Running two Graphtec FC-9000 with one PC

[scox]

Hi Friends, Long time lurker and wildly appreciative of the collected knowledge here. Would appreciate any thoughts on the following...

We recently acquired a second Graphtec FC-9000 and have been successfully operating two of them via a single PC using Illustrator and cutting master 5. We use these mostly for cutting stickers that are printed on our mimakis. For about two weeks everything has been running fine, able to cut different files on each cutter, a little chunky going back and forth but working. Over the last couple of days both cutters have been behaving strangely, cutting one of two conditions and moving on to the next, delayed response, having to hit the send button twice and having both cutters start looking for a crop mark when the file was sent to only one cutter. These aren't constants, and I'm not spotting any particular patterns. It seems like the data is getting a *little* crossed sometimes? Both of these cutters are on a direct USB cable to the PC, on separate ports. Anyone have any experience with a like or similar set up?

Thanks for any thoughts and input,
...Seth Cox

 

[cmoist]

I'm running three machines (FC9000, two FCX2000) on CM4 from one machine. Not having any problems that aren't self inflicted (picking the wrong machine from the dropdown). I do run them on a network though, which I understand to be much more reliable than via USB. You might try switching to ethernet.

 

[scox]

I'm running three machines (FC9000, two FCX2000) on CM4 from one machine. Not having any problems that aren't self inflicted (picking the wrong machine from the dropdown). I do run them on a network though, which I understand to be much more reliable than via USB. You might try switching to ethernet.

Thanks for the input, glad to hear others are successfully doing it, couldn't find much when I was deciding to try it this way. I'll look into putting these guys on our network, was a bit hesitant as we had to take our mimakis off network due to some really weird issues.

 

[Vassago]

What you might have are 3 different printers set up.. Two with the same name and one with the same usb com port settings as the first printer. It often happens if the USB cable has been removed at some point and the pc has allocated it a different com port.

Check the port settings in all the printers connected. They should all be different.

 

[Attila Nagy]

Would not have any issues if you have connect to network.

 

[Attila Nagy]

Have You Read the Manual?

 

[scox]

What you might have are 3 different printers set up.. Two with the same name and one with the same usb com port settings as the first printer. It often happens if the USB cable has been removed at some point and the pc has allocated it a different com port.

Check the port settings in all the printers connected. They should all be different.

Thanks, I'll check into that as well.

 

[scox]

Thanks for the input everyone! (feel free to add more if you have it)

I'll let you know how the transition to network goes.

...Seth

 

[Warmoth]

We run 5 networked Graphtecs on a single computer, all Ethernet. It's fantastic, they can also be controlled from any computer in the shop that's running cutting master. That flexibility can be handy in certain situations. We have one older model that is USB only, it being different drives my OCD crazy, lol.

 

[netsol]

Would not have any issues if you have connect to network.

Very true. Butey have to understand a little bit about networking.
usb is reliable AS LONG AS you document the naming and remain aware of it
usb CAN “plug & play” and change things.

HOWEVER you do it NAME THE DEVICES use a label maker. So anyone knows which device they are choosing.

possibly delete all the 3 setups in your rip. Recreate them. lABEL them

then there is no confusion

 

[scox]

Alll right, Got them networked and up and running. Only took three people, two departments and a call to outside IT resources. Had to reserve and assign IP addresses to appease the network/security arrangements. Thanks again for the input and willingness to help!

Best,
...Seth

 

[Vassago]

Great news.. Such things should be so simple, but rarely are.. Lol

 

[netsol]

You will be really glad you did.
we network everything.
even the horrid old Roland engravers & my first Gerber edge the “trunion”