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Graphtec cutting diagonal line through entire print!!! WTF!

ADuke

New Member
I printed some decals that I want to contour cut. My Graphtec is reading all the registration marks, then starting to cut, but the cut is off. I stopped the machine, and pressed the cancel job button. When it "Canceled" it starting cutting a diagonal line from the place I had stopped it all the way through my decals to til it reached the center of my sheet. Then it started cutting out decal shapes again. I "canceled" again, and it did the same thing. Dragged the knife diagonally across all my decals until it reached the top right registration mark! I am beyond frustrated that it did this because now I have to re-print all my decals. This is not the first time it has done this when I have canceled a job. Does anyone know what causes this and how I can prevent it from continuing?
 

AKwrapguy

New Member
I printed some decals that I want to contour cut. My Graphtec is reading all the registration marks, then starting to cut, but the cut is off. I stopped the machine, and pressed the cancel job button. When it "Canceled" it starting cutting a diagonal line from the place I had stopped it all the way through my decals to til it reached the center of my sheet. Then it started cutting out decal shapes again. I "canceled" again, and it did the same thing. Dragged the knife diagonally across all my decals until it reached the top right registration mark! I am beyond frustrated that it did this because now I have to re-print all my decals. This is not the first time it has done this when I have canceled a job. Does anyone know what causes this and how I can prevent it from continuing?

When was the last time you updated your firmware?
 

bob

It's better to have two hands than one glove.
When you cancel a job you should clear the buffer as well. Otherwise bog knows what's left and the cutter maydutifully try to start where it left off but if the blade was down when you stopped, Shrug.
 
This happens to us occasionally. When you hit the cancel just be ready to lift the pinch rollers. As soon as you lift the levers the cut stops. You can usually stop within the first decal.
 
The latest firmware update is from 2015. You basically never need to update firmware on your plotter. Graphtec hasn't updated it's plotter firmware for 3 years.
 

ADuke

New Member
It's kinda random. Depends on model. Go to the graphtec site they has instructions and what version you should be using.
I went to the graphtec site, downloaded the firmware file and followed the instructions. When I hit "print" it keeps giving me an error message. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong...
 

ADuke

New Member
The latest firmware update is from 2015. You basically never need to update firmware on your plotter. Graphtec hasn't updated it's plotter firmware for 3 years.
That's good to know. I was thinking it was something maybe I had to do regularly, our plotter is only 3 years old so we probably have the right firmware.
 

AKwrapguy

New Member
My graphtec was acting all wonky and doing similar things. Cutting off, mark sensor errors, dropping the sheet cutter down etc... all kinds of add little things and after I updated the firmware I very rarely have an issue.
 

ADuke

New Member
What is the error message?
It just said "error: printing". so not sure what that means. I'm trying to cut the same file again today and it keeps doing the same thing. It's cutting off by at lease an 1/8". Is there a way to manually adjust it? if only I could just use the arrow and move it down slightly while it's cutting....
 
Have you reset the machine. Sometimes the buffer gets full of extra junk leftover from jobs and starts to act funky. Turn off machine and then turn it on and quickly hold the up and enter button together. It will beep and take you to a default menu. Set the machine back to default and then turn off/on again and try to run some things. This is the first thing we do when we encounter multiple problems on different files. Basically gets you back to square one.
 

ikarasu

Active Member
What are you sending from? Onyx, or cutting master? I've had this happen a few times. usually when I see it cutting off... I hit pause, or lift the rollers up.... then hit cancel. If you lower the rollers, or click ready again.. it'll do that.

What happens is Onyx still continues to send the cutting data. Since your not in the "right" spot... it proceeds to move to the right spot, while the knife is down. I've ruined a few prints this way also... it sucks. But I've learned if you lift the pinchwheel, or pause it during cutting to cancel a print/cut... always remove the media from the cutter before resuming, or make sure onyx isn't sitting on sending data.
 

spooledUP7

New Member
It just said "error: printing". so not sure what that means. I'm trying to cut the same file again today and it keeps doing the same thing. It's cutting off by at lease an 1/8". Is there a way to manually adjust it? if only I could just use the arrow and move it down slightly while it's cutting....
Open your manual to ARMS calibration, and follow the instructions. This will tell you if your ARMS is off. While you're at it you should make sure the blade holder mount screws are tight and that there isn't excessive play on the rail rollers.

For my ARMS calibration it requires a preprinted plus marks + where it reads the mark then plots the cut over the mark. You then adjust the plotter XY until the plot cut is directly through the center of the marks. For my setup I prefer to adjust the ARMS sensor holder until the marks are perfect. It's my philosophy that it's always better to bring the machine to spec physically before digitally when possible.


As for the job continuing the cut it is true that your rip is continuing to send the data and you need to abort the job in the rip first. After you abort the job you will need to clear the buffer on the plotter. For me it is: Pause, Next, Buffer Clear, Clear. I usually do this sequence twice to be sure.
 

spooledUP7

New Member
I went to the graphtec site, downloaded the firmware file and followed the instructions. When I hit "print" it keeps giving me an error message. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong...
It's possible that during the firmware update that the plotter IO language got changed from GPL to HPGL or vice versa. Try the opposite of the current setting and see if that works. If not then put it back to the original setting. FYI it's always good practice to take notes (phone photos) of the menu items before doing something major like a firmware update or restoring defaults.
 
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