cant make long cuts

[deth502 39]

i have an older mh series cutter. ive made cuts up to 4' before with no problem. ive never done anything longer than that. 

 

today i was trying to make some striped for a chevelle, just the one that goes around the trunk, 5" center, with 2 @ 3/8" stripes on each side, with a 1/4" space between. the total length of the longest piece is 4'6". i was trying to cut 3 pieces side by side for each rear fender and one across the trunk. i only mention this so you can understand, this is not an intricate cut, just drop the blade, feed out, fedd back in, straght both ways, thats all. 

 

i tried pre-feeding the vinyl to assure alignemnt. i got about 3' out and it just blanked, froze. hmmmm, i thought, that was weird. pressed reset, it reset, jogged the vinyl back in the 3' and forgot about it. 

 

now i go to start my cut, and all it does is start feeding out, knife up, till it gets about 3' out, then the knife slams down, and the cutter just blanks out and freezes. i tried about 8-9x, once it went all the way out and made a 6" cut coming back, one time it went all teh way out and made a full cut back, then in making the cut while feeding the vinyl back out again, got about half way. now, this was ONLY for the one small side stripe, it never got any further than that. 

 

its not a static issue. i hand held the vinyl as it was being fed through to disapate the static through me to ground, same problem. ive even trid just feeding it with the jog buttons, but still same thing, about 3' and freeze. 

 

i haent tried afer that, but just 2 days ago i made a 4' sign (4' long of lettering, x 24" ) and it worked fine. i really dont think its in the moving of the vinyl, just long straight feeding that seems to do it. 

 

any ideas? 

[Dakotagrafx 7,297]

the 721 has a very limited memory on board, usc sells an upgrade for this http://www.uscutter.com/4MB-Memory-Chip-for-USCutter-MH-Series-Vinyl-Cutters-Non-MK2-ONLY.  way overpriced but it is available.  I looked at getting some a couple of years ago and in qt of 25 I think they was like $7.00.    The other thing I would look at is if you are using the usb cable go with the null modem serial cable and a serial adapter in your computer - if desktop get a serial card and install - if laptop keyspan is your best bet.

With more info on your setup maybe more ideas will come around.   what software are you useing, what connection method, etc.

[deth502 39]

i had no trouble 2 days ago cutting 4'x 2' of text, but it wont cut this 4'6" box, do you suppose thats a memory problem? i would thenk the text would use much more memory than just a box?? 

 

im using sign blazer and usb. 

 

also, like i said, if i just use the jog button to feed it, it does the same thing, that should have nothing to do with memory, right?

[deth502 39]

ive got an idea i want to try when i get a chance later today, ill post it if it works. wont solve my poblem, but it might be a cheat/workaround. 

[Dakotagrafx 7,297]

the memory comes into play more with the more nodes you have in your drawing - 

[MZ SKEETER 4,709]

It also comes into play when using weedlines,  If using weed lines shut them all off.

[deth502 39]

this is really annoying the hell out of me. 

 

the file had 12 nodes. 12. thats it. 3 squares@ 4 corners each. no weeding lines. 

 

and like i said, it will brick out when i try to feed the vinyl manually with the jog/origin buttons also. 

 

i wouldnt mind dropping $80 on a new motherboard if i KNEW that was the problem, but i dont want to spend that much on a poke and hope. 

 

i tried drawing smaller squares around the stripes, and punching through, in essence, cutting an inverted image, then just weed the shape i cut, im im explaining that clearly, and made each box only about 18" long, to try to minimise the long feed, but it still did the same thing (after cutting half of a line and ruining 2' of vinyl)

 

im looking at upgrading the memory as well, jic. im looking into a cross for the 4mb ic, as im sure its a $5 chip that i can get from somewhere. 

[top53 53]

Sounds like you have the length limit set to low. Check your settings.

[deth502 39]

length limit? do you mean the vinyl size in the set up? thats always set at 1000 inches, so thats not the issue. if thats not what your talking about, what do you mean? 

[top53 53]

Yes, that is what I was talking about. You might want to try reinstalling your cutter driver. It would be hard for me to belive it is a memory problem, with what you have said you are trying to cut. I have heard of a static problems with these cutter, I asume you are grounded good.

[deth502 39]

yup, im grounded, and have never had any problems before. i even thought it might be static buildup, so i tried cutting it 2-3x while actually touching both the vinyl and the metal blade holder, any static buildup should have easily dissipated through my body. 

 

i was, however, successful in my memory search, ive got the 4mb "upgrade" ic's on their way @ <$19/2 shipped, or 1pc @ $10.80 shipped. 

[top53 53]

I hope it works out for you.

[deth502 39]

i dont expect to make any noticeable difference, since im fairly certain that i dont have a memory issue, but i figured wth.