Graphtec FC9000 Changing Conditions?

[jfiscus]

We have been running our Graphtec FC9000 plotters for a while now, and when they're working great everyone loves them, but every now and then they just seem to do wacky stuff...
Today we noticed that everything we plotted on one of them yesterday wasn't cut deep enough (not cut at all) and checked the condition settings on it and the force and speed were both way off. (force was at 7 instead of 20, speed was up at 45 instead of 30)
Only two different people used the plotter yesterday, and everything plotted on Wednesday before the holiday was just fine.

I know if you send a cut only job over there through Composer you can manually "override" the settings, for that job only, when sending; but it does NOT change anything in the "Conditions" menu on the plotter itself.
Once we had one do its own factory reset and every condition was lost, but this time it was a bit more subtle.

Has anyone else seen their plotters change the settings within the condition on their own?
FWIW, only 1 of the conditions was incorrect, the rest were all still fine when checked.

 

[signheremd]

We've had ours for a couple of years and it has never done anything like this. Sounds more like an employee goofed and didn't want to admit it, or someone else messed around and made the change either by leaning on the pad or not knowing what they were doing. Maybe someone that services them has seen something like you describe, but I have never heard of the machine making changes itself.

 

[d fleming]

Been running graphtecs since they had carved stone blades, lol. Every once in a while I will accidentally hit the wrong buttons while loading and not notice I did it until I try weeding. Should not be a problem at all changing conditions back. You change them for different materials right? One setting for say oracal 651 and then another lighter one for high performance and then again for reflective, etc.

 

[jfiscus]

Been running graphtecs since they had carved stone blades, lol. Every once in a while I will accidentally hit the wrong buttons while loading and not notice I did it until I try weeding. Should not be a problem at all changing conditions back. You change them for different materials right? One setting for say oracal 651 and then another lighter one for high performance and then again for reflective, etc.

Yes, we have 6 different conditions that we use here, and they're all set up the same on all of our Graphtec plotters.
They all stay the same and no one would ever have a reason to mess with them.
The only 3 employees who messed with it on Wednesday/Monday all wouldn't have changed the settings and I trust them that they'd have no reason to. They're just as confused as I am.
Changed this one back to the settings it should be and everything was able to be re-cut without issue or material loss today, its just a real weird thing to have happen over a long weekend.

 

[GSM903]

What version of Cut Master are you using ?

 

[Notarealsignguy]

I don't have a solution but we have had that problem too as well as a million other issues.
If you are using CM, double check the cut parameters in there when you export the file. I have had that randomly change to a different cut condition.

 

[jfiscus]

I don't have a solution but we have had that problem too as well as a million other issues.
If you are using CM, double check the cut parameters in there when you export the file. I have had that randomly change to a different cut condition.

We have never used the CM plugin, we use our Graphtecs primarily with Onyx and barcodes.

 

[Saturn]

I use a Summa, but I've had Onyx (which I used to generate marks and barcodes) switch a few things randomly back to more default settings. Seemed to happen when I would leave Onyx open for too long and/or the RIP PC on too long, so I got in the habit of closing Onyx and actually shutting down every 24 hours, and it hasn't come up since. Knock on wood.

 

[JBurton]

I've had it happen when running cutting master 3, but never to me, only to my employees, so I can't say that they didn't just muck up the force setting.

 

[Pauly]

We have never used the CM plugin, we use our Graphtecs primarily with Onyx and barcodes.

make sure onyx is not setting the condition parameters. but only selecting the condition.

 

[Ron Wade]

Broken blade?

 

[jfiscus]

make sure onyx is not setting the condition parameters. but only selecting the condition.

It isn't even doing that much. The settings are to use what the Graphtec is set to "currently" when each roll is loaded onto each plotter.
As they load the rolls on the plotters and put them on the take-up reels and find the first barcode they check to verify that the correct condition is selected for the material they loaded on.

 

[jfiscus]

Broken blade?

No, the values within the one condition only (none of the rest) were completely changed to other values.
After we went in and changed them back to what they were supposed to be for that condition everything has been fine again since then.

 

[d fleming]

Yes, we have 6 different conditions that we use here, and they're all set up the same on all of our Graphtec plotters.
They all stay the same and no one would ever have a reason to mess with them.
The only 3 employees who messed with it on Wednesday/Monday all wouldn't have changed the settings and I trust them that they'd have no reason to. They're just as confused as I am.
Changed this one back to the settings it should be and everything was able to be re-cut without issue or material loss today, its just a real weird thing to have happen over a long weekend.

Just wait til it starts speaking Japanese to you. I didn't say anyone did it purposely, I said it is easy to do by accident. I think.

 

[Costaricanprinter]

Mine recently if you change the condition it loses arms calibration, has been a pain in the ass

Until next Monday the technician comes, when I mentioned the problem he told me that it could be the damaged motherboard.

This machine has 4 or 5 years is the first time that need some help all ready try everything it can be done by me

 

[cornholio]

When I remember correctly, there was something like a "parameter initialize", when they showed strange behaviour. But then, all the settings are lost and some machine specific parameters (written somewhere on the chassis behind the cover on the right side) need to be set. The same procedure, as if you replaced the mainboard.

But if it only happened once, I'd call it a cosmic glitch or a user stumble.

 

[Notarealsignguy]

We have tried using barcodes through CM4 and it is a disaster. Sometimes it cuts, sometimes it wont, sometimes it heads straight to cut and ruins the print, sometimes you can reboot it 5 times and it will magically work. It randomly stops doing auto cut sheet or returns to the front of the cut. I think the issue is within the FC9000 and not the RIP/cutting program anyone is using. There are a fair amount of issues posted online about this particular machine. It's a turd.

 

[cornholio]

We have tried using barcodes through CM4 and it is a disaster. Sometimes it cuts, sometimes it wont, sometimes it heads straight to cut and ruins the print, sometimes you can reboot it 5 times and it will magically work. It randomly stops doing auto cut sheet or returns to the front of the cut. I think the issue is within the FC9000 and not the RIP/cutting program anyone is using. There are a fair amount of issues posted online about this particular machine. It's a turd.

I was always annoyed by the user unfriendly menu structure and sheer number of settings of the Graphtec cutters. (The cutting quality was ok, when everthing was set correctly)
Luckily, we stopped selling them before the 9000 came out... go for Summa or Mimaki...

 

[Joseph44708]

Change the condition back.
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