darcshadow

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Posts posted by darcshadow

  1. Posted

    2 hours ago, Meucow said:

    I really try to buy what I can, locally, using cash and not spending on our credit card. Funds are crazy tight and when I get paid for jobs, I use cash to buy supplies. 

     

    Lots of people use this logic but I never really understood it. If you have $10 cash in hand. Just put it in the bank, or a mason jar, and and don't touch it then spend $10 on your credit card. At the end of the month take the $10 out and pay the credit card. You're still spending the same amount of money. The only difference is you just keep track of what you spend vs what you make and don't spend more than you make. And if you get a good credit card you get cash back so using the credit card will actually save you money.

    • Like 1

  2. Posted

    1 hour ago, The Zaar said:

    I will look into getting a Trip-lite USB2COM adapter. But frankly, I can't believe that here we are, 18 years into the 21st century, with the USB standard on its 3rd iteration, and there is still hardware being offered for sale that is not compatible with even USB2. The USB standard is not rocket science. Even China makes USB chips that are up to the current standards. Printer drivers are not rocket science. It's not like someone is asking to run a cutter with their Commodore 64 or Atari. Macintosh computers have been around since the 70s, and unlike Commodore 64 and Atari, thousands of Macs are sold each year. And Apple is no minor player -- it is the most highly valued company in the world (stock value). Sorry for the rant, but it's inconceivable to me that USCutter is offering a product that is incompatible with millions of computers people use every day. And they can't blame "China" for that. That would be like buying a computer that's not compatible with WiFi and the company saying, "Sorry. The WiFi chips in China are not up to current standards, but you can either use dialup or buy a Trip-lite USB2WiFi adapter."

    It's not USB that is the problem. It's the conversion of USB to the comm chip. Basically the cutter has a USB2COMM chip in it, just like the trip lite adapter, only the version in the cutter is cheaper and not a robust. It does seem odd that no one has created a mac driver for the chipset used in these cutters but I'm not a driver developer, it could be more work than I'd think. The cutter itself at it's core runns on the protocol RS-232 and uses HPGL as it's command language. Which is why I say you should be able to get it to work using a usb comm adapter that is supported by macs.

    And don't be fooled by the age of RS-232. It is an extremely robust and a very reliable communication protocol, superior to USB in several ways actually. It's biggest down side is speed, and for devices like a cutter, CNC machine, 3D printer, etc, communication speed is not really a factor and 9600 baud rate over a serial cable is more than fast enough.

  3. Posted

    If you have a specific goal in mind with what you plan to use the cutter for I'd skip the bundle. Get the cutter and software, should be included, a stand for the cutter (not absolutely necessary but very worth having) and get a roll or two of vinyl in the colors you want. That's all you really need. Everything else you might need can be found a local stores or improvised with stuff laying around the house.

    • Like 2

  5. Posted

    If your cutter is not showing up when you connect it to the computer Inkscape isn't going to work for you either because you don't have a mac driver. That being said, you should be able to use the comm port. If you don't have a serial port on your computer a Tripp-lite USB2COMM adapter can be purchased that will work with a mac. From there it should be just a matter of setting up the comm port connection correctly.

    • Like 1

  8. Posted

    How long is temp and how easy do they want to remove it? Normal vinyl is pretty easy to remove a day or two after application, and not too hard to remove a few months later. Removable wall vinyl might work, it doesn't have as long of an outdoor life but should remove easily.

  9. Posted

    Also be aware, that PDFs are not necessary a vector file. If it is, and you just "cut" as it, you'll only get outlines, it'll look like it does when you view the design in wire frame mode. Some software does have a fill option for doing just this but I have only heard it mentioned on here, don't actually know anything about it.

  14. Posted

    For the drawing a square test you would just be sending a simple box to the cutter to test not doing a contour cut so it won't be looking for registration marks and shouldn't spit the paper out. There would be no need to do a calibration routine for this test. 

    When you go through the contour cut calibration process does it move the laser close to the registration marks or does it spit the paper out for that too?

     

  15. Posted

    The page being spit out problem sounds like your marks are simply too close to the edge of the paper. The carrier sheet should solve that problem.

    The drifting could be a calibration adjustment of the scale. Does the Titan have a pen option? If so, load a sheet of paper and draw a square as big as you can fit on the page. Then measure it as accurately as possible. Does it measure the same as what it was designed to be? If you don't have a pen option you can just cut some vinyl.

  17. Posted

    True, shredded could indicate multiple problems, or an exaggeration of the problem. The on-board test cut on mine does a star and a square, but yeah, it's a small cut, maybe half inch square, shouldn't be shredding anything no matter how bad the cutter is setup.

    Tam, your test cut, was is the on-board test, or a simple file you created and sent to the cutter? Start with the on-board test cut. If that works then we likely have a software issue. If it does not work then a hardware issue, likely the Z-chip.

  18. Posted

    Skeeter, I think you missed the part in his post where he said the arm doesn't go up and down any more. :)

    So most likely the Z chip has gone bad and needs to be replaced. Other possible failure would be a wire to the solenoid has become disconnected. I believe they are soldered in place so they shouldn't come loose but a wire could break.

  19. Posted

    Because SVG is an open format not all programs implement it exactly the same way. I suspect what is happening here is the way Inkscape implements the rounded corners is not supported in SCALP. When you save it off as an EPS the box with rounded corners which is an object is converted to a path and therefor opens in SCALP exactly as you expect. As an experiment, try converting your box with rounded corners to a path and then save the file as an SVG and open it with SCALP. I suspect it'll open correctly that way.

    • Like 1

  20. Posted

    Have you used the program in the past with Windows 10?

    If not, do you have another computer you could load an older version of windows on and try it there? Many on here have a cheap old computer or laptop running Windows XP solely for cutting.

    Changing file name extensions typically does not work as you stated. However there seems to be a trend in the vector file world of using the eps file format as the base for many programs/file formats. The various formats my have additional or slightly different encoding but it seems if the changes are minor programs can ignore them and still open the file. You might loose some information such as colors, line formatting, etc, but the heart of the file is still good.

  25. Posted

    Same question as Skeeter, what do you mean by end of life? EOL typically means the software is no longer support by the producer however that does not mean it stops working. Signblazer has been unsupported for years yet still works quite well and many use it. Windows XP went end of life but it still works and many still run systems with it. Hell the government still has computers running MSDOS that went end of life some time in the 90's.

    • Like 1