 Laserpoint communication problem -resolved
Hello all,
Just resolved a huge issue with my USCutter Laserpoint 24 and thought I would post it in case anyone else had the same issue.
I use Signcut Pro as a cutter plug-in for Illustrator on my laptop running Vista, USB to LP24. I use the LP24 mostly to do contour cutting of transfer paper, and also to cut t-shirt vinyl. Problem started with having to unplug then plug back in the usb cable every time I opened Signcut. I figured oh well minor glitch to deal with to be able to cut with this machine. I put up with this minor annoyance until it got to the point that Signcut was freezing every time I used the jog and contour cut features.
The freezing started after I accidentally set up registration marks incorrectly. I think it squished the graphic image and caused the cutter head to go all the way to end of travel and hit the red shut off switch. To get it to work again I wound up having to uninstall Signcut, then reinstall, then reset all settings to default. Also I updated the FTDI driver to the latest version. After that I could cut again, but still had the same issue I had in the beginning. I had to unplug USB to get cutter to communicate with my laptop when 1st starting Signcut.
I wanted this problem resolved so I started watching the cutter and its LCD panel. After clearing the buffer on the LP24 by turning the machine off and on, the display shows "online", meaning it's ready to go. As soon as Signcut is opened and a cutter command is given, the display always reads "waiting". After messing around with the program for a while, I found out after using the normal cut routine, another dialog box pops up and asks if I want to advance the material. Then below that option at the bottom left corner of the dialog box there is a button to "stop after cutting". I was previously using the "cancel" button on the right lower corner, thinking it meant cancel cut job. I choose the stop after cutting button and the plotter display goes back to "online". Great now I'm getting somewhere.
But the problem still remains, after using the contour cut feature, there is no way to get to the "stop after cutting" dialog box. The work around I found out about is, after using the contour cut feature, just press and release one of the plotter head (end of run) "kill" switches to clear out the buffer. Then when you close SC Pro, the unused cutter data is no longer an issue. Now I can use Signcut Pro flawlessly, without having to unplug my USB connection.
Next I will soon get my COM port to USB cable that I just ordered the other day. Hoping to resolve USB connection at cutter coming loose at times. The cable has a FTDI chip in it, and will securely connect with thumb screws to the machine. If interested I will post my results.
Last edited by Nvr2Old; November 16th, 2009 at 03:55 PM.
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