copam 2500 measuring material incorrectly.

[espy 0]

Hello everyone,

I think I figured out a problem with my copam, and that is that it's got this little measure feature on it, but it's only measuring the material at 12.5 inches, and the material that I have in there is actually 15" wide...which means whenever I cut, about 2 inches of my lettering is cut off....there is plenty of material there, but the cutter just doesn't cut it...it's like it's just cutting it off. 

anyone have an idea why it would do this?  I'm using flexi, and never had this problem with the refine cutter I used to have.  Is there a way to turn the measure function off?

espy

[thredz 1]

12" is right where the third green roller marker is on mine.It only reads to the ends of the rollers.You can't run the pinch wheels past the rollers because it has no where to grip.I had the same problem on the first run I did with mine.I had a run set 3 up,which was right at 22" wide.But the way I had set the pinch roller it cut the bottom half of the lettering off.

[espy 0]

so how would I correct this then, it seems that you should be able to fix this to utilize the most of your vinyl.....I've got all of the cutting area set within the two pinchc rollers, and the pinch rollers are on the roller (notated by the green stickers).  Not sure how to fix this, but I gotta get it fixed....because I have a job that is 13.5 " tall.....and 12.5" just won't work....any suggestions?

[thredz 1]

If all I had was a 15" roll,I would cut a 20" length and turn it sideways so it will be long enough and wide enough for the job.But I usually cut from a 24"roll.I always have something I can gang up to fill the area.

[espy 0]

Yeah, I guess I could do that...but I'm looking for a more permanent solution, as well as a cutter that you don't have to "jimmy rig" everything to get it to do what it is supposed to do.  Also, sometimes the cutter just "flips out" and cuts nonsensical crap all over a pattern.  I swear, I've probably wated $20 worth of vinyl just trying to get this damn copam to work correctly...I'm about ready to cash in on the 30 day money back guarantee.....but I would love to keep the cutter if it would only do what it's supposed to do....

[thredz 1]

You must have something set wrong in the software or driver settings.I haven't had any problems at all with mine.It cuts better than R2 and much quieter.And like I said,I use 24" rolls most of the time,so I don't have that problem either.If I do use a 15" roll it's usually less than a 12" cut for lettering or a decal.I would check and make sure you don't have send arc commands checked somewhere.I know when I first got R2,I had that checked and it did the same thing lines all through the design.

[espy 0]

it's hard to say if it's a driver setting, but I've checked the software, and I can't find anything that would cause it to cut the lettering off...the Refine MH721 never did that, so I'm not sure what the deal is here. 

I wish that Copam would just come up with the correct driver for Flexi, that way we'd know whether or not some of these problems are caused by not having the correct driver.

[thredz 1]

The're supposed to let me know when they get a driver for flexi.If you're using flexi,have you tried the hewlet packard HPGL driver?If you don't have it you can sign in at scanvec and download their driver updates.

[espy 0]

Do you know how to contact copam, just to see if I can get a resolution to this.  I'm about at my wits end with the cutter, and I think that I'd absolutely love it if I had the right driver for flexi, because when the cutter cuts correctly, it does a great job....my problem is the inconsistency...sometimes it cuts a job correctly, sometimes it cuts the designs over top of each other, or just cuts garbled data.

Also, the one problem I consistently have is with it only being able to cut 12" of a 15" wide roll of vinyl...which for me is a HUGE problem, because I cut a lot of 6" and 7" tall jobs....which creates a lot of waste if I can only utilize 12" of the vinyls cutting area.

[thredz 1]

In the last post I said that I was waiting on Ms. Yang to contact me with a driver upgrade.And,by measuring from the end of the first roller to the 4th roller,it's right at 15".If you're placing the vinyl where the blade is then that's where you are losing a couple of inches.If you will place the vinyl at the edge of the first roller,and then hit the measure button,it will reset the blade to the edge of the vinyl and you should be able to get 12 or 14 inch cuts,leaving you with about a half an inch on each side for the rollers.

[marcuso 15]

For those interested in contacting Copam, I request that you hold off.  We are the USA distributor, and you should contact us directly for any support issues.  If you bog them down with requests, they will have less time to deal with pressing issues.  Copam is aware the Flexi compatibilty is important and they are working on it.  They will get back to me as soon as they have an answer.  I have also asked Kjell from Whisqu to help Copam with the request, and he has agreed to do so.  Unfortunately, all Chinese companies are on holiday for the two weeks of Chinese New Year, so their response will not be immediate during this period.  If I don't hear a positive response by next week, I will take it up with my contact at SAi USA (makers of Flexi) directly.  I am sorry for the delay, but please understand that we are working behind the scenes on the issue.

- Marcus

[blake2415 0]

12" is right where the third green roller marker is on mine.It only reads to the ends of the rollers.You can't run the pinch wheels past the rollers because it has no where to grip.I had the same problem on the first run I did with mine.I had a run set 3 up,which was right at 22" wide.But the way I had set the pinch roller it cut the bottom half of the lettering off.

Billy,

I'm not quite following this problem.  I use all 15" wide rolls.  Am I going to be able to cut any height from 1 to 14.95" tall and any lenght?  Surely this post snt saying that you must cut in limits set and specific height intervals, correct?

[thredz 1]

You can cut as close to 15" as you want.I usually only go 14 max becuase I don't like the rollers going over the design edges.The problem that espy was having was setting the vinyl for the optical eye recognition to show 15".It is not like the 721,you don't just set it to the edge of the blade and cut.But the way the feed rollers are placed you can fo from about 2" to 24" depending on which set of spacing you use.

[blake2415 0]

Okay,  Let me understand..  Starting from the left,  there are 4 rollers but only 3 tension wheels.  I'm not sure I understand that one... but I have exclusively 15" material.  I can't put this material on the first three rollers as it appears I'm only allowed 1 tension wheel  for the left two rollers.  So, this leaves me with moving up the line to the 2nd and 3rd roller.  Now I have only two points of contact on the vinyl.  However, when measuring, I'm seeing the head skip past the first few inches of the material.    So to cut 14.5" width,  I need to put the material in off centered?  This leaves a good portion of unclamped vinyl on the right side that's surely to buckle a bit when cutting. 

What am I missing here?

What if I don't auto measure?  Is this possible?  if so, then were is the "start" of the left edge of the vinyl in this case?     

Am I correct, you can't have two tension wheels on the left side covering the # 1 and #2 roller?  Mine won't slide past what seems to be a stopper of some sort not allowing the tension roller to pass the mark necessary to hit the 2nd pinch roller.

Billy,  The rollers don't damage the vinyl.  The marks you see are waffle marks on the paper and these disappear from the vinyl once it's pulled off the backing. 

Bill

[thredz 1]

I have only used 2 pinch rollers on R2 and the copam and have never had a problem with any material buckling.And you can do a measurement  and then reposition the vinyl to get the offset you're talking about.And I know that the pressure marks go away after you set the vinyl from the rollers,but those rollers will also roll up fine details if they roll over it,or if you are doing a plot with a pen and the rollers roll over an arear that's not dry it will ruin the plot and ink the rollers.And it does work on stops in the rollers.The blade cuts from the inside edge of the first wheel on the left to the inside edge of the end roller.

[TmEvil 0]

I dont mean to hijack your thread but are you not supossed to put the rollers on the perfrated edge of the viynl and on the viynl itself.thankx for any help.

D

[marcuso 15]

The perforations are for an older style vinyl cutter that uses sprockets.  You are probably best off if you put the rollers inside the perforations, as the perforations could allow the vinyl to slip.  My recommendation is that you buy vinyl without perforations.  In some cases, vinyl without perforations is not available in 15" widths, but most 24" width vinyl will not have the perforations.

[marcuso 15]

To address the top of the thread.  Indeed, the Copam measures the vinyl a bit less than it actually is.  This can be minimized by placing the rollers at the very ends of the vinyl and fully eliminated by placing the rollers beyond the material during the measuring process.  This was implemented as a feature to prevent the knife from sliding off the vinyl in the event of small mis-alignments, but it can present an inconvenience if you plan to cut say 14.5" wide graphics on 15" material.

I do not think this is the ideal way, and I will ask Copam to implement a better method in firmware.  I will most likely ask them to measure the whole material width and then auto-origin about 1 cm left of the starting point that way you can manually set the origin to the very edge of the material if you want to.  Unfortunately, it will be several months before a feature of this nature can be implemented.

[thredz 1]

When I turn mine on,I usually hit the scroll button with no vinyl in it at all.That gives me the full width of the cutter to run vinyl.Then I set the blade to the edge of the vinyl and have no problems.It also comes in handy if you are running a 24" run and then going to a 14" perforated or even smaller.I don't have to measure the vinyl because as long as I set it to the blade it's only going to cut the size of the design.

[iceman 0]

It took me awhile to figure this out but all I do is load the 15" vinyl toward the left so that you can catch 2 of the bottow rollers... then set the 2 upper (pinch rollers) to the very edge of the vinyl.  I center the pinch rollers half on and half off the edge of the viny.  Then hit the measure button.  If you notice the round metal dots on the pinch rollers, this is what is actually measures.  After it measures then I cheat and move the pinch roller each back over a bottom feed roller... just be careful that the vinyl stays square... works perfect and you get the full width of the viynl....

[Guest kenya]

When I turn mine on,I usually hit the scroll button with no vinyl in it at all.That gives me the full width of the cutter to run vinyl.Then I set the blade to the edge of the vinyl and have no problems.It also comes in handy if you are running a 24" run and then going to a 14" perforated or even smaller.I don't have to measure the vinyl because as long as I set it to the blade it's only going to cut the size of the design.

Just wanted to ask. Does anyone else do this?

Or is there a way to turn off auto measuring. I don't understand the need of pre measuring it. 

I guess because I started off using a pcut, then a refine. 

[Rodger 527]

Hey Kenya ,

That is what I do when I want to use the full width of the vinyl . I allow 1/2" of waste ex; 231/2 decal on a 24' roll of vinyl . the spacing of the feed rollers let me use any width of vinyl scraps .

( p.s. I read about the horse slaughtering in Florida , that anywheree close to you ? )

[Guest kenya]

Hey Kenya ,

That is what I do when I want to use the full width of the vinyl . I allow 1/2" of waste ex; 231/2 decal on a 24' roll of vinyl . the spacing of the feed rollers let me use any width of vinyl scraps .

( p.s. I read about the horse slaughtering in Florida , that anywheree close to you ? )

Thanks for the info Rodger.

No, that crap is happening in South Florida, in Miami.

Those wacko's think that eating horse meat cures AIDS.

But the meat being harvested is contaminated. IDIOTS.

It's sad to say, with today's economy- horses are worth more per pound dead than alive.  :'(

It sells for $20-40 per lb.

[Rodger 527]

I have much sympathy for the people who had "pets" killed .The economy being in the tank has some people doing what they would not normally do .