by pigtailpat » October 15th, 2014, 8:29 pm
re-think the bluetooth thing. First, bluetooth connections are notoriously unreliable. I can say that with a tremendous amount of experience with bluetooth in general. They break, need to be repaired, renewed etc. I can just see a pairing breaking in the middle of a cut, and ruining media. Second, in some cases, the item being sent to be cut can be a large file or little file. Sending a large file over bluetooth is not going to be a pleasant experience, trust me on this.
If you want a "disconnected" experience with a plotter (i.e. not connected to any computer), then in that event, what you want is usb reading ability of a file, from a USB stick inserted in any cutting machine. Whether the SB offers USB stand alone reading of files is something I do not know. I do know that this was an option on the cougars, but you had to inform Sherri/Dawn you wanted it. I elected not to have the usb connection thing, as I saw that as a bother at the time. Note that I think for the stand alone USB to work, I think you had to use signcut (which I got). I can't remember exactly what it was that could be done this way on the cougars. Dawn will probably jump in and elaborate on what I am thinking. In any event, I have no idea if this is on the SB or not, as that is a next gen product up from my cougar. I think in almost all situations with a plotter having USB standalone functionality, the ability to standalone read files will be limited to that plotter's native computer program generated files. Having the plotter directly connected to a computer is probably best, because it gives the user the most amount of flexibility in terms of which programs can be used to create and cut a file. I love the flexibility of different programs, so for me the best way is direct connection to the computer. Agreed, it can be a pain in the butt sometimes, as my plotter is the 18" and is taking alot of space. Someday I will get a long USB cord and figure out a different way to use the machine with my computer in a more space efficient way.
Pat
New owner of an 18" cougar and the gazelle...still a newbie at the cougar and will soon explore it............