Using the Cricut Pens with CCR and the E2

If you've been wondering if you can use the Cricut pens when you're using Cricut Craft Room, the answer is yes. The E2 is the easiest to use for this exercise as it doesn't automatically unload the mat when it has finished cutting. This allows you to remove the pen and replace it with the blade.

The Expression on the other hand (and most likely the Cricut Personal and the Cricut Create) do unload the mat after it has finished cutting when using CCR. This means that it's difficult to reload the mat in exactly the same position the second time, which can result in your cutting line not exactly lining up with the drawn line. But it can be done. You need to take care when you load the mat. Load it snugly to the right hand side for both the drawing and the cutting and you should get your two layers to line up.

I haven't been able to use the Cricut Pens on the Imagine while using CCR. For some reason it just unloads the mat instead of drawing the design. The Cricut Pens do work with the Imagine however if you're not using CCR. Go figure!

I don't have a Cricut Mini so have no idea whether it works with the pens but I suspect it would.

Here's the instructions for using the pens using the E2.

I'm using the Window image from the Christmas (Solutions) cartridge.

• Place your image on the mat and poisition it to where you want it.

• Remove the blade housing from the E2 and replace it with your pen.

• Make sure your E2 is connected to your computer and powered on.

• Press the Cut button

• Select your Expression 2 then press the Select Device button

If your cartridge isn't linked to your Cricut.com account you will be prompted to insert the cartridge if you don't already have it in the machine. 

• You can change the blade depth and speed here. The recommended settings for the pens are a speed of 3 and a pressure of 2 however you should experiment with what works best for you.

• Press the Cut button to send the project to the Cricut.

• Load your mat into the E2 using the Load mat button on the E2's Home screen.

• Press the Continue button on the CCR screen.

You'll see this box and the project will shortly start to "cut" with the Cricut pen.

When the E2 has finished drawing your image it should stop and not return to its home position.

CCR will return to the mat screen.

• Very carefully (making sure you don't move the blade carriage) remove the pen from the housing and replace it with your blade.

• Again, press the Cut button, select the E2 and press Select Device

• Adjust your blade depth settings to suit your cardstock

• Press Cut

• Press Continue

The blade housing will return to the top right of the mat then proceed to cut the design on top of the drawn layer.

• Press the Eject Mat button on the E2 and your should see something like this:

And here it is removed from the mat.

Not too shabby!

Incompatible Template error

Have you ever clicked the Cut or Go button and seen this error when you go to select your device?

The error says "The project was created using an incompatible template and cannot be cut/printed on this machine". 

The most likely reason for this error is that you are trying to cut/print to a Cricut that has a different size mat than the one you created your design on.

In the above case I created my design on the 6" x 12" mat for the Cricut Personal and tried to cut it on the E2. 

There's two ways to fix this error. 

1. Go to Options menu, Project tab and select the E2 as the Default machine

2. Leave the Default Machine setting the way it is and connect the Cricut Personal.

In both cases when you go to Cut/Print your machine will now be available to select and you won't see the error.

Cutting with the Gypsy promotional carts

Update - March 3, 2012

Unfortunately it looks like the latest CCR update removed the link to those promotional carts.

I'm hopeful that the update that gives us the ability to link all our Gypsy carts to CCR will fix that problem. 

But for now - the info below doesn't work. Sad face.... :(

I'll update when I know more. :)

Narelle

When you purchased your Gypsy it will have come pre-loaded with 2 carts - Gypsy Font and Gypsy Wanderings.

Last year there was a promotion where if you registered your Gypsy by a certain date (I think it was around October 2010) you received five free downloadable cartridges. They were Blackletter, Christmas, Indie Art, Printing Press and Tags, Bags, Boxes and More.

PC had a further promotion where you could receive another downloadable cart - Smiley Cards.

So which ones can you cut with CCR?

Provided you have used Cricut Sync to make sure your Gypsy is up to date the following carts will be available for you to cut with in CCR:

Blackletter
Christmas
Indie Art
Printing Press
Tags, Bags, Boxes and More
Smiley Cards

Currently CCR won't allow you to cut with Gypsy Font or Gypsy Wanderings. We'll have to wait for an update by PC for those carts to be linked to our Cricut.com account before we can cut with them with CCR.

Any digital carts you purchase from Cricut.com will show up as linked in CCR automatically. They will also show up on your Gypsy as a linked cart once you connect your Gypsy to Cricut Sync and update the cartridge content.

CCR not recognising your Cricut

If the drivers for your Cricut haven't been installed correctly CCR won't recognise that you have your Cricut attached. Here's how to go about checking if the correct drivers are installed.

If you are using Windows XP please refer to post number 14 on this thread by Mallory from PC in the CCR forum at the cricut message board. Vista users - the procedures should be the same as for Windows XP.


These are the instructions for Windows 7.

• Disconnect your Cricut from your computer

• Click on the Start icon (bottom left of your screen)

• Click Devices and Printers

(If Devices and Printers isn't showing as an option select Control Panel, then click the Devices and Printers icon)

The next box will show you all the devices you have attached to your computer. At this stage there is no Cricut showing.

• Plug your Cricut into the USB port on your computer and power the Cricut on if it is currently powered off

You should see a new device appear under the heading of Unspecified.

If you are connecting a Cricut Personal, Create or Expression the device will always show up as USB < - > Serial.

If you are connecting a Cricut Imagine, E2 or Cricut Mini they should have their correct name.

Here's what the Device list looks like with three Cricuts attached. Notice the Imagine and E2 are correctly labelled.

• Right click on the device that you are having trouble with and select Troubleshoot

The troubleshooter will open and start gathering information about your device.

• If it finds any problems follow the instructions. This will most like entail installing the Cricut drivers.

• When the Troubleshooter has finished try cutting with your Cricut again.

My Cricut didn't have any errors so this is the box that appears.

CCR and the Cricut Personal

Previous builds of CCR required the Cricut Personal to have a firmware version of 1.40. CCR would prompt you to update your firmware but the update process kept failing. This then rendered the Personal unusable until the firmware was re-done using Design Studio. This put the firmware back to version 1.34.

On 8th October 2011 a CCR update was released that allowed any Personal Cricut to use the older firmware version 1.34 to cut.

To get started using your Cricut Personal:

• Switch your Cricut on and check the screen to see what firmware version you are using. If it's less than V1.34 you will need to use Cricut Design Studio to update it. If you don't have a copy of Design Studio you can download the free trial version and update using that. Here's the link for the trial version: http://www.cricut.com/cds/Update.aspx

Once you have download  and installed DS select the Help menu, then Update Cricut Firmware. (Make sure your Cricut is turned off before you start the update). Follow the instructions carefully making sure you select the Cricut Personal as the machine to be updated. You may need to do two passes of the firmware update. If you're prompted to do a second pass make sure you turn your Cricut off again before you start the second pass.

• When the firmware update is complete exit out of Design Studio, switch your Cricut off and unplug it from your computer.
• Plug your Cricut back into your computer and power it (the Cricut) back on. If you have just updated the firmware you may get a windows message saying that the device drivers are being installed. Once they're installed you might see this message box (or a message in the bottom right corner of your screen)

• Open CCR and select the Cricut Personal as the Default Machine from the the Options menu, Project tab
• Create your design and when ready press the green Cut button. (Make sure you have loaded your mat into the Cricut)
•  At the Select Device screen click on the Cricut Personal then press the brown Select Device button.

If you see a message box that says there are no usable devices connected, remove the USB cable from your computer and reinsert it. (Also make sure the Cricut is powered on.)

• At the Cut screen change any relevant settings  (Layer/Multi-cut) and press the green Cut button

The Cricut should then proceed to cut.

• If the green circle in the middle of the cutting screen turns endlessly, press the brown Stop button. This will take you back to the previous screen where you can press Cut again. (This happened to me. The second time I pressed Cut it started cutting on my Cricut straight away).

Debug errors

The other day I went to open CCR and got this error:

Here's a close up:

I've seen many reports of this error on the Cricut message board but had never had the error myself. Until now.....

I tried opening CCR a few times but kept getting the error. I uninstalled CCR, re-downloaded it and installed it again.

Same problem.....

I thought maybe it had something to do with Adobe Air, but just before I was about to uninstall that I noticed that my Gypsy was plugged into my laptop. Picked it up and noticed that it was powered on.

I disconnected the Gypsy from my laptop and tried to open CCR again. This time it opened with no problems. I tested it a few more times to be sure and each time I opened CCR with the Gypsy attached and powered on I got the Debug error. If the Gypsy was attached but switched off I didn't get the error.

So it appears that both CCR and the Gypsy can't use CCRBridge.exe at the same time. I can't remember whether the Gypsy has always used CCRBridge.exe or whether it previously used a different Bridge to access the computer, but it obviously uses it now.

So, lesson learned. You can have the Gypsy attached to your computer when you use CCR, you just can't have it switched on.

There is a similar error that pops up if you open Cricut Sync when you have CCR open.

First Cricut Sync won't be able to recognise that you have your Cricut attached. This is the message you'll see:

When you press the X button to exit out of Cricut Sync you may see this message:

This time it's Bridge.exe that is the problem.

So if you're trying to update your Cricut using Cricut Sync make sure you don't have CCR running.

Carts missing from CCR

UPDATE: As of 30th November the three missing carts are back in CCR! :)


Just in case you're looking for them, the following carts are currently missing from CCR.

Animal Kingdom
Car Decals
Street Sign


You can stop looking now!!!