odd shaped letters, eratic spacing, overlapping letters

[captbuck 0]

Hi, I posted this as a reply to a previous user, but decided it may not be seen as quickly as a new post, so please excuse the duplication.

I have a Copam 2500 and use SignCut software. I am connected on LPT1, which has worked great until recently. Mostly I use only text because I am cutting blast masks to be sandblasted on wood. This particular job that I am working on has 4" letters and the cutter want end where it started on a letter, it gives irregular spacing between letters (sometimes overlapping the previous one) and in some cases cuts something that doesn't even resemble the letter it should be cutting. I've tried everything I know, including downloading the latest version of SignCut which made it worse, so I uninstalled that and re-installed from the SignCut disk. I have been creating my files in MS Word and saving as RTF with no problem or creating the file in SignCut itself.

As was suggested on another post, I check the carriage to see that it is level and it appears to be and also the little white wheels appear to be running underneath the track. Do I have to remove the cover to inspect a top set of rollers?

Will somebody please help?

Thanks,

Buck

[kenimes 42]

The rollers should be fine, as should the carriage. The Copam is one of the best units we sell, and it is almost never a hardware issue. Could you post a copy of the file you are trying to cut or email them to me? kenimes@uscutter.com

[wg_kjell 0]

Hi,

However, a change in behaviour like that described does not just show up from nowhere! Something must have been changed, such as a damage of the cable, an extension of the cable has been added or like that. It could also be that you have loaded your computer with some extra equipment that affected the signal amplitude for that serial communication. Try do find out which condition that may have been changed?

SignCut-X2 is not the cause. Software never change behaviour, it just does if settings are changed. The only kind of setting that possibly could cause effects like those; it is values of the communication parameters. They may have been changed to less good matching values?

The symptoms described could be caused of a handshaking problem. If so, some plot-information is dropped somewhere. What strengthens that theory is that the result was affected as you switched SignCut-X2 sub-revision. As you did some hand-shaking parameters may have been changed.

Anyhow, we added a few communication parameters that were not available for change in previous SignCut-X2 versions. By changing those parameters you should be able to find a behaviour that is similar for the new and old version, but changing those parameters will rarely become the complete solution?

As this case is the only we have had of this kind recently, it is more likely that the problem is to find in the equipment of yours.

- Control the cables, reduce the length to as short as you can, to see if that helps. Do not extend the original cable!

- Also try the newest sub-revision of SignCut-X2. I can assure you that the software is not the problem, but faulty communication settings could eventually be the cause. First of all, make sure that the serial communication parameters are the same in the plotter and the SignCut-X2 cutter dialog!

- If you use a USB to serial adapter, then make sure that you have the latest driver installed for that adapter!

- It could be the plotter that fails; it may not track correctly when the load becomes heavy. To control if that is the cause, put a pen in and just low pressure and slow speed. If the problem does not occur then your plotter needs a service?

It was a long row of hints. Unfortunately when rare cases show up it is a bit difficult to give straight explanation. However, in this case a communication problem is the most likely cause and the plotter hardware cause is the second most likely explanation.

[Keisha 0]

Cptbuck,

Did you ever figure out why your cutter was make the little cirles at the end of you designs...I am having the same problem.