Signmaker

History

Recently (early 2015) received as a donation.

An elderly Roland CAMM-1 CX-12 plotter / vinyl cutter / sign maker.

Initial setup (22/Feb/2015, updated 4/Sep/2015)

HP JetDirect 300X network printer server connecting via parallel port to the CX-12 There is also a long serial cable to connect to a suitably-equipped PC. (Appeared necessary for the Roland software, though it now seems that the network connection is fine). DO NOT reset the JetDirect (will turn on ASCII header pages on each 'print job' or press the 'test print' button - this will try and send an ASCII test-page of network settings to the plotter, which will sulk!

Network address http://10.0.0.93, printer driver (raw queue) set up on quorra / Linux. Roland driver installed twice -Net and -Serial on quorra / WinXP

Software: Inkscape extension 'InkCut 1.0' installed and running on Quorra under Linux. No Windows support until next version. Roland CutStudio installed an running on quorra / WinXP (Note that this software is not usable beyond WinVista)

Material maximum width 395mm, but the cutting width is 280mm (11") maximum, less than A4 landscape.

As this device needs fore-and-aft clearance for the source and the finished material, it is best set up on a table in the studio and using the network connection to drive it.

Currently testing to establish capabilities / speeds to use (22/Feb/2015) Dclarke (talk) 22:06, 22 February 2015 (UTC)

Trials of newly-installed CutStudio software are proving successful. Cutstudio is installed on quorra. Start the SW / design, etc. Install material in cutter, and run setup (i.e. get the plotter to 'read' the size of material installed). Then plot / print from cutstudio. So far, is successful down to quite small sizes, the cut depth and pressure are set to suit 60-70 micron vinyl.

Any font installed in Windows seems to be acceptable - conversion to cutting outlines is transparent. For non straight-line text read the manual / help (it's not as intuitive as they think).

Importing images / graphics is very flakey. The only success so far is to import a .BMP image and use cutstudio to trace it. This has been done with the Hackspace logo symbol. Importing .AI / .EPS is supposed to be possible, but is very version-specific.

Manuals

User Manual File:CX-12-24 Use manual r5.pdf A printed copy of this is with the cutter.

Set up

This uses a network connection, so needs to be plugged into a spare network point.

Plug in both router and cutter- keeping extension lead with it.

The vinyl feeds from the back to the front.

Move the head to the correct point using the cursors.

Set the origin.

Set the weight and the cutting speed. This has been done on the printer itself. Possibly controlled from software as well, but when I adjusted the sings in software it seems to make no difference.

Send buy using the Cutter/Plotter -> InkCut 1.0. Then check Properties and that the interface is Printer and set to JetDirect300x.

Click the plot parts button and it should cut.

YMMV

Settings

Blue vinyl in craft room: Cutting weight= 70gm Cutting speed= 40cm/min