¶ Overview
The Foison C48 vinyl cutter is a 48 inch vinyl cutter. The vinyl cutter executes HPGL instructions sent by a computer.
¶ Windows
To use the vinyl cutter on Windows, a driver needs to be installed to drive the vinyl cutter's CH340 USB to serial chip. We have had success sending SVG files to the vinyl cutter using the InkScape open source drawing package, which has a built in capability to send HPGL data to the cutter.
¶ Software setup
¶ CH340 driver installation
The Foison vinyl cutter requires a driver for the CH340 USB to serial chip.
The driver can be found here.
Once the file is downloaded, open it and run CH34x_Install_Windows_v3_4.exe. The installer is a single dialog. When it opens, click the INSTALL button
CH340 installer
Once the install is complete, click OK, and then close the installer.
¶ InkScape installation
InkScape 0.92 is the last version of InkScape that has the InkCut plotter software built in. Download and install InkScape 0.92. Later versions require a standalone external version of InkCut that is tricky to install successfully.
Run the installer. The first screen is the language selector:
Select your language and click OK.
This opens the installer splash screen
Click Next
This opens the License dialog
Ignore the license agreement like everyone else does and click Next. You don't care what it says, you just want to use the software right? It's unlikely there's anything truly evil in there anyway...
This opens the Components dialog.
I suggest installing the Optimal install, but we need the Additional Files->Extensions option to be able to export to the vinyl cutter. Click Next
This opens the Install Location dialog
Change the install location if necessary and click Install
This will start the install...
Once completed the completion dialog is shown
Choose whether or not to open InkScape and click Finish
¶ Setting up the vinyl cutter
For more detail on the Foison vinyl cutter, check the
¶ Sending a job to the vinyl cutter from InkScape
¶ Edit drawings
The easy option is to use Inkscape to draw the shapes you wish to cut.
Make sure that your objects are sized in millimetres. Select all objects you wish to include and pick Path -> Object to Path from the menu
¶ Send the plot to the vinyl cutter
From the menu select Extensions -> Export -> Plot When the Plot dialog opens, select the Connection Settings tab. Check the connection settings. They should be correct if you have used the vinyl cutter previously.
- Confirm that the COM port for the cutter is correct. This can be checked in Windows Devce Manager
Foison C48 Device Manager
- Set the Serial Baud Rate. This can be confirmed on the Vinyl Cutter under it's Br setting. It should be 19200
When Inkcut opens, check that the planned cut is correct.
- Serial byte size should be 8 bits
- Serial stop bits should be 1
- Serial parity should be none
- Serial flow control should be Software (XON/XOFF)
- Command Language should be HPGL
- Cutting will start when you click Apply