TOPIC:

Appreciate the thought, but I'm past juggling drivers/operative systems/cutting software & on to it being a problem with the USB port (maybe fixed by FTDI USB -> RS232 adaptor cable), grounding (will add a secondary earth cable), or a memory issue (will habe to live with it).

The "fix" (temporary, or maybe not) seesm to be to send only a small amount of data to the cutter - one tyres worth lettering works, more doesn't, ditto for the pink test (6 separate cuts to fill the sheet), one kringloop or line of text (so 4 cuts on that sheet). The whole Scorcher side (for my lappy) works ok, just had to do it in 4 colours

i can get Flexi Starter
u should give that a go
any way i was thinking it maybe the cord u are using if its a old one might not be up to speed
see i use to fix phones and one day i went to reset a iphone and yes the cord did look like a apple one like 100% look like
any way the software ask me to use a apple cord before it went through the setup
just a thought
if i was u i would get a computer with the com ports at the back install win 8.1 and add the software
and please look at the bios theres different setting for the com ports

I seem to remember you use Inkscape. They have a plugin/program called Inkcut, which would probably support your plotter if its a generic one and HPGL compliant. It also might be a more intuitive interface if you are use to Inkscape. I've not tried it myself but intend too at some point as I have a Roland Camm-1 CX24 that's about 20 yrs old and they stopped driver support after XP!

Thanks yogi, I did see that inkscape was suggested & tried it ... all the drawing side of it worked fine, but there was no sign of any sort of option to cut anything.

Even their own tutorials made no mention of how to do that - they just demonstrated how to import/create somthing, finishing with "and now just send it to the cutter"
You think they might have mentioned a plugin

I've paid for Easy Cut Studio & am determined to get my money's worth out of it




In other news, the FTDI USB to R232 cable adaptor arrived on Sunday, the drivers on the CD with were all for Windows CE (TF?) but I found the "correct" driver on the manufacturers' website & seemed to install OK. Unfortunately the female plug on the lead wasn't going to fit in the female plug on the cutter.

Today a double headed adaptor arrived & I tried it out ... Nothing.

So I'm back to where I was - only able to do small/simple cuts. In hindsight the seller's claim that they couldn't make it work due to not having an optical drive on their new PC should have rung alarm bells more than it did, it might have been better to take a NPB hit on eBay & have a trip wasted than end up with a compromise like this

Moral of the story - and TBH I already knew this but got blinded by a "bargain" "setup" - cheap Chinese hardware is not worth the hassle, especially 2nd hand

Forgot to add the ends of the cutting strips had been badly glued down ... and freshly too I think - this was the right hand end the day after I picked it up. I've since scraped all the residue off, used double sided tape to hold them down, and strips of clear vinyl to nake sure they can't start moving

This will not stand close inspection ...

I've been wanting to put something of the front of my Honda City Turbo without passing it off as something it's not - I reused some of the letters from the original text, modifed others & created the remainder from scratch.

There were quite a few spare, so I've slapped them on eBay

Still on quite a steep learning curve here - the Buggy Champ alternative was mostly created (in paint shop pro) as outlines, and the cutter seemed to be going over everything twice, with very fine cobwebbing evident when it came to weeding. Turns out the "trace" tool in Easy Cut Studio was seeing the line as the thing I wanted cut out, and creating a cut line for both the inside and outside of it.

Since then I've being doing everything in PSP as a solid colour

You should cut smaller tamiyabase stickers and sale them to members. I will be your first client. ;P