Static Electricity and Plotters

[Rob Schramm]

Well I talked to Mike and was telling him about this issue and he said I should post it here as well in case any of you have had this issue.

I have 2 plotters both Roland and a CutterPros (larger but cheaper) and I have been having problems cutting large artwork as when I get about 1/2 to 3/4 the way through the plotters either start cutting crazy or stop. I have called the manufactuers (no help), then called SignCut dealers and Flexi themselves (no help). When I was cutting small items say 24"L x 9"W no problem but the vinyl didnt have to in and out and in and out as it cut the image horizontally but when I started cutting bigger images vertically coming out of the machine where the vinyl had to go back and forth and back and forth is when I had issues. So I went on every sign website forum that I knew of and posted the question if others were having this issue. The response was overwelming and quite disturbing to me since we pay good money for these plotters not to have solutions to issues when they arise.
The Fix: So someone mentioned static electricty in the vinyl and it got me thinking about the static shocking the motherboard. I mean it makes scense to me the vinyl has static electricty, it is moving in and out of the machine causing more friction which causes more static electricity so I called Roland and posed the question could it be static electricity from the vinyl? The guy seemed confused so I asked him for a drawing of the area where the internal ground wire was and he sent me a rough drawing of it and how to get to it (man when I say rough I mean ROUGH!!!). I went through the steps to take it apart, then took a piece of coated copper wire and attached 1 end to the internal ground and ran it through the stand and attached the other end to a screw on the aluminum stand. Since then I have cut many many larger art with no issues on either machine. So for the most part I think that it is fixed!

I think that it is terrible that in today economy when I called both these companies that they both said it has to be the motherboard and wanted to sell me a new one. But in all fairness I guess they were partically right it was the motherboard - getting shocked by static electricity!

[erik winkler]

Ok Rob,

So now you made me curious.
I remember that I burned a motherboard on my big plotter a few years.
Just wandered where exactly you attached the neutral copper wire.

[Rob Schramm]

I got a drawing of the motherboard and internal grounding wires and I attached a coated copper wire to the internal screw where everything else was grounded and then ran that to the aluminum leg of my plotter stand. I can tell you that it took care of 100% of the problem and the machines cut perfectly now.