Technical information

External USB-Serial converter BF-800 (25 pin)
Connect long white cable to Serial A (25-pin connector). Connect 9-pin serial cable to 9-25 pin
adapter. Connect 9-25 adapter to external USB Bafo BF-800. Connect USB cable from adaptor
to computer.
When you connect the USB to the computer the first time it will ask for the cd that is supplied
with the cutter to install the Bafo driver. Locate the xxx.inf file in the USB folder. Note on
USB-to-Serial converters: sometimes these devices change their port numbers if you add
another USB device to your system. Check in the device manager if the cutter stops working.
Installing Cutter Driver
Some CAD programs that have built in SmartMark
TM
interface. If you are not using a CAD
program with a built in SmartMark
TM
interface, you will have to use the cutter driver to interface
to the SmartMark
TM
sensor. If you are using a CAD program that support the Allen Datagraph
SmartMark
TM
sensor you do not have to install the cutter driver and you can skip this section and
the next section.
The cutter comes with a CD select the DirectCut hyperlink from the support.html page and
install the driver. Click on Next. If you are using Adobe Illustrator you must find the plug in
directory to allow the setup to install the Illustrator Plug-in. If you are using CorelDRAW you
need to either create or find the scripts directory (follow on screen directions). Click Finish to
complete installation. This should leave the enable printer driver program running on the
computer. Select the COM port and click on Find Cutter button. The program locates the correct
COM part and will display printer driver enabled. If the program is not running you can start it
from Start -> All Program -> Allen Datagraph -> Cutter Driver -> Enable Printer Driver.
Follow the add printer installation instruction contained in the DirectCut Help File that was
placed on your desktop.
Setting Default Properties
Start the Printers and Faxes windows menu via start menu or control panel. Right click on the
xxx vinyl cutter printer installed above. Some CAD program read the defaults from Printer
Preferences on the General Page and some read the default from the Printing Defaults on the
Advanced Page and some keep track of their own defaults. Allen Print for CorelDRAW and
Illustrator keep track of their own defaults. You will want to at least change the Find Origin
Parameter to Origin, Skew, Scale. Note: the weed border cannot be used with SmartMark
TM
as
this moves the location of the target. Other printer driver options are described the print
DirectCut Help file.
Target Description
The target is described in the i-TECH users manual (Optional SmartMark
TM
Sensor) that is on
the CD that comes with the cutter. It is basically a L-shape with the legs 0.5 inches long and
width 1/16 inch. The outside corner of the L-shape is the target. The targets should be placed in
the origin (0,0), skew (0,width), and scale (length, 0) locations. Care must be taken so that the
edges of the targets are on a rectangle and no cut or printed objects appears outside of the
rectangle. The cut line of the target must coincide with the edge of the print area. If your printer
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