Vinyl Express RII cutting flat edges on letters

[dale911]

I realize this is a cheap plotter and I'm about to upgrade...but today I started trying to cut some large signs for a client and I'm getting random flat lines in my curved letters and it is not always cutting straight long segment lines.

I'm cutting a 24" x 9' section for a sign and when making the inside of the "R"s and sometimes the tops of the "S" and sometimes the inside of the "B", it will straiten the curve so the rounded part is a straight line. This goes on for about an inch or 2. This entire section of text is outlined in a 3/8" pinstripe surrounding the sign with concave corners. I produced the pinstripe in AI and did the rest of the graphic in Flexi but it is the design only version. I then imported to VE LXI Apprentice for output. I believe it's a buffer or data transfer error so I changed the port speed to 4800 from 9600 and then tried it again at 2400. The errors occur on different letters so it's not in the vector. I have switched to the pen to draw it out to save money and have found that it just picks a letter and does it.

I have also tried different speeds on the unit itself and it was worse with the slower cut speed. Any help would be appreciated. I read a lot of info on here but I believe this is the first time I've posted as most things I want to know can be found with the search function. Thanks guys....and I know my next step is to get a good plotter so this doesn't happen.

PS, I'm using the usb cable. I bought the usb to serial port conversion cable earlier today but didn't get to try it as it wouldn't set up right.

 

[dale911]

Ok. For anyone who was interested in the problem or may have this problem in the future. The problem was not the artwork or the speed at which I was sending the data from the computer. The problem was the cheap plotter that didn't have enough buffer memory. I probably lost $150 in vinyl trying different things to get it to work.

The solution was obvious. I went and bought another plotter. I dropped the dough to get a pro grade cutter that cuts 10 times faster, tracks better, is 1/4 as loud and has a ton of features to make my life easier and allow me to do bigger and better jobs. The time I'm going to save will even allow me to make more money.

If you are reading this and thinking about buying one of these, you may as well spend the money on beer. You'll be a lot happier and you'll get as much work done. They are fine to use for a hobby, but once you start playing with the big boys, you'll need big boy equipment. It's well worth the investment.

Thanks to the person who PM'd me and helped me confirm that this was the problem. I can't say the same for Signwarehouse though who deleted an exact copy of my above post from their forum.

 

[bmgstang]

Thats what I suspected was the problem with mine(memory), I ran into this problem on simple logos at around 1'x1' even. Even on other smaller designs that were more complex. All the guy at uscutter said was try the test file and it cuts that fine but not some of my designs. Sounds like the vinyl express R II is a very limited hobby machine.