Summa Barcode Issue All Of A Sudden....Any Ideas?

[TDFcustomSL]

I am using a Summa S2 T series cutter and have had great luck with it. It has always read the barcodes flawlessly. A Couple of days ago I was running an order of 10,000 decals and had printed them in sheets of 500, on a continuous roll. It cut 8 sheets without hesitation and then started trying to read the left side registration marks but the sensor was too far to the left from where the mark was. I had to stop the barcode server and re start it after it cut each sheet. Last night, trying to cut out some more stuff, it wont even try to scan the barcode. The sensor will move a half inch or so and throw an error that it was unable to sense the barcode. I checked and noticed a new version of Summa Cutter Control was released a month ago so updated my software. Now when I try to scan the barcode it gets about 3/4 of the way across and throws the error something about number of bars does not match. It appears as if the firmware is the most recent. Does any one have any ideas or suggestions?

 

[FrankW]

Be shure that the pinch rollers and media is set in a way that the sensor can reach the complete barcode. If the right side of the barcode is out of the cutting area, the sensor can not reach the complete barcode. If you have a very small border, use "extended loading" to set the cutting area over the positions of the outer pinch rollers.

And you should do a media calibration. This will adjust the contrast recognition between background and marker colour. For that, print a black rectangle (e. g. 2 x 2 inches), treat it like a regular print (lamination and so on) and carry out the media calibration which can be found in the OPOS submenu. Choose "measure" and then set the knife tip to the black rectangle or white background depending on what the plotter asks for. To make it more easy, you can try to set the value to a higher one than 30 (e. G. 60) and try again.

 

[TDFcustomSL]

Be shure that the pinch rollers and media is set in a way that the sensor can reach the complete barcode. If the right side of the barcode is out of the cutting area, the sensor can not reach the complete barcode. If you have a very small border, use "extended loading" to set the cutting area over the positions of the outer pinch rollers.

And you should do a media calibration. This will adjust the contrast recognition between background and marker colour. For that, print a black rectangle (e. g. 2 x 2 inches), treat it like a regular print (lamination and so on) and carry out the media calibration which can be found in the OPOS submenu. Choose "measure" and then set the knife tip to the black rectangle or white background depending on what the plotter asks for. To make it more easy, you can try to set the value to a higher one than 30 (e. G. 60) and try again.

Thanks for the reply, I do not understand how calibrating it will make the sensor move more than a half of an inch before throwing the error that it was unable to sense the barcode. Or fix that fact that it doesnt read the entire barcode before erroring.

 

[TDFcustomSL]

I should also add that when it does begin to scan the barcode, and reads 1/2 to 3/4 of it and then throws the error about not enough bars, the cutter freezes up and I have to turn it off to reset it.

 

[AF]

First things first. Clean the OPOS sensor.

The symptom you describe sounds like your origin is not outside the bar code. This can happen if the pinch roller is too close to the barcode.

You could also be placing the sensor too far to the left when starting the barcode scan.

 

[TDFcustomSL]

First things first. Clean the OPOS sensor.

The symptom you describe sounds like your origin is not outside the bar code. This can happen if the pinch roller is too close to the barcode.

You could also be placing the sensor too far to the left when starting the barcode scan.

I will clean it when I get to the shop. I am also waiting to hear back from tech on this. I have tried starting the barcode scan from multiple places (usually i start the scan about an inch under the barcode and about centered with the barcode itself and it has worked great. Also, the pinch rollers are about 3 inches outside the registration marks on each side of the print. Thank you for your reply.

 

[FrankW]

Thanks for the reply, I do not understand how calibrating it will make the sensor move more than a half of an inch before throwing the error that it was unable to sense the barcode. Or fix that fact that it doesnt read the entire barcode before erroring.

Could be if the sensor gives back irregular values. I would give calibrating (or setting the Value higher than it is) a try. Regular value is 30, try it with 60 or 80.

 

[TDFcustomSL]

so I got back to the shop this evening and decided to just browse through the settings on the cutter before i returned a phone call to tech. Somehow the OPOS setting got changed from barcode to xy...not sure how or why but after changing it back it started working again...

 

[AF]

Awesome!

 

[FrankW]

Strange: regularly the RIP-Software should set the command to switch to OPOS BARCODE into the plotfile.