Summa Firmware Uprgrade Continual Fail

[SignDesignLady]

I am just appalled (pissed off beyond belief!!!) at the lack of support from Summa.
I have a Summa S2 T140. I do a lot of stickers and have always cut them apart by hand on the production table after doing kiss cut function through Winplot. Well after watching a few YouTube videos of other Summa owners performing perf cutting, I figured I could save a lot of time and effort by using my cutter to do that work for me. I studied up on kiss cutting and perf cutting and how to set up my files and do this via Summa Go Sign. After several attempts to upgrade the firmware, because Summa Go Sign won't function without the latest firmware upgrade, I called the company I purchased the cutter from. The tech/sales person I purchased the cutter from came and spent almost an entire day in my shop trying to get this thing to work, all to no avail. He has contacted Summa, I have contacted Summa support asking for solution and it has been a complete circle jerk. I think they just don't know what the solution is and keep sending me to different people who them tell me I need to go back to the company I bought the cutter from. How does this make sense? So I have been trying to uprade my firmware since the beginning of September 2022 and always get to about 78% and then an error message saying the file is corrupted. I don't know what else to do. Anyone here have any workable suggestions/solutions?

Thanks in advance.

 

[cornholio]

I'd try using the USB connection to do the firmwareupgrade on a freshly switched on cutter.
If that doesn't help, maybe your cutters mainboard has a problem and needs to be replaced.
(I service Summa for 30 years)

 

[SignDesignLady]

We had the sales rep/tech guru who sold us the cutter come in to our shop and tried all that. Nothing worked. Even he couldn't get Summa to respond. How do I determine if the board is in need of replacement? I can't get anyone to respond to my questions for support.

 

[jerry369]

Did you try using another PC? Install SCC and Summa USB driver, a fresh download of the firmware file than retry.

In any case you are not forced to install GoSign, the FlexCut function can also be enabled from WinPlot

 

[PHILJOHNSON]

What firmware revision are you trying to install and what version of Cutter Control are you using? I am confident our tech team(www.airmark.com/support) can figure this one out, but if you didn't purchase this equipment from us you would first need to purchase one of our support plans before talking with them. We used to own Summa and our techs are the most experienced when it comes to Summa equipment(we actually trained Summa's current tech manager) so we can likely figure out what's going on and help troubleshoot a hardware issue if there is one.

Best regards,

Phil Johnson
Airmark Corporation
(800)527-7778, ext. 112
philj@airmark.com

 

[Saturn]

That's super frustrating!

It doesn't address the firmware issue, but I'd also suggest trying to cut your stickers without any perf cut/flexcut features. I do thousands upon thousands every month on my Summa using a "regular" cut that's simply a heavier pressure than a kiss cut. I also typically will do two passes of each cut (one after the other directly on top of the same sticker.) This works great for stickers up to around 20-30 square inches—Most of what what I do is 6-16 sq. in.

My first year or two in business I did this exclusively through Winplot, using imposed (with regmarks) cut files I created in Illustrator. It's not as nice as using a RIP that generates barcodes allowing automation, but it certainly did the trick while I grew the business. The stickers are all cleanly cut and easy to just pop out at a table.

 

[SignDesignLady]

What firmware revision are you trying to install and what version of Cutter Control are you using? I am confident our tech team(www.airmark.com/support) can figure this one out, but if you didn't purchase this equipment from us you would first need to purchase one of our support plans before talking with them. We used to own Summa and our techs are the most experienced when it comes to Summa equipment(we actually trained Summa's current tech manager) so we can likely figure out what's going on and help troubleshoot a hardware issue if there is one.

Best regards,

Phil Johnson
Airmark Corporation
(800)527-7778, ext. 112
philj@airmark.com

Phil, thanks for the information. Good to know. I cannot get the company I purchased my Summa from to respond to me either. I purchased a S2 T140 in 2019 and I need parts, like blades and cutting strips also. Can your company provide that?

I am still trying to work something out with Summa Support, they send me brief emails everyday. I'll see if they actually tell me there is nothing they are going to do and I may be back in touch with you.

 

[zstekovic]

Try using Windows 7 machine for update - with USB 1.1 or USB 2 port. Had the same problem, worked for me. Find old PC and give it a go.

 

[cornholio]

We had the sales rep/tech guru who sold us the cutter come in to our shop and tried all that. Nothing worked. Even he couldn't get Summa to respond. How do I determine if the board is in need of replacement? I can't get anyone to respond to my questions for support.

I can't speak for your dealer, but I'd just come out, backup your parameters, replace the board and see what happens.

 

[DrunknMonk]

so you say it won't do cut perf? what does it do instead? will it not do it because of the firmware ? have you contacted https://www.summa.com/en/support/ ?

 

[netsol]

Try using Windows 7 machine for update - with USB 1.1 or USB 2 port. Had the same problem, worked for me. Find old PC and give it a go.

i think this makes a lot of sense, i was thinking the exact same thing.
we have had usb backwards compatability issues with several manufacturers
it is POSSIBLE that the failed upgrade has corrupted the target area that the firmware writes to...
we would try obtaining & replacing the eprom the firmware update writes to (on your circuit board), but,
it sounds like this has gone on long enough, (turning this into a lengthy engineering project would hardly be doing you a favor).

retry the upgrade, with a windows 7 laptop. if that is not successful, i suppose it is time to replace the board.