Comments on: The Cricut Seems to Be Ripe For the Hacking http://www.built-to-spec.com/blog/2010/02/14/the-cricut-seems-to-be-ripe-for-the-hacking/ Making Cool Stuff Sat, 04 Feb 2012 15:54:11 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Dodi Callander http://www.built-to-spec.com/blog/2010/02/14/the-cricut-seems-to-be-ripe-for-the-hacking/comment-page-1/#comment-4636 Dodi Callander Sat, 04 Feb 2012 15:54:11 +0000 http://www.built-to-spec.com/blog/?p=177#comment-4636 For whoever has completely dissected an expression: I dropped my expresison, and at first it seemed that only the communication port was damaged. My hubby,being electronically inclined, got a new port and soldered it onto the board. Unfortunately, he broke the trace and now it does not communicate at all. To top it off, the size dial no longer works and none of the cricut resets fix this. He took the whole thing apart, made sure the little circuit board on the dial was pushed in all the way, but no luck. Anyone out there know another fix for the size dial and where the trace from the com port goes? If we could fix the com port the size dial would not be necessary because of the design studio software. Thanks, Dodi For whoever has completely dissected an expression:

I dropped my expresison, and at first it seemed that only the communication port was damaged. My hubby,being electronically inclined, got a new port and soldered it onto the board. Unfortunately, he broke the trace and now it does not communicate at all. To top it off, the size dial no longer works and none of the cricut resets fix this. He took the whole thing apart, made sure the little circuit board on the dial was pushed in all the way, but no luck.

Anyone out there know another fix for the size dial and where the trace from the com port goes? If we could fix the com port the size dial would not be necessary because of the design studio software.

Thanks,

Dodi

]]> By: Craig http://www.built-to-spec.com/blog/2010/02/14/the-cricut-seems-to-be-ripe-for-the-hacking/comment-page-1/#comment-4555 Craig Sun, 22 Jan 2012 01:48:04 +0000 http://www.built-to-spec.com/blog/?p=177#comment-4555 From my experience, it should automatically turn the mat loading mechanism at boot try to kick out a mat if one is loaded. If yours isn't even doing that, it might be that you've got a bad stepper (the actual motor) or some of the drive circuitry has gone bad. Finding a replacement unipolar stepper motor shouldn't be too hard, as they look like standard NEMA17 sized motors on my Cricut Personal. As for wiring the motor up or debugging the electronics, you'll need a little bit of electronics know-how to find what coils are wired up where and how to check the various portions of the motor driver circuit. The driver looks like a pretty simple unipolar setup with through-hole components, so if you know a bit about electronics there's a good chance you could repair it if nothing's wrong with the microcontroller that's driving it (like ESD damage). Check out my post on dissecting the Cricut Personal, the Expression motherboard is pretty similar: http://www.built-to-spec.com/blog/2010/02/27/cricut-personal-dissection/ From my experience, it should automatically turn the mat loading mechanism at boot try to kick out a mat if one is loaded. If yours isn’t even doing that, it might be that you’ve got a bad stepper (the actual motor) or some of the drive circuitry has gone bad. Finding a replacement unipolar stepper motor shouldn’t be too hard, as they look like standard NEMA17 sized motors on my Cricut Personal. As for wiring the motor up or debugging the electronics, you’ll need a little bit of electronics know-how to find what coils are wired up where and how to check the various portions of the motor driver circuit.

The driver looks like a pretty simple unipolar setup with through-hole components, so if you know a bit about electronics there’s a good chance you could repair it if nothing’s wrong with the microcontroller that’s driving it (like ESD damage). Check out my post on dissecting the Cricut Personal, the Expression motherboard is pretty similar:
http://www.built-to-spec.com/blog/2010/02/27/cricut-personal-dissection/

]]> By: Nikki http://www.built-to-spec.com/blog/2010/02/14/the-cricut-seems-to-be-ripe-for-the-hacking/comment-page-1/#comment-4543 Nikki Thu, 19 Jan 2012 18:38:48 +0000 http://www.built-to-spec.com/blog/?p=177#comment-4543 I have an expression, bought it used but it appeared to be brand new. Boots up fine, but the wheel that loads the mat won't spin. I can turn it with my hands, but it's very difficult to move. Any ideas or advice on taking the thing apart and trying to fix it? I have an expression, bought it used but it appeared to be brand new. Boots up fine, but the wheel that loads the mat won’t spin. I can turn it with my hands, but it’s very difficult to move. Any ideas or advice on taking the thing apart and trying to fix it?

]]> By: Craig http://www.built-to-spec.com/blog/2010/02/14/the-cricut-seems-to-be-ripe-for-the-hacking/comment-page-1/#comment-4310 Craig Fri, 16 Dec 2011 16:49:45 +0000 http://www.built-to-spec.com/blog/?p=177#comment-4310 I'm aware of the Gypsy thing via some more avid Cricut owners I know. I'm avoiding looking into anything that would allow you to copy cartridges or use cartridges in any way not specifically intended by Provocraft. Anything that would potentially allow you to make copies of the cartridges or bypass the cartridge locking would likely be a violation of the DMCA and would be helping people commit copyright infringement. Provocraft doesn't want people swapping and copying cartridges to multiple Gypsies, they want everyone using the designs on a cartridge to buy a copy of that cartridge. That's understandable, as people could organize cartridge loading parties and just swap around carts, allowing many people that didn't buy a cart to use its designs. This would be like one person buying a full copy of Windows 7 and having a Windows install party, installing Windows on multiple friend's PCs. In the case of Cricut carts, you can still use the carts and loan them (disclaimer: I'm not actually sure if this is against the EULA but it seems like it shouldn't be), you just can't make another digital copy. It's unfortunate that Provocraft doesn't have some way to link copied cartridges to an individual user so you could register a new Gypsy and reload your carts, but it's easy to see why they don't because of potential abuses. I’m aware of the Gypsy thing via some more avid Cricut owners I know. I’m avoiding looking into anything that would allow you to copy cartridges or use cartridges in any way not specifically intended by Provocraft. Anything that would potentially allow you to make copies of the cartridges or bypass the cartridge locking would likely be a violation of the DMCA and would be helping people commit copyright infringement.

Provocraft doesn’t want people swapping and copying cartridges to multiple Gypsies, they want everyone using the designs on a cartridge to buy a copy of that cartridge. That’s understandable, as people could organize cartridge loading parties and just swap around carts, allowing many people that didn’t buy a cart to use its designs. This would be like one person buying a full copy of Windows 7 and having a Windows install party, installing Windows on multiple friend’s PCs.

In the case of Cricut carts, you can still use the carts and loan them (disclaimer: I’m not actually sure if this is against the EULA but it seems like it shouldn’t be), you just can’t make another digital copy. It’s unfortunate that Provocraft doesn’t have some way to link copied cartridges to an individual user so you could register a new Gypsy and reload your carts, but it’s easy to see why they don’t because of potential abuses.

]]> By: Tom http://www.built-to-spec.com/blog/2010/02/14/the-cricut-seems-to-be-ripe-for-the-hacking/comment-page-1/#comment-4301 Tom Fri, 16 Dec 2011 04:59:05 +0000 http://www.built-to-spec.com/blog/?p=177#comment-4301 I have a good one for you. My wife bought a Gypsy and that piece of garbage kept freezing during the update. Apparently, the Gypsy burns a serial number of the gypsy into the cartridge when you connect it and can't be connected to any other Gypsy. Her original one broke and she sent it in, but they were supposed to encode it with her original serial number. I'm curious if there is a way to remove that serial number from the cartridge so it can be synced with another one. They are on my bad side because they sent her replacement unit but it didn't have her original serial number, thus she can't use her cartridges. I'm sure it's written to the eeprom. I have a good one for you. My wife bought a Gypsy and that piece of garbage kept freezing during the update. Apparently, the Gypsy burns a serial number of the gypsy into the cartridge when you connect it and can’t be connected to any other Gypsy. Her original one broke and she sent it in, but they were supposed to encode it with her original serial number.

I’m curious if there is a way to remove that serial number from the cartridge so it can be synced with another one.
They are on my bad side because they sent her replacement unit but it didn’t have her original serial number, thus she can’t use her cartridges. I’m sure it’s written to the eeprom.

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