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I’m forwarding this to the main mailing list to see if there is any interest from the membership.

What’s a cricket cutter?

Yes! I would love to get my hands on that “cricket”. He actually means a cricut cutter if anyone wants to google it.

http://atxhackerspace.org/wiki/Cricut_Repairs talks about common failures and repairs of cricut cutters. I have a broken one I bought on ebay for a dollar (plus $12 shipping) that I’ve been meaning to fix for a while.

The Cricut is a paper or thin plastic cutting tool that uses a motorized gantry to cut out shapes with a special knife blade. The designs it cuts out are found in cartridges, and are most commonly used for scrapbooking.

The cartridges are about $40 or better, and depending on the deals you can get them for $20. The early versions are becoming obsolete so far as the manufacturer is concerned, and are no longer being produced. There is a free program for connecting some versions to a computer, where you can “activate” the cartridges, and then use the machine without them. The software also allows you to use designs from multiple cartridges at once, instead of the normal limit of one cartridge at a time.

A few years ago I found out that the cartridges use Atmel AVRs or maybe their 8051 core chips, as the storage for the various designs. It is VERY hackable, if you’re willing to risk bricking it.