Here is a diff of my simple hack to plotter.py:Īfter applying the hack to plotter.py in the Inkscape installation directory I set the plotter to 4800Baud. The delay is absolutely needed, without it the problem still exists. Yes this does result in a bit slower cutting but I don’t care, I just want ease of use without having to run Windows. This seems to be sufficient for pyserial to stop sending when the cutter turns off the CTS signal. My hack to get the plot plugin working was instead of sending the entire set of HPGL code at once I send it one character at a time with a 3ms delay between each character. After some experimentation it was clear that hardware flow control at least partially works in pyserial so maybe there is hope. The Inkscape plot extension uses the pyserial library and it looks like I’m not the only one who has had issues with hardware flow control. I speculated that the problem here is the hardware flow control was not working properly resulting in the computer sending data while the cutter’s buffer is full and its not listening. This seems to be a frequent complaint of these cheap entry level cutters but I suspected that the cutter is not at fault.Īfter reading up on HPGL, the codes used to control the cutter, I discovered that I can connect to the cutter using a terminal program and enter in “PU0,0 ” to safely return the cutter to the origin, from there you can try cutting again without having to waste any vinyl! The cutter would simply just stop at some random location. So I purchased an adapter with an FTDI chip and it worked equally well on the Mac and Linux.īut when I started trying to cut some more complex designs I ran into some trouble. From Linux it worked ok but from my Mac it had issues communicating with the cutter.
I already owned a USB to serial adapter with a prolific chip.
Recently I purchased a 34″ US Cutter MH 871-MK2, it is advertised as specifically not working with a Mac, but really it’s only the included software that won’t work with the Mac. This article is a bit off topic for this blog but I suspect it may help a few people to get their vinyl cutter working.
VinylMaster Cut comes with a suite of text, curve and object tools and fully supports ARMS and Laser cutters for contour cutting.Using a 34″ US Cutter MH 871-MK2 with a Mac and Inkscape
VinylMaster Cut is for simple vinyl cutting and allows you to produce vinyl lettering, logos and pinstriping.
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