Summa Woes

[B893P78]

Does anybody here with a summa T140 have issues with freezing and inconsistent cuts? My T140 has frankly been amazing and simultaneously a pain in the ass since I got it. If it fails to read a barcode, it will go to a please wait screen and stay there forever. Pretty much any error gets stuck on a please wait screen until a reboot.

However, sending the job manually and moving it to the first registration mark works fine.

The biggest issue is the inconsistent cutting. I will send a job with, let's say, 50 items to cut. Some would be spot on, while others that are the same piece of art with the same cut line would be off—considering it the same job, it's frustrating. This is exasperated if the job consists of circles. It's almost always off. I will have to see if this issue is present on another cutting software. Maybe I am missing something on the config.

I like the machine, flex-cut is impressive, but I have been adding massive bleeds to everything to work around the issue. Frustrating because I didn't have tracking issues with my crappy Alibaba cutter. I have to be missing something on the cutter or rip software.

 

[balstestrat]

What are you using to print?
That waiting would mean that it's trying to get the cut file but not getting it from the RIP.
Current firmware installed on the cutter?

 

[Snydo]

What are you using to read barcodes? I find Summa Cutter Control more reliable than Flexi PM, or Onyx for barcodes. I had similar issues to your situation with a T140 CAM unit, I put Cutter Control on a separate PC that pulled the cut files from a hot folder and now it almost always finishes a roll without issue. I would also say that some lower-end print vinyl just doesn't feed as accurately as others, especially with intricate designs or tons of text.

 

[B893P78]

What are you using to print?
That waiting would mean that it's trying to get the cut file but not getting it from the RIP.
Current firmware installed on the cutter?

9981.025

I will take a look at the switch and firewall settings see if anything is being dropped but cutter control does show it as connected when ever this occurs..

Using Onyx Gamma Print.

I haven't tried using cutter control server. I see that Onyx saves the cut files to C:\ONYX21\cutter\Summa S-Class but not sure if its in a format that cutter control can read.
Also a lot of jobs have both kisscut and flex cuts in the same job, is this possible on cutter control?

 

[B893P78]

Setup the Summa cutter control, will test it out in the morning,

Even though I have my printers and cutters in a completely different network I have a feeling the firewall is messing with the summa.

 

[GC Decor]

Our antivirus gave us so much issue with onyx, we worked with there support and tried to make exceptions to the AV but it would go back a few days later. Ended up removing AV altogether and it cleared up a ton of file issues.

Another thing to check is your cut paths ?? Are they clean without issue ? We had a customer send us designs with random segments on top of there cut lines, had us scratching our heads for a few hours. It would go though but would freeze our cutters.

 

[Snydo]

not sure if its in a format that cutter control can read.

it can.

 

[Saturn]

Another vote for sending the cut file to a hot folder and using SCC.

There's a million variables, so pinning down the source of bad cuts is like swinging in the dark. You shouldn't see things off more than a 1/64th of an inch though. Sooo many variables though....

 

[Gary1]

I always us SCC to diagnose if it’s a problem with the cutter or aftermarket software. SCC is King.

 

[B893P78]

I'm trying to test this today, but not sure what I did yesterday to break the ability to create multiple layers on Cut-Server. I can create a new layer, but the layer disappears when adding anything to it. Unable to select the check box.

 

[B893P78]

Okay Disabled a few settings and Layers are working, will test SCC.

 

[RMarshall]

I've had some similar issues with our S2 T160 but we use Caldera for all of our print+cut.

Any idea if Summa Cut Control can manage the barcodes generated by Caldera?

 

[jadrewitz]

I had inconsistent cuts as well on my S2 T140, sometimes it would cut great then it seemed like the cutting would shift a few millimeters on the X axis. I haven't had the freezing issues though so my issue may be unrelated. I too adjusted all my artwork to make the bleeds larger. I use Flexi but tried the trial version of Onyx and the problem persisted so I ruled out the software. I emailed AirMark tech support and they had me run the OPOS registration calibration 5x's in a row. I did that and I also turned off and unplugged it for a few minutes afterwards (just to see what happens). After I did that it cut perfect every time. Not sure if the OPOS calibration or unplugging it fixed it. Every now and then it looks like the cut is starting to drift a little bu maybe a millimeter. To reset it all I do is turn it off and unplug it for a few minutes before the next cut job and it cuts perfect again. I haven't had to do the OPOS registration calibration since. Been doing this for 7 months now and it's been my fix.
The next step they suggested was to do a "full factory reset" and gave me direction how to do it. This isn't the same as the Reset done through the machine. Never did it, didn't feel the need to since it was working for me. If you need the directions for the reset let me know and I'll post them. Hope this helps for you.

 

[B893P78]

I had inconsistent cuts as well on my S2 T140, sometimes it would cut great then it seemed like the cutting would shift a few millimeters on the X axis. I haven't had the freezing issues though so my issue may be unrelated. I too adjusted all my artwork to make the bleeds larger. I use Flexi but tried the trial version of Onyx and the problem persisted so I ruled out the software. I emailed AirMark tech support and they had me run the OPOS registration calibration 5x's in a row. I did that and I also turned off and unplugged it for a few minutes afterwards (just to see what happens). After I did that it cut perfect every time. Not sure if the OPOS calibration or unplugging it fixed it. Every now and then it looks like the cut is starting to drift a little bu maybe a millimeter. To reset it all I do is turn it off and unplug it for a few minutes before the next cut job and it cuts perfect again. I haven't had to do the OPOS registration calibration since. Been doing this for 7 months now and it's been my fix.
The next step they suggested was to do a "full factory reset" and gave me direction how to do it. This isn't the same as the Reset done through the machine. Never did it, didn't feel the need to since it was working for me. If you need the directions for the reset let me know and I'll post them. Hope this helps for you.

I will give this a try,

Thanks.

 

[Saturn]

Are you kiss cutting or cutting all the way through the material? If you're cutting all the way through and your material isn't staying 100% flat on the cutter you're bound to get misaligned cuts.

If you squat down and look through the cutter as the blade cuts the material, is it staying flat, or does it kinda warp and lift as the blade moves across it?

+1 for doing the OPOS calibration a several times. At a minimum it should be done every blade change.

 

[B893P78]

I had inconsistent cuts as well on my S2 T140, sometimes it would cut great then it seemed like the cutting would shift a few millimeters on the X axis. I haven't had the freezing issues though so my issue may be unrelated. I too adjusted all my artwork to make the bleeds larger. I use Flexi but tried the trial version of Onyx and the problem persisted so I ruled out the software. I emailed AirMark tech support and they had me run the OPOS registration calibration 5x's in a row. I did that and I also turned off and unplugged it for a few minutes afterwards (just to see what happens). After I did that it cut perfect every time. Not sure if the OPOS calibration or unplugging it fixed it. Every now and then it looks like the cut is starting to drift a little bu maybe a millimeter. To reset it all I do is turn it off and unplug it for a few minutes before the next cut job and it cuts perfect again. I haven't had to do the OPOS registration calibration since. Been doing this for 7 months now and it's been my fix.
The next step they suggested was to do a "full factory reset" and gave me direction how to do it. This isn't the same as the Reset done through the machine. Never did it, didn't feel the need to since it was working for me. If you need the directions for the reset let me know and I'll post them. Hope this helps for you.

I really wasn't expecting this to work but alas it definitely helped.