laser wont run files ending with "1"??

[Drew Marvin]

i surf on here and love the information everyone provides and was hoping someone can shed some light on this. im running a series of serial number metal plates on my 35 watt universal versa laser. the file was created in corel, used a data base to import the 88 serial numbers. the problem im having is any file in the control panel that ends in "1" stops in the exact same place. sometimes there are some stray marks on the last line, but usually it ends cleanly.

the control panel views the complete image, just before it hits the magical spot it acts like there is more information to laser, but the status bar shoots across and it stop mid marking. all the other serial numbers lase perfectly.

http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c255/ghettosled/laserfile.jpg

each of these are lasing as its own page. i separated out one of the "1" serial numbers to see if its just a file issue. still stopped in the same place. fonts to curves. same stop. the only thing changing is just the serial number. i even tried separating the "1" out (the last part shown above). i marked the 1 first - worked. the next file had the rest of the numbers, copy and logo and it stopped (but at a slightly different spot).

can anyone help? im lasing the rest of the serial numbers but dont have a clue how to get these 11 numbers that end with 1 to mark.

thanks in advance.

[Scott Challoner]

I think I'd re-load the print driver first. I was going to suggest text to curves, but I see you did that. Maybe try a different font. I realize you don't want to redo all of them with a different font, but it might give you something to try. I don't know if fonts can get currupted but... Maybe try doing the numbers and the graphic separately too just to see if that will get you through the run.
HTH

[Larry Bratton]

You say you imported these from a DATA BASE. Is it possible that has something to do with it? Just a guess. Try deleting the numbers and re-entering them with Corel.

[Drew Marvin]

thanks scott for the suggestion. as a hail-mary-we-will-try-anything a sales guy here suggested rotating the part 90 degrees. figuring why not even though i dont think it will do anything - it actually worked. i dont know why, but it did. time to lase these parts went from 9m 30sec to just over 16m, but it worked and for only 11 parts it's not the end of the world.

though because of this gremlin, i will reload the driver when this job is complete. the other two things i am curious to try (for my own nerdy curiosity) is to swap out the font like you suggest and maybe re-create the file. the graphic is a vector but i can still try to delete that off to see if it makes a difference.

thanks again!

[Mike Null]

Drew

Did you view the file as a simple wireframe to see the actual makeup of the file. I would also check the printer cable as a communication issue might cause this.

[Michael Simpson Virgina]

You did not say what version of Corel but I have had problems like this with the current version. The only way I could fix the problem is to create a fresh drawing file then to open both the bad file and the new file and hand cut and paste the objects one by one. This seemed to fix most of the problems I have had.

[Richard Rumancik]

As a work-around, can't you just add an arbitrary extension to all the file name - like put an "A" at the end? Might avoid having to rotate.

It's possible that it is some kind of firmware bug you have uncovered. I know way back (this goes back 10 years) the Mercury's had a firmware problem where the STOP button would not not respond if the file name started with "R". Strange things can happen with firmware . . .


Hmmm . . . after posting I am not sure I understand . . . when you say "files ending with 1" do you mean filenames or just data strings ending in 1?

[Dan Hintz]

Richard,

I thought the same thing, at first, but it appears it's just the string ending in '1' that's causing him issues. An odd one, for sure, either way.

If it's the string, it sounds like the font itself could be causing a problem...

Drew: What happens if you change the font to something common, like Courier New. Do you get the same issue?

[Richard Rumancik]

Drew - Is it possible to just "convert to curves" the offending serial numbers? Or does the database thing prevent this? Maybe you need to pull out the offending plates from the database and print them "manually". I know these are not a real solutions but just trying to figure out how you can complete the current job.

This is a really strange - you'd think that if the driver or firmware had a problem converting a string of text to raster it would reject it right off, not get half way through the image. It's really hard to imagine where the problem lies with this one. Why not challenge the guys at ULS to see what is wrong? They may have some tools to see the data that the laser is getting and why it is choking on the file.

What is the font? Is it a True-type font? Some clones of commercial fonts can have bugs. Dan's suggestion of switching fonts to test may help. Or maybe you can replace the font with an identical-looking font that rasters properly. Not sure why it would be okay with an embedded "1" though . . .

[Dan Hintz]

Richard,

My thinking is one of the vectors in the font's '1' character is incomplete/erroneous, causing the issue... I'd like to know what font is being used.

[Robert Walters]

Drew,

Two things...

1) As a test, trying using a different font (Arial) and see if you have the same results.
If the problem goes away, then you know it was the font face you were using.

If it is the font, could you give us the INTERNAL name and maybe the MD5/SHA1 signature?



2) During your import from the database, the "End of Record" marker could be encoded weirdly. Unicode (UTF-8 or UTF-16) -vs- ASCII or ANSI, where unicode takes 4 bytes to produce one character. The "one" and "end of record" marker could be producing some weirdness.

If this is the case, I'd export from the database to plain ascii (CSV) file. review that file in a good text or hex editor and make sure the ending '1' is what it's suppose to be and not something funkified.