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View Full Version : Repairing A Broken USB Port - Useful Advice



nik_decalarama
16-05-2012, 10:03 AM
I thought I'd share this as it might benefit others, and it could also apply to many other machines, not just a cutter.

Almost had a bit of a panic situation yesterday. We have 3 cutters, 1 'chinese' model, a Roland PC60 and a Craftrobo. We tend to use the chinese model for most of the work as we have it set up perfectly and it is a very quick reliable machine (had it for over 4 years!), that was until yesterday. It had been playing up over the past couple of weeks, stopping halfway through jobs, not starting, etc. Anyhow, yesterday it packed up completely and the computer wouldn't recognise it. I quickly took it apart and found the usb port to be wobbly, like a kids tooth! This machine earns around £150 a day so it would be a bit of a nightmare to be without it. The PC60 is used for larger cuts, rarely, as it is slow, tends to waste vinyl, and has to be plugged into our old desktop via a parallel lead, so it's pretty much there as a backup. The craftrobo is too small for our jobs so, sits in a cupboard collecting dust, I purchased that for doming purposes. Anyhow, to repair the chinese cutter, I needed to replace the usb port and luckily I had an old broken external USB drive sitting in the store room, so I managed to rip that apart and desolder it's usb port carefully. I then desoldered the cutter's usb port and, it was quite odd as it looked like it had just rotted away somehow. I then soldered the new port back in and presto the cutter is now working a treat, with only an hour lost in worktime. So, it just goes to show if a machine breaks down, it's worth investigating to see if it can be repaired easily before replacing. Oh, and I guess this also highlights the importance of having backup machines. Vinyl cutters are not the sort of machine you can really borrow from someone else for a few days whilst waiting for a new one to arrive.

mrs maggot
16-05-2012, 10:08 AM
yep, we have had that with our cutter about 2 years ago, took it to a computer friend who identified the "wobbly tooth" (great description btw) and put us a new one on, we now keep the usb plugged in at all times, and if we move it, we unplug at the computer end. i bought a back up cutter recently and although it takes up room, i cant be without it incase, like you say money is money.