Job Goes Haywire

[dcbevins 340]

I have a TC series US cutter and SignCut Pro 1.96 win on Windows 8.1

 

Mostly my cut jobs do what I expect.  I am in the beginning phase of exploring making rhinestone templates.  I have made a pattern of 1010 0.161 " circles in a shape of  Φ I think ss16 stones will fit.  I will attach an svg image at the bottom. 

 

I set the origin to a place convenient to the pinch rollers, send the design from Coreldraw X7 via the plugin to SignCut.   The cutter says receiving data for 4-5 minutes.  

 

Then a number of things may happen.  Typically, the blade moves outside the area and starts cutting and I kill the job.  I once put a large piece of vinyl in that area just to see what it was doing.  It will cut weird triangles or something that looks like an S.  It might spit out feet of material on a roll if i look away.

 

The TC series has a USB serial interface.   Device manager shows this as COM3 with a manufacturer of Anhui LIYU Computer Equipment Manufacturing.co.Ltd.  I have tried baud rates from 9600 up to 57600.  I have the CDM v2.10.00 WHQL Certified drivers installed. I am not sure if this is a communications problem, a memory buffer problem, or software.

 

I sent a portion of the design to the cutter, about 80 out of the 1010 circles, and it handle those without seeming to have any problem.

 

Is this just too much for the cutter to handle, 1010 circles?  Is it just to much for SignCut?  

 

Failing finding a solution, I suppose I could break the design up into colored small groups and cutting them a few at a time.  If I did that, how can set up Signcut to always start at the right position for each set of colors I cut?  I normally just do everything in one big chunk, (it is a 50 inch wide cutter.)

 

I still don't have the hang of getting circles to follow shapes, that's going to take more practice or paying for some software  Attached is an svg of the shapes involved, and yes its not perfect but good enough for now.  It wouldn't let me post svg inline.

 

Any advice?

rhinestone phi test.svg

[slice&dice 2,450]

"paying for some software..."

 

From my understanding of it, the software provided by USCUTTER with their cutters is capable of handling rhinestone designing.

 

Since there is a full version of that software included with every cutter they sell (SureCutsALot"Pro") you could actually just buy the least inexpensive model  ($180, including shipping for the DEMO/ Refurbished - USCutter MH 14" Desktop Vinyl Cutter ) and then re-sell it on craigslist for $120, which would amount to you ending up paying $60 for the software which you keep.

 

In order to find out if it will work for you, there is a demo version available online for download.

[OWJones 1,981]

Is this just too much for the cutter to handle, 1010 circles? 

 

I'd be willing to bet money on that.  Lower end cutters start freaking out when you try to send massive amounts of data.

[skarekrow 1,842]

The TC has 64 megs of memory... more than most cutters. I didnt send it to the cutter but opened it in SignCut.

There should be no problem with it handling the file.

 

You said, "Mostly my cut jobs do what I expect.". What other problems were you experiencing?

 

Rather than sent the file through Coreldraw, have you just right clicked on the file and "open with sign Cut?

 

I have always run my TC, wide open at 57600 baud. Never a problem with Windows Vista, SignCut 1.95 or the TC.

[dcbevins 340]

skarekrow,

 

I have tried exporting as eps and ai version 8 and opening those files in signcut with the same result.  

 

Some times there are "hiccups," that I am not sure are user error or some other oddity.  As I have a habit of turning off and back one after each job, I might be missing diagnostic opportunities.

 

But, since I posted I have been running more stuff through it, just going through scraps while my eight year old daughter gets to practice weeding.  The problem seems to be happening more often now with other graphics.  Another job I sent started in the wrong position.  I canceled and tried again, but this time opening an EPS from the file system.

 

Ok, this is BIZARRE.  I had a 5'"x50" piece of scrap in the cutter.  On the other end of the cutter I had a bigger piece of scrap just laying there with the pinch rollers raise.  When I sent the job to the cutter, the knife moved to the wrong location and started cutting.  I quickly slid that other piece of scrap under the knife and locked the pinch rollers down.........

 

It was cutting a design I had done WEEKS earlier if not MONTHS!!!!!  That design was nowhere in coreldraw, nowhere in the the eps file, and not open anywhere in any program.  I pulled that same eps file into coreldraw and looked at it wireframe, and everything else I had open in wireframe just to be sure.

 

Could the machines memory be corrupted in some way that graphics from weeks ago are still in there?  I am utterly stumped.  I would think powering off the machine would flush the memory.  

 

The only thin I can think of is that this is Coreldraw X7.  It uses a different file format to save now.  But even that doesn't make sense as I have tried straight from Inkscape and get the same.

 

I saw this on an older post:  http://forum.uscutter.com/index.php?/topic/39346-liyu-memory-issues/

[skarekrow 1,842]

I would check that driver and also make sure you have SignCut pointed to the LIYU  TC1261 (I think you have).

Weird about it cutting the file from months ago...

 

I'm using the LiYuDrvN.inf driver with the following settings.

 

.

[dcbevins 340]

In my setup, there is no Liyu listed under Manufacturer.  I have chosen USCutter as the manufacturer.  I have chosen UsCutter TC Series 50 as the cutter.   The invoice for the cutter lists it as TC Vinyl Cutting Plotter W/64 MB Memory 50" TC1261.  As there was no TC12161 listed I used the TC 50.

 

I notice on Signcut Pro's website they list this:  http://www.signcutpro.com/files/pdf/driverlist20130410.pdf

 

They have a Liyu TC1261 listed there, but like I said my drop down has no Liyu.  It only lists seven manufacturers.  I don't think this plotter has non volatile memory.  For a job from weeks ago to suddenly start cutting it would have to be signcut mismanaging some type of temp file, or some system level buffer/spooling mischief going on at the serial port.  I think that it is significant in the extreme to have jobs weeks old rise like a zombie in my cutter.  It would take a huge fumble some place for that to happen.

 

Here are my settings:

 

[dcbevins 340]

Wait a minute.  Maybe it DOES have non volatile memory..

 

 

Highlight features for Cutting Plotter (TC1261 with Optical Eyes) 
With Optical Eye to support Contour Cut (Work together with Flexi-Starter software to achieve Contour cut) 
USB2.0 interface, support hot-swappable, and is equipped with serial port to support the long-distance data transmission. 
64MB super-memory achieves a long time Offline cutting, meanwhile, the data storage can be achieved even blackout. 

 

 

So how do I flush it?  A reset doesn't seem to.

[dcbevins 340]

Here is something else I found that suggests the problem is involving non volatile memory being corrupted.  

 

 

We have actually checked this with the manufacturer and turns out it happens once in a blue moon. During the testing phase at the manufacturer, they use the Chinese letters to test if it working properly and they ship it to the buyer. But what happens is, when a customer starts using it, the cutter only makes use of that exact memory location where the Chinese letters are stored. To solve it, simply send it a big file and the Chinese letters in the buffer memory get out and it should work fine after that.

 

 

From:  http://forum.ukcutter.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=4152&p=10994&hilit=buffer#p10994

 

Still don't know how to fix this.  What is a "big file?"

[skarekrow 1,842]

I suggest getting yourself a copy of SignCut 1.95... it lists your cutter under Liyu.

When I first got my TC and set it up with under 'US Cutter' it cut those chinese letters.

Just did it once and that's been a couple of years ago.

 

Highly suggest setting up the cutter under this listing.

Here's a link to version 1.95.

 

I realize SC's site lists version 1.96 for Windows 8...

I have read of a few issues with Windows 8.

[dcbevins 340]

That link sends me to the 1.96 download page.  In my SCP installation there is drivers.pkg in C:\Program Files (x86)\SignCut\Resources created ‎Wednesday, ‎May ‎7, ‎2014, ‏‎9:01:34 AM.  I wonder if that is the plotter preferences.  I wonder if it is, where I could find a different version of that file......

 

UPDATE:

 

I contacted SCP support.  They upgraded my licences number.  Now Liyu appears.  I changed the settings.  At this moment, it is running a job that in 5 previous attempts had gone haywire.  I am keeping my fingers crossed.  Hopefully the new plotter preferences fixed it.  We shall see.

 

THANK YOU!

 

 

SOLVED

 

The original file that started this whole thing now cuts.  I had thought the plotter preferences were just so much fluff and that only the COM settings really mattered.  I am corrected.  Now its all working, (except the contour cutting, (but that's another story).