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Contour Cut lockup

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mcgrawdesigns

New Member
I am running a Vinyl Express Q130 (Graphtec) and if I contour cut one or two decals the machine does fine. Right now I am trying to cut 25 of the same decal and it cuts 1 or 2 and then just freezes. I have to completely turn off the plotter and resend the job to Production Manager in Flexi and try again. I have done this 4 times with no success. I don't know if I need to change some settings when I contour cut several decals as opposed to just one decal, or what. Any ideas?
 
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Sign-Man Signs

Guest
Bad news dude, the QE Series will not pull vinyl. You need to pre-feed it and then cut. If it's on a roll or to heavy, it will freeze up. We have the same plotter and same problem. I have contacted SW and their answer is "You have to live with it".
 
OneUpTenn

OneUpTenn

New Member
I have the Q160 and mine will pull a heavy roll and contour cut multiple decals with no problem (at least not yet) I am new so here are a few things I had trouble with when I first did decals..maybe it will help you maybe not

First of all, you cant use the registration marks from your software, you have to use the registration marks in Flexi. I learned this the hard way.

Second, when you feed your vinyl make sure that your cutter is actually reading the registration marks. You will know this because it kinda hesitates over them. If not, then there is your problem.

When you resend it...does it pick up right where you left off or does it cut the first two again???
 
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mcgrawdesigns

New Member
One Up, When it locks up I have to completely turn the plotter off and then restart it. I then have to resend the job to Production Manager and cut again. I starts cutting back at the cutter heads "Home" lower right corner off the vinyl as your looking at the plotter from in front of it. Also, have you tried to contour cut a decal from the middle off a piece of vinyl, mine won't find the reg. marks, only if they are close to the right edge of the vinyl.?
 
OneUpTenn

OneUpTenn

New Member
Is it possible that it is not reading the second set of registration marks? Or is it possible that your design has marks in it that resemble your registration marks?
 
Cy Fan

Cy Fan

New Member
Have you tried to align the marks manually? It takes longer but that is what I have to do, as my vinyl express have never been able to find the marks properly.
 
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mcgrawdesigns

New Member
I have tried all kinds of different settings and reinstalling the plotter driver, all of that. I did finally check "Optimize Cutting Order" as I had not tried that yet and I was able to finish this small quantity of decals. Does having this checked sound like a fix to my problem, or did I just get lucky this time?
 
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oc63rag

New Member
Does Graphtec support this machine? If so, I'd contact their tech support. They've always been great with me.
 
MrKoob

MrKoob

New Member
Sign-Man Signs said:
Bad news dude, the QE Series will not pull vinyl. You need to pre-feed it and then cut. If it's on a roll or to heavy, it will freeze up. We have the same plotter and same problem. I have contacted SW and their answer is "You have to live with it".
Click to expand...

The Q does pull the vinyl. I haven't had any issues. The Qe I'm not sure about.
 
MrKoob

MrKoob

New Member
mcgrawdesigns said:
I am running a Vinyl Express Q130 (Graphtec) and if I contour cut one or two decals the machine does fine. Right now I am trying to cut 25 of the same decal and it cuts 1 or 2 and then just freezes. I have to completely turn off the plotter and resend the job to Production Manager in Flexi and try again. I have done this 4 times with no success. I don't know if I need to change some settings when I contour cut several decals as opposed to just one decal, or what. Any ideas?
Click to expand...

When you say "Contour Cut" are you running a Print Job through with Registration Marks (Digital Print), or do you mean you're trying to cut out a spot color graphic with cut lines? You have two options with the Registration Marks, you can assign them to every graphic to where the machine will try to get a read on each mark (more accurate), or you can assign the standard (4) which will print to the top and botton of the digital print (less accurate but faster). Try changing these around. If you are using regular spot color vinyl, then this is another issue altogether. Have you contacted Signwarehouse Tech Support? If it's a Q then they will have to support it. It should be free if you bought it from them.
 
W

woolly

New Member
mcgrawdesigns said:
I have tried all kinds of different settings and reinstalling the plotter driver, all of that. I did finally check "Optimize Cutting Order" as I had not tried that yet and I was able to finish this small quantity of decals. Does having this checked sound like a fix to my problem, or did I just get lucky this time?
Click to expand...


my guess is the data is overflowing, what cable connection do you use.

woolly
 
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woolly

New Member
is the usb connected to the computer in a usb port or through a serial to usb converter.
do you have any problems with normal cutting or only with cutting out printed decals.
if running xp have you service pack 2 installed.
i think its a communication problem.


woolly
 
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