WAITING

[tonico 0]

Guys

I have had my Creation for about 3 months. Other than the initial going around with the blade setting it has been working pretty decently.

Out of the blue it started with the before mentioned "Waiting" state on longer jobs.  This has been basic text about 36" or longer.

I have been reading all of the threads and there are two things that have me wondering:

1- I don't seem to see where a definitive action fixed the problem.

2- Mine seems to be a little different. At the same time thins started to happen I also ran into somthing else new.  If a job completes, if I take the citter off line to change the vinyl, or anyother activity if I put it back on line it will not cut and I get a message " Cannot open the output device. Error initializing Cutter".... Usually power cycling the cutter resolves this but not always. Sometimes twice. Also when opening "Cutter set up" - "Save" in SB it will also bring it back and cut.

I have been using a laptop from the get go and the USB port.  Using the serial port is not an option.  I have checked everything that has been suggested exept using the other USB port on the laptop and checking the connections on the cutter's motherboard.

While on the subject of the motherboard I am assuming the the access is throught the bottom.

Are the six screws glued in or something?

Is the flow control really supposed to be hardware?  The only reason I am asking is this feels a lot like a flow control/buffer overfow issue, in order to do serial hardware flowcontrol you need a seperate data line on a standard serial port.  I am not sure if a USB connection has this, I could be wrong....

I would really like to explore all options before I launch it across the street.

Thanks

Tony

[kenimes 42]

I have had so many of these lately, and they all have something in common: Laptops and USB. Doesn't matter if it is XP or Vista, but laptops and USB are always a commonplace when this issue rears its ugly head. Do you have another computer to try? Perhaps one with a Serial port? Alot of customer use a cheapo dedicated desktop, just for their cutter......depends on how important it is: business or personal, etc.

[tonico 0]

Ken

Thanks for replying. Luck has it that I was just given a Laptop with a serial port.

Problem is that I do swap meets hence the need for a laptop.

I find it strange that in our day and age a peripheral would have problems with USB and laptops.... Lets face it just about the only thing that I have not found yet without a USB port and does not support Laptops is a kitchen sink :-)

What serial cable does it use? Null modem?

Tony

[kenimes 42]

Ken

Thanks for replying. Luck has it that I was just given a Laptop with a serial port.

Problem is that I do swap meets hence the need for a laptop.

I find it strange that in our day and age a peripheral would have problems with USB and laptops.... Lets face it just about the only thing that I have not found yet without a USB port and does not support Laptops is a kitchen sink :-)

What serial cable does it use? Null modem?

Tony

The cutter should have come with its own Serial cable, and are you sure your laptop has a 9-pin Serial port, or is it a 15-pin external monitor port? If it IS Serial, use it. I think the laptop and USB issue has something to do with power saving features that can be disabled, because a laptop can run off of a battery and the USB is a powered connection....so there are alot of power saving features with laptops.

[tonico 0]

Thanks for reminding about the cable.  I did disable the power saving feature of the USB ports.

Yes it is a serial port. As soon as a finish some smaller jobs I will try that laptop.

Tony

[kenimes 42]

OK, keep me posted.

[tonico 0]

Hi Ken

I finally managed to get around to connecting to the laptop with the serial port. It seems to have fixed the problem but only time will tell. After all it worked just fine for about three months using the USB port....

I bought this mainly because it has a USB port which would enable me to use any laptop. I have to be mobile and conventional PC's just ain't practical for that.

Serial ports are practically extinct. I used your cable but I needed a longer one which is next to impossible to find. Managed to find an extension which I guess will have to do for now.

I have not looked closely at the mother board.  I suspect that there is a bridge circuit creating the USB port from the serial port.  This at best would be a hack.

IMHO I think that there is a flow control problem between the laptop USB port and the cutter.

This would not surprise me as USB does NOT do hardware flow control but rather software

flow control sort off similar to Xon/Xoff. This means a number of steps everytime an hardware stop is required from the cutter. If anything slows down this would be the result.

Any chance that this would be rectified in the future?

Thanks

Tony

[kenimes 42]

Hi Ken

I finally managed to get around to connecting to the laptop with the serial port. It seems to have fixed the problem but only time will tell. After all it worked just fine for about three months using the USB port....

I bought this mainly because it has a USB port which would enable me to use any laptop. I have to be mobile and conventional PC's just ain't practical for that.

Serial ports are practically extinct. I used your cable but I needed a longer one which is next to impossible to find. Managed to find an extension which I guess will have to do for now.

I have not looked closely at the mother board.  I suspect that there is a bridge circuit creating the USB port from the serial port.  This at best would be a hack.

IMHO I think that there is a flow control problem between the laptop USB port and the cutter.

This would not surprise me as USB does NOT do hardware flow control but rather software

flow control sort off similar to Xon/Xoff. This means a number of steps everytime an hardware stop is required from the cutter. If anything slows down this would be the result.

Any chance that this would be rectified in the future?

Thanks

Tony

When it comes to USB chipsets and the Chinese manufacturers, I really have no idea. I would like to think it would be addressed in the very near future, because like you said: Serial is becoming extinct.