Graphtec FC 7000 130 blade notlifting between cuts.

[asignd]

We have been fighting this problem for over a year. We can send 20 jobs and everything is fine. Then suddenly in the middle of a job the blade gets "stuck" in the down position. If you grab it you can lift it up fairly easily, however when you let go it goes right back down. Case in point (happened 10 minutes ago) I was sending 110" long jobs on 50" 751. The first three cut fine. Then at the last two feet of the fourth job it started cutting all the way through the vinyl and the backing paper. No lifting between letters, just one continuous cut.

This plotter is several years old, we are more than aware it needs to be replaced. My question is, is there a way to fix this, even temporally to get through the next few days?

I am attaching a picture to illustrate what just happened. It was cutting a large "P" and then it started going haywire and never lifting the blade. As you can see, it cut clean through the material.

 

[Msrae]

Are you using Windows 10 by chance? And what cutting software are you using?

 

[asignd]

Windows 7, Flexi Pro 10.5.1 cutting anything from 24" 651, to IJ180 with overlaminate.

Update: I emailed Graphtec support. After going back and forth with them over 5-6 emails we decided to try a grounding strap for the plotter. We noticed on these long runs static was building in the head and might be causing it to lock up. I will update this again if I find that this works along with a short tutorial on how we grounded our so that it may help someone in the future.

 

[woolly]

I have a 7000 130 and the most troublesome plotter I have owned out of 7
I like the idea of the earth strap mine every now and again goes haywire when setting up lots of fiddling often a hour or so and it suddenly corrects itself.. last was reload the firmware instant cure but for how long ??
I have 2 other graphtecs both older in fine working order and the fc has put me off buying another

 

[asignd]

I am so glad to know it is not just us. We are ready to wheel it out in the street and let it get smashed.

After the Friday that I posted this thread, everything was fine. It has not messed up again. The only constant that I can think of it the humidity in the air. The days it has messed up (I've been tracking with my calendar) have been near 1-2% humidity. So more static build up was possible. When it is working fine, the humidity is over 30%. That leads me to "static" being the cause of the problem. I also found out (face palm) that the outlet we had it plugged into was not grounded. SO the ground strap I used did nothing. I am correcting that today and will post the results on the next low humidity day.

Thanks for the replies!

 

[signgirl]

I wished they still made them like the older FCs! I still have a Fc2100-50 running everyday! Knock on wood it has never failed me...not one single problem since we took it out of the box! It has to be 20 years old by now. My FC7000..... ugh!