Calibrating the CraftROBO-Silhouette
Lucille has asked me to pop in to write a little guide on how to calibrate the CraftROBO-Silhouette machines. It seems a lot of users are a little confused about this whole affair so hopefully this will make things a little clearer.
Important addition - Please read:
Quote:
I have just received a call from a user who had read this thread and assumed that all new CraftROBO-Silhouette machines needed to be calibrated. I would like to make it clear that this is NOT the case. All CraftROBO-Silhouette machines are calibrated in the factory and most users will never need to calibrate their machines. If you have just bought a CraftROBO-Silhouette and the print & cut is out the first thing you should check is your printer settings because there is a far higher chance that the printer has some sort of scaling or borderless print option enabled which will cause the on screen design to differ in size slightly than the printed design leading to the print & cut being off. You should only calibrate the CraftROBO-Silhouette machines after trying all other options. Trying to fix a printing fault by wrongly calibrating a machine will generally make things worse.
Calibrating the CraftROBO-Silhouette
Initial calibration test
To calibrate I recommend using a pen in order to more clearly view the results and make adjustments accordingly. A blade can be used if necessary but it is easier to see the result when using a pen.
- To start, open Silhouette studio and select the Calibration option.
- You then need to press the ‘Print the Calibration Test Page’ to print the test page. Do not make any adjustments to the Calibration Test Page on your computer screen as this will lead to incorrect results. Once the sheet is printed, place it on a carrier sheet, make sure the LCD display on the CraftROBO-Silhouette says ‘Load /w carrier’ and then feed the sheet in to the machine.
- After the calibration sheet is loaded use the on screen arrow buttons to move the machine head to the first cross so the blade is pointing to the green area shown on your computer screen, or in other words, the upper left corner of the first mark. Once the blade is in position, click on the Calibrate option.
- The Silhouette will then attempt to read the mark and sketch/cut along the cross lines accordingly. If the calibration is correct the sketch lines (or cut lines) will be exactly in the centre of the printed cross.
Correcting any offset
If either line is off, you will want to make adjustments according to the measurement of exactly how far above or below/how far to the left or right the resulting sketch or cut line was performed.
To do this:
- Measure the distance between the original printed mark and the mark that was drawn/cut during the calibration test.
- If the drawn/cut horizontal mark is above or below the printed mark, you will need to adjust the vertical slider bar on screen to the distance between the printed and drawn/cut marks.
- If the drawn/cut vertical mark is to the left or right of the printed mark, you will need to adjust the horizontal slider bar on screen to the distance between the printed and drawn/cut marks
- You may then repeat this action as needed by again using the arrow buttons on screen to align with the next cross mark, click the Calibrate button, then observe results and continue to make corrections as needed until the actual marks performed align with the printed marks.
Distance calibration
Also included on the Calibration screen is a Distance Adjustment tool. This should only be used if your on screen image differs from the actual exact measured size of the printed image. Adjustments to this setting should be rarely needed.
To use the distance calibration:
- Press the 'Cut the distance adjustment test lines' button and the CraftROBO-Silhouette will move to draw/cut lines on the A-B/1-2 distance markers.
- Once this is done, measure the distance between A & B and then 1 & 2.
- The distance should be 200mm; if either of the distances are greater than or less than 200mm adjust the appropriate slider accordingly.
Please note: a metal rule should be used for measuring this distance as a plastic ruler can lead to inaccurate results.
I hope that helps. :)
