TaterNuts 3 Posted August 12, 2007 i had the opportunity today to assist another member of our community to no avail... He has purchased a refine mh721 and also a copy of signblazer from i believe UScutterdirect... he is running windows vista 32 bit OS on a laptop with only USB connections. He has downloaded the FTDI chip drivers from US Cutter... and successfully installed them... Everytime that he tries to cut from signblazer it says that cannot communicate with the cutter... I checked into his computer using crossloop (basically his computer screen was on my screen and I was in control of his PC) he reset the plotter, his baud rate on the machine was verified to be 9600 checked his setup thru device manager and verified com port and baud rate compared to the settings in SBE... they were all matching.. Still, no communication with the cutter. His driver was Refine MH721... To all testers, we all know that this was not an option of us... After I setup using the REDSAIL driver... my machine was working flawlessly... Unfortunately, this driver is not avaliable on the version being distributed from uscutterdirect...... I believe the issue lyes in the USB serial adapter...... but also could be the driver part themseleves... BannerJohn i believe could not cut unless he cut something from signcut first... Did you get the non communication error...? This guy has everything... A brand new laptop, a brand new cutter, and what i think is the best cutting prog, SBE... he just cant get all three to work well together... ANY TAKERS?? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest fivestar Posted August 12, 2007 Are you sure the USB cable is good? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest missy Posted August 12, 2007 Tater, I am still new at this but I have windows vista, Refine MH721. Mine origanally came with signcut, but I purchased signblazer. When I received signblazer all I did was install it. Mine works fine except for the problem of having to restart my computer in between cuts. I am using USB connection, baud rate set to 9600. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
BannerJohn 1,324 Posted August 12, 2007 tater,I am beginning to think that something that installed with SignCut was necessary for Signblazer to work.Some driver,DLL,or something. As for the redsail driver, well,I looked in the signblazer driver folder and there aren't any drivers there at all. Not a one. I think that the cutter is using the redsail driver from the signcut folder. I have no idea why there are no drivers listed in the driver folder of my version of signblazer. Open yours,see if there are any there... Anyway,I can post the driver for teh redsail,if you can figure out where it should go in the Signblazer files,maybe that's the problem. Both you and I already had the redsail driver on our computer. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
TaterNuts 3 Posted August 12, 2007 Well... I think that the drivers are encrypted in some sort of DLL or something... For example.... A person buys a cutter from a diffrent manufacture then US Cutter. He hears how well sign blazer is... Sees in on US cutter direct and buys it at the astonishing low price of $60 bucks... Realizes that the SignBlazer on UScutterdirect is for US CUTTERS ONLY... User goes and downloads a trial version which includes drivers for there model, copys from one directory to another and voila! a $60 powerfull software that can work with any cutter... This is only what i think... It also keeps me or anyone else distributing SBE drivers.... But anyways, I dont think that SBE is using the driver from signcut, if it did, then 'our' test versions should have the refine or selltopia model listed, and it dont... So, What im saying is... i had problems using the Roland PNC1000 driver with SBE, but not with flexi... But... Heres what im thinking... Did SignBlazer simply rename the Roland PNC1000 driver to Refine for there OEM versions??? This is why im asking Banner, Did you get the communications error when you were using the roland driver before you opened signcut??? he is getting the error that cant open port... Obviously, your SignCut opened the port hence the reason you could cut with SBE after you made a tiny cut on SignCut........ Anyways Missy... are you using the Refine driver in signblazer??? Or did your version come with the redsail driver as I discovered as a working driver? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
BannerJohn 1,324 Posted August 13, 2007 I think you are right,the signblazer files are LOADED with DLL files. I didn't get the error,just the bar that said it was cutting but no cutting.And I think you are right too about signcut opening the port first. This has got me puzzled,you would assume that ken and others tested the SB software to make sure it would work with the refine. I think there is something else going on here,and I also think that MAYBE it has something to do with Vista. I am getting lots of complaints from people about other programs not working in Vista,that MS says should work in Vista. I think,Maybe,that it is the serial to USB thing,in Vista. I have held off upgrading to Vista because I really don't see the need,and I always wait awhile anyway til MS works all the bugs out. 5 years and they still haven't totally got XP right. When Bruce at Signblazer gets on (which should be shortly) he might have a work-around. My signblazer works just fine on a 4 year old computer running XP,with only 256mb Ram. I keep old computers around just for things like this. But I realize that not everyone has 10 computers and the ability to keep them running.But,honestly,if you're gonna be in the sign biz,if only part time,you should have a dedicated computer just for the cutter. And you can pick up computers all over the place that will work fine for $100 or so. I have one here that I got at a yardsale for $15... 1.1 ghz,256mb ram, running XP. Just sitting here,as a back-up,just in case. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
TaterNuts 3 Posted August 13, 2007 What do you think then? Keyspan for vista too maybe??? Heck, maybe that dont even work right with vista... But yeah, This is tricky... SB says its compatable with vista... but how about the FTDI chipset that is in the Refine??? I believe this is probably going to be a vista issue... Heck, I dont know really... Missy even has to restart the computer in between cuts... It shouldnt be that way... Vista looks sweet, but Im like you, Ill wait for the bugs to be worked around for awhile... Anyone NOT having any problems with Vista and Refine? Using SignBlazer or SignCut??? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Bruce SignBlazer Support 0 Posted August 13, 2007 Please try this new driver with the Refine cutter. It has been modified to be the same as the Redsail driver which others have had success with. See attachment. setup.zip setup.zip Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest missy Posted August 13, 2007 Tater, I really don't know. I originally installed signcut and the driver from the us cutter website. Then when Signblazer arrived all I did was install from the disk. The only problem I am having is restarting my computer between cuts. It communicates fine the first cut but I don't know what happens then. Hope this helps Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
TaterNuts 3 Posted August 13, 2007 Try the patch that bruce posted and post your results on weather it helped you or did not..... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest missy Posted August 14, 2007 I just installed the patch that bruce posted and I cut out a star and had to restart my computer the screen on the cutter goes blank. I restarted and tried to cut someithing else and it stoped in the middle and the screen is blank again. Please Help. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest fivestar Posted August 15, 2007 missy that sounds like a staic electricity or plotter motherboard problem to me. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
kenimes 42 Posted August 15, 2007 Unplug all ther USB devices plugged in to the cutter and try again. Do you have another computer you could try? At least this would let us know if it is the cutter or the computer. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest missy Posted August 15, 2007 I have my laptop with XP but it only has inkscape and signcut. Can I try with this or does it have to be signblazer. Thanks Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
kenimes 42 Posted August 15, 2007 It would work with SignCut as well. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest missy Posted August 16, 2007 I will have to be honest with everyone I have no clue what is going on. I have not used my cutter in a couple of days. I came in today and put white banner paper and the pen in the cutter. I cut, well printed 5 or 6 things and never froze up. Any suggestion on what it could be? Could it have been static electricity? Thanks for everyones help. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
kenimes 42 Posted August 16, 2007 Gremlins Do not think it would have been static electricity, but anyones guess on this one. Glad to hear it is working now though...... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest fivestar Posted August 17, 2007 I will have to be honest with everyone I have no clue what is going on. I have not used my cutter in a couple of days. I came in today and put white banner paper and the pen in the cutter. I cut, well printed 5 or 6 things and never froze up. Any suggestion on what it could be? Could it have been static electricity? Thanks for everyones help. Yes it could very easily be static electricity. Try it with vinyl and see what happens, paper will not put off static like the vinyl does. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest missy Posted August 17, 2007 I put vinly in the cutter still us pen it let me cut 2or 3 small cuts before I had to restart my computer. Thanks Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
