SCAL 4 with KNK Zing Air

[dedethom]

Anybody has the same experience as me : the driver doesn't work well for me. When I try to do a PNC and find the registration line, the head moves slooooowwwly to the first one, then it's hard as hell to get it to the point, press to long on the arrows and the head move slowly without stoping until I decide to power off the machine. I also can't figure the set origin point. It never seem to work for me. Please help because I really found the software I want to use with my zing but find it unusable for now.

[SandyMcC]

I will do my best to help you! Remind me... are you on a PC or a Mac? That might cause a difference... not sure. But I'll be happy to do what I can. My Zing Air was already calibrated so I just plugged in the calibration numbers and they worked perfectly, so I know that PNC does work. I also had the experience of the head moving slowly, but it wasn't unreasonable. I'll do some tests tomorrow to advise you and post back.

[dedethom]

Thanks Sandy. I'm using the last version of SCAL 4.028 on a PC (Windows 7).

[SandyMcC]

I've been testing all morning and learned a lot... especially after reading the screen under Set Origin! There are three ways to control the increment size when using the arrow keys to move the laser light. This applies to both setting the origin and in moving the light for the setting of the reg marks. Based on the defaults, pressing an arrow key will move the light 0.05". If you hold the Shift key, it will move it 0.5". If you hold the Ctrl+Shift keys, it will move it the very minimum possible. If you want to change the first two, then in the cutting window, where you have Zing Air selected, you click on "Settings" and change to larger or smaller increments under Jog Distance. But, as I understand it, it will not affect the Ctrl+Shift increment... which is great, since that's how you get the light to be right on that little circle.

Now, other ways to speed up the process are:

(1) Make your mat size match the document size. I've always done this in other programs for print and cut. Thus, since I print letter size, that's what my mat looks like on screen. This way you won't have your shapes way up in the upper left corner for printing, when they need to be located in the lower right for shorter laser light travel. (or upper right if you prefer Landscape mode).

(2) Arrange your shapes to be located as close as possible to the origin. Again, in Portrait mode, that would be the lower right corner. In Landscape mode, that would be the upper right corner. That way, the light doesn't have to move as far when traveling to the first reg mark. Now, if you have a page filled with shapes, this won't make as big of a difference. But if your shapes take up even 3/4 of the page, make sure they are near the origin versus farther away.

(3) Another time saver is to not insert the mat until after the light has reached the first reg mark. Here's what I did. When I set the origin, I did it without the mat inserted. I just held down the Shift key and pressed the left arrow two times. That basically moves the light an inch to the left. That's should be sufficient to be able to put your printout on the mat at the corner of the grid, as normal. Now, start the process, again without the mat inserted and without the pinch wheels down. Once the head stops moving, insert the mat and arrange it so that the light is as close as possible to the upper left (1st) reg mark. Make sure the mat is still under the pinch wheels... that's important! But otherwise, if you've done the other steps, you should be able to get that mat arranged so that you're SO close you'll only need to use the smallest increment to tweak that light to the dead center of the 1st dot. Remember to hold Ctrl+Shift to get the smallest movement. From there, the other two reg marks should be near perfectly aligned and also just need minimal movement.

(4) For speed on the Zing Air, I think 550 - 600 is about right, depending on the accuracy you need. For single shapes with contours, you can go faster. For a page of shapes and a need to follow a perfect outline, you'll need a slower speed... possibly even 500.

And I assume you have the laser location already calibrated. That's important! I have mine absolutely perfect. : )

Oh... one more thing I discovered... if you cancel a PNC in the middle, then there's a chance it will crash the program. So, make sure you save your file before you start. ALSO... if you crashed, the laser calibration numbers are not saved. I learned THAT the hard way multiple times this morning! Always make sure you have then written down somewhere and even check them before you do a PNC if it's the first one after you've opened SCAL.

[dedethom]

Thank you so much Sandy. I will try all of that.

[dedethom]

I tried it... I have to give up until further enhancement are done. It just don't work as I expect. Here's two pictures (one with my cutter activated, and the other one with the position of laser)

Origin mode. I set the laser on the lower right corner of the mat (where the paper is positioned). You can look at the picture of the mat where my laser was positioned when I began to cut... Didn't cut at all where expected and even cut on the bottom right margin of the mat. I tried the WYSIWYG option, same problem.

Thank you for your help.

[SandyMcC]

Go to Cutter > Print + Cut > Calibrate Laser > Edit Values. What are your current X and Y values and what units?

[dedethom]

X = -.75 mm
Y = -23mm

It's the same value I already calibrated with MTC. It wasn't those values before but, same issue.

Thanks again Sandy for taking the time to find a solution.

André

[SandyMcC]

SCAL doesn't require the Y value to be entered with a minus sign. I made that EXACT same mistake when I started testing. So, change it to just Y = 23 mm and then see if you can't get much better results with WYSIWYG. Also, if using Origin Point mode, remember that you set the origin based on the tip of the blade (or tip of the pen when drawing) and your shapes on-screen are cut (or drawn) to align with that tip. Just ignore the laser light in this mode.

[geekinesis]

Hi there
I am having problems with scal4 cutting very slowly. even when I uncheck software speed and pressure.
Is there a fix for this?