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Just a PSA to anybody considering buying a new cricut: They are cool machines mechanically, but the software is an absolute nightmare, DO NOT BUY. Source: i b

Just a PSA to anybody considering buying a new cricut: They are cool machines mechanically, but the software is an absolute nightmare, DO NOT BUY. Source: i bought one. Regret sunk in the moment i tried to do anything even slightly interesting. This isn’t a bambulabs situation where it’s mostly a philosophical objection to a closed ecosystem. It’s bad software that makes it hard or impossible to use the machine except in a very narrow set of ways. I’ve not firsthand used any of the competing machines (silhoutte, et al) but i hear they are a bit better - and i don’t know how they could be worse.

cellular 2mo ago
Could you just hook new motor controllers to the motors / puncher and add an Arduino to control it?
- kennywinker 2mo ago
  Possibly. But i wanted a machine to play with, not to tinker with. At that point it’d be wayyy cheaper and easier to just convert an old CR-10 printer into a vinyl cutter
- tdeck 2mo ago
  This is a very Hacker News usage of the word "just".
  - CamperBob2 2mo ago
    The modern equivalent is "Just" use Fable or Sol to reverse-engineer the protocol, then write new control software that works locally the way you want to work, using the file formats you want to use. There is no longer any reason to put up with hardware like Cricut that doesn't do what you want, or that includes artificial dependencies on remote servers. If worst comes to worst, then yes, have the clanker write a new controller.
    - zardo 2mo ago
      Proposing cost to reverse engineer a cricut and cut out some pelican art as a new llm benchmark.
      - throwway120385 2mo ago
        As long as there's a bicycle under that pelican I think we're good.
      - CamperBob2 2mo ago
        One of the YouTubers who benchmarks vibe-hackery tried getting GLM 5.3 to reprogram an older iPod Nano. [1] Something like "I just plugged in an iPod via USB. Turn it into a GPU status display." It got pretty far but couldn't close escrow. 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3TeW8L9wy-Y&t=1917s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3TeW8L9wy-Y&t=1917s
    - bobek 2mo ago
      It it less crazy that it sounds. I have recently replaced firmware on an obscure MCU to revive a flip-dot display. https://www.bobek.cz/buse/ https://www.bobek.cz/buse/
      - deleted 2mo ago
        [deleted]
  - ssl-3 2mo ago
    It is, but I mean: Many of us do just exactly that with 3D printers. We get a new 3D-printing machine and install our own build of Marlin on it, or move it all over to Klipper. Sometimes that involves replacing the entirety of the brain-box controls and that's just par for the course. At its root, it's only some stepper motors, fans (more motors), sensors, and heaters that are used in very particular ways. That's pretty similar to a Cricut machine, isn't it?
    - kennywinker 2mo ago
      Because closed source 3d printers grew out of an open source community, it's pretty easy to do this, and you get a pretty similar experience on most printers. Unfortunately, cricuts are not like that. There are a couple projects attempting this but afaik they offer a pretty rough experience.
      - ssl-3 2mo ago
        So a Cricut machine has more than some motors and sensors and stuff? How much more?
        Joel_Mckay 2mo ago
        Replacing the hardware with GRBL/FluidNC controller + bCNC + Inkscape migtyscape laser/engraver CAM plugin kit would be trivial. However, modifying DMCA protected hardware is a crime in some places. Best of luck, =3
        ssl-3 2mo ago
        Eh, I mean: I've done some work with GRBL in the pre-bot days. I can probably do more work with it in these post-bot days. That doesn't sound so bad. I just don't have a Cricut or the willingness to get one (or several; stuff will break) to hack on. :)
        Joel_Mckay 2mo ago
  - dylan604 2mo ago
    Only if done over a weekend
- Junk_Collector 2mo ago
  Can you build a CNC machine out of nothing but a computer and a CNC machine?
  - kennywinker 2mo ago
    You wanna know how to get a million dollars? Ok, first you start with two million dollars...
bluGill 2mo ago
silhouette has a much better open source reputation if you want this type of machine. Everybody in the crafting world seems to have the circut though, and you can buy their machines (parts, supplies) all over, while I've never seen silhouette in a local store.
- kotaKat 2mo ago
  yep, today's reminder silhouette is (quietly) a division of the larger Graphtec, and you can move up from the baby machines thru to a Graphtec cutter! drive 'em with inkscape, drive 'em with the silhouette studio, hell, there's a bridge graphtec model that can also take silhouette studio jobs...
  - anticorporate 2mo ago
    There's also Inkcut, which is the only thing that my old Silhouette will consistently respond to, but it works in Linux and it couldn't be easier to drop in an SVG and have it cut (which is my only use case).
- nightfly 2mo ago
  I have a silhouette cameo 4 I'm pretty happy with. Silhouette studio works, it doesn't handle svgs very well so when importing I tend to render svgs as a black bitmap and then trace that in silhouette studio. Being able to print registration marks and have the cutter align itself against those is invaluable. I've done clones of paper craft kits, perfectly cut out iron on transfers forct shirts, 3d trading card art, and trading card proxies on mine
post_break 2mo ago
Siser machines are as consumer as you can get but still get control over them. They are more like the commercial grade ones. I have a Juliet and love it.
c0nsumer 2mo ago
Maybe it's just me and I haven't used it much, but my fairly non-technical wife has a Cricut and the few times I've wanted to use it I had absolutely no problem creating a vector in whatever program (Illustrator or Affinity Designer, IIRC) and getting it to separate the color layers and cut at the desired size. The Electron app felt a bit weird, but I was able to accomplish the goal of cutting out my design at a desired size, so I didn't think any more about it. <shrug> It seemed more to me that their app leans hard into getting people to buy vector designs through them, and making it easy for those who might not even understand what a "vector" graphic is, but it didn't seem to preclude me from cutting out my own stuff.
- dylan604 2mo ago
  > but my fairly non-technical wife has a Cricut and the few times I've wanted to use it I had absolutely no problem This is this is one of those situations of knowing their audience. The machine is nice and does some impressive things for the price. Their software works fine for the people that the hardware was designed. I too have designed things in Illustrator and imported them into their software. It took a bit of getting used to, but I've designed retail packaging with cuts and scores so I can create custom boxes that I was not able to find premade and having the custom design made was too expensive. Could the design software be better? Of course, but that software would be out of reach for their target audience. So instead, I've stopped holding it wrong, and work within its constraints.
  - kennywinker 2mo ago
    > Their software works fine for the people that the hardware was designed. HARD disagree. Go look at all the youtube videos of craft people finding insane workarounds to try and get it to do things outside of the narrow lane of accepted uses. One small example. It has a pen plotter mode. But it has no way to 1) generate single-line text (like a Hershey font) - the only text mode is outlines. 2) fill outlined shapes.
    - juvvel 2mo ago
      Well, you need a font that is single-line by design. Then it works just fine. There are some single-line default fonts, too. For filling shapes, there is no automated cross-hatch or anything, that's true, but you could create such a pattern in a vector program.
Animats 2mo ago
It's a vinyl cutter. I've used those. TechShop used to have them. Theirs seem to be repurposed large-format HP plotter designs. Vinyl cutters are good at doing one thing - cutting out patterns in vinyl or similar materials. You can make signs, stickers, and similar stuff. Some also be used as plotters. They're rather limited devices, though. At TechShop, they were not used much.
- kennywinker 2mo ago
  Try doing a run of like 10x of the same design in cricut software...
- myself248 2mo ago
  Yup, they even speak HPGL. Originally, people put knife blades into HP plotters, by modifying the pen holders. Then Roland started making heavy-duty plotters purpose-built to run blades, but they spoke the same HPGL as the plotters, for compatibility. Then everyone and their brother knocked-off the Roland designs, and of course copied the HPGL compatibility. Along the way, some special extensions crept into the dialect, for setting the downforce (the !FS; command) and maybe other stuff. And for a long, long time, all vinyl cutters were basically the same. You could use any software with any cutter. Then Cricut came along and hosed it all up.
hedora 2mo ago
The last time I checked, bambu was clawing back functionality from purchased devices, with things like timebomb lockouts and blacklisting TPU. Sure, it's a matter of degree, but I'm perfectly happy with my Elegoo. If you live in California, I suggest buying one before Sacramento's open firmware ban goes into effect.
- SchemaLoad 2mo ago
  I have a bambulab printer and haven't seen anything like this. The printer doesn't even know what filament you are using unless you are using an AMS + bambulab filament. Maybe you are thinking about the fact that TPU isn't compatible with the AMS, you have to feed it in direct or it will clog. I can load a print direct on to the printer via lan or the microsd slot without using any bambulab servers. While in theory it would be nice if it was all fully open source, but in reality there are no real restrictions unlike Cricut.

cellular 2mo ago

Could you just hook new motor controllers to the motors / puncher and add an Arduino to control it?

kennywinker 2mo ago
Possibly. But i wanted a machine to play with, not to tinker with. At that point it’d be wayyy cheaper and easier to just convert an old CR-10 printer into a vinyl cutter
tdeck 2mo ago
This is a very Hacker News usage of the word "just".
- CamperBob2 2mo ago
  The modern equivalent is "Just" use Fable or Sol to reverse-engineer the protocol, then write new control software that works locally the way you want to work, using the file formats you want to use. There is no longer any reason to put up with hardware like Cricut that doesn't do what you want, or that includes artificial dependencies on remote servers. If worst comes to worst, then yes, have the clanker write a new controller.
  - zardo 2mo ago
    Proposing cost to reverse engineer a cricut and cut out some pelican art as a new llm benchmark.
    - throwway120385 2mo ago
      As long as there's a bicycle under that pelican I think we're good.
    - CamperBob2 2mo ago
      One of the YouTubers who benchmarks vibe-hackery tried getting GLM 5.3 to reprogram an older iPod Nano. [1] Something like "I just plugged in an iPod via USB. Turn it into a GPU status display." It got pretty far but couldn't close escrow. 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3TeW8L9wy-Y&t=1917s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3TeW8L9wy-Y&t=1917s
  - bobek 2mo ago
    It it less crazy that it sounds. I have recently replaced firmware on an obscure MCU to revive a flip-dot display. https://www.bobek.cz/buse/ https://www.bobek.cz/buse/
    - deleted 2mo ago
      [deleted]
- ssl-3 2mo ago
  It is, but I mean: Many of us do just exactly that with 3D printers. We get a new 3D-printing machine and install our own build of Marlin on it, or move it all over to Klipper. Sometimes that involves replacing the entirety of the brain-box controls and that's just par for the course. At its root, it's only some stepper motors, fans (more motors), sensors, and heaters that are used in very particular ways. That's pretty similar to a Cricut machine, isn't it?
  - kennywinker 2mo ago
    Because closed source 3d printers grew out of an open source community, it's pretty easy to do this, and you get a pretty similar experience on most printers. Unfortunately, cricuts are not like that. There are a couple projects attempting this but afaik they offer a pretty rough experience.
    - ssl-3 2mo ago
      So a Cricut machine has more than some motors and sensors and stuff? How much more?
      - Joel_Mckay 2mo ago
        Replacing the hardware with GRBL/FluidNC controller + bCNC + Inkscape migtyscape laser/engraver CAM plugin kit would be trivial. However, modifying DMCA protected hardware is a crime in some places. Best of luck, =3
        ssl-3 2mo ago
        Eh, I mean: I've done some work with GRBL in the pre-bot days. I can probably do more work with it in these post-bot days. That doesn't sound so bad. I just don't have a Cricut or the willingness to get one (or several; stuff will break) to hack on. :)
        Joel_Mckay 2mo ago
- dylan604 2mo ago
  Only if done over a weekend
Junk_Collector 2mo ago
Can you build a CNC machine out of nothing but a computer and a CNC machine?
- kennywinker 2mo ago
  You wanna know how to get a million dollars? Ok, first you start with two million dollars...

bluGill 2mo ago

silhouette has a much better open source reputation if you want this type of machine. Everybody in the crafting world seems to have the circut though, and you can buy their machines (parts, supplies) all over, while I've never seen silhouette in a local store.

kotaKat 2mo ago
yep, today's reminder silhouette is (quietly) a division of the larger Graphtec, and you can move up from the baby machines thru to a Graphtec cutter! drive 'em with inkscape, drive 'em with the silhouette studio, hell, there's a bridge graphtec model that can also take silhouette studio jobs...
- anticorporate 2mo ago
  There's also Inkcut, which is the only thing that my old Silhouette will consistently respond to, but it works in Linux and it couldn't be easier to drop in an SVG and have it cut (which is my only use case).
nightfly 2mo ago
I have a silhouette cameo 4 I'm pretty happy with. Silhouette studio works, it doesn't handle svgs very well so when importing I tend to render svgs as a black bitmap and then trace that in silhouette studio. Being able to print registration marks and have the cutter align itself against those is invaluable. I've done clones of paper craft kits, perfectly cut out iron on transfers forct shirts, 3d trading card art, and trading card proxies on mine

post_break 2mo ago

Siser machines are as consumer as you can get but still get control over them. They are more like the commercial grade ones. I have a Juliet and love it.

c0nsumer 2mo ago

Maybe it's just me and I haven't used it much, but my fairly non-technical wife has a Cricut and the few times I've wanted to use it I had absolutely no problem creating a vector in whatever program (Illustrator or Affinity Designer, IIRC) and getting it to separate the color layers and cut at the desired size. The Electron app felt a bit weird, but I was able to accomplish the goal of cutting out my design at a desired size, so I didn't think any more about it. <shrug> It seemed more to me that their app leans hard into getting people to buy vector designs through them, and making it easy for those who might not even understand what a "vector" graphic is, but it didn't seem to preclude me from cutting out my own stuff.

dylan604 2mo ago
> but my fairly non-technical wife has a Cricut and the few times I've wanted to use it I had absolutely no problem This is this is one of those situations of knowing their audience. The machine is nice and does some impressive things for the price. Their software works fine for the people that the hardware was designed. I too have designed things in Illustrator and imported them into their software. It took a bit of getting used to, but I've designed retail packaging with cuts and scores so I can create custom boxes that I was not able to find premade and having the custom design made was too expensive. Could the design software be better? Of course, but that software would be out of reach for their target audience. So instead, I've stopped holding it wrong, and work within its constraints.
- kennywinker 2mo ago
  > Their software works fine for the people that the hardware was designed. HARD disagree. Go look at all the youtube videos of craft people finding insane workarounds to try and get it to do things outside of the narrow lane of accepted uses. One small example. It has a pen plotter mode. But it has no way to 1) generate single-line text (like a Hershey font) - the only text mode is outlines. 2) fill outlined shapes.
  - juvvel 2mo ago
    Well, you need a font that is single-line by design. Then it works just fine. There are some single-line default fonts, too. For filling shapes, there is no automated cross-hatch or anything, that's true, but you could create such a pattern in a vector program.

Animats 2mo ago

It's a vinyl cutter. I've used those. TechShop used to have them. Theirs seem to be repurposed large-format HP plotter designs. Vinyl cutters are good at doing one thing - cutting out patterns in vinyl or similar materials. You can make signs, stickers, and similar stuff. Some also be used as plotters. They're rather limited devices, though. At TechShop, they were not used much.

kennywinker 2mo ago
Try doing a run of like 10x of the same design in cricut software...
myself248 2mo ago
Yup, they even speak HPGL. Originally, people put knife blades into HP plotters, by modifying the pen holders. Then Roland started making heavy-duty plotters purpose-built to run blades, but they spoke the same HPGL as the plotters, for compatibility. Then everyone and their brother knocked-off the Roland designs, and of course copied the HPGL compatibility. Along the way, some special extensions crept into the dialect, for setting the downforce (the !FS; command) and maybe other stuff. And for a long, long time, all vinyl cutters were basically the same. You could use any software with any cutter. Then Cricut came along and hosed it all up.

hedora 2mo ago

The last time I checked, bambu was clawing back functionality from purchased devices, with things like timebomb lockouts and blacklisting TPU. Sure, it's a matter of degree, but I'm perfectly happy with my Elegoo. If you live in California, I suggest buying one before Sacramento's open firmware ban goes into effect.

SchemaLoad 2mo ago
I have a bambulab printer and haven't seen anything like this. The printer doesn't even know what filament you are using unless you are using an AMS + bambulab filament. Maybe you are thinking about the fact that TPU isn't compatible with the AMS, you have to feed it in direct or it will clog. I can load a print direct on to the printer via lan or the microsd slot without using any bambulab servers. While in theory it would be nice if it was all fully open source, but in reality there are no real restrictions unlike Cricut.