed all the way back to the origin.  I have set both the the machine and Signcut baudrate to 4800-baud as recommended and unfortunately get the same results.  Looking through the forums it seems some have had luck with external USB/Serial Adaptors and other sign cutting software but there seems to be little consensus on what the problem actually is.  Any more ideas?

Thanks,

Casey

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Wanted to follow up my post in case it might help someone else. Here's what I've discovered for my setup.

1. Get unwanted cut to origin and no weeding border using the plotters internal USB to serial converter (4800baud and 9600baud) on both OSX and XP.

2. Using Prolific USB to Serial Converter with OSX yeilds the same results. ( I got a reply from Signcut web support that

    http://www.keyspan.com/products/usb/usa19hs/homepage.spml  might work better)

3. Using Prolific USB to Serial Converter with XP works even at 9600baud!  No unwanted cut to origin and a proper weeding border.

    So having a working setup is the good news... still bummed I can't get things happy with the Mac but once I get

    the feel for thigns working properly maybe I'll try the keyspan converter and see if I have better luck.

Casey

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When I first hooked up my plotter (MH721) I tried SignCut because I had already installed it.  First cut it did the "cut to home" thing.  I installed Flexi and have not seen the problem since.  I think it's a software issue.  If the machine is cutting to home, that means that the cutting software is not sending the command to lift the blade at the end of the cut.  Also seems that the only reliable connection is serial.

Ross

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I have also seen cases where it is related to the file being cut.

Example: customer types LISA in SignCut and it cuts fine. Then customer types LISA in Adobe Illustrator and exports to SignCut, and it cuts the line of death?!?

It really is hit or miss. Sometimes I have seen a motherboard replacement solve the issue as well.

:wall:

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I went out and bought the keyspan USB adapter on e-bay, seems to be the only place they are available. After finally getting the driver installed and working, it cuts like a champ. No more home position cuts, it is great. Although it doesn't always cut the last line of the weeding box, at least it isn't cutting through the designs anymore.

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