10/4/19: I purchased my Cameo 4 on Amazon as soon as it was available. I’m interested in vinyl cutting and crafting. After 20 minutes of failing and fussing, I was able to create perfect vinyl cuts.
The reason the first few failed was I had ‘Ratchet blade’ selected in the SEND menu. It looked like a ratchet blade with the numbering and ruled lines. I was more surprised the Cameo 4 wasn’t able to initially recognize the auto blade was installed. I then reset to Auto Blade and selected SEND. It failed the test cut. The blade made motions as if it was cutting but no marks on vinyl. Next up I increased the cutting depth, tried again. This time only slightly indenting material, no cuts. Here is where meaningful instructions would improve the customer experience.
After a few internet searches, I found a recommendation to check blades built in dial settings. The Auto-blade supplied with my Cameo 4 was set to a depth of 5. I reset by pressing in the tip while the indicator moved to its lowest setting. Simple enough, reinstalled cutting tool, selected ‘Vinyl Glossy’ Auto-blade and sent it through once again. This time yielding perfect cuts using both vinyl sheets and built in roll feeder.
Noise Level: It's not broken or trying to call for help. The cutting mechanism sounds alien with its fluctuating wine underlying a distressed clunky mechanical meshing sound. It’s particularly noisy when cutting curves, likely from Silhouette’s servo/stepper motor design choices. Hopefully future models will be quieter but at least you know your Cameo 4 is operating properly.
10/18 Silhouette Studio released a software update.. In settings I have this selected to check for updates weekly. This is a good thing. As with any new device bug fixes and improvements would be made available for your computer to automatically download and install. Check the video I uploaded showing the Cameo 4 in action. It is still loud, but I noticed it now has a more melodic flow to the gear grinding noise. Turn up the volume, ET phone home..!
Touch Display: a very clean look. Just don’t expect help here. From what I can see it’s a back illuminated cover over 8 buttons, consisting of Pause, 6 direction arrows and a Bluetooth/USB button indicator (blue when connected).
Roll feeder: Nice trimming feature by advancing roll vinyl through the cutter you can easily and cleanly use a sliding blade to cut sheets into any length. The few times I tried this, it worked well but the button logic is reversed. Push down to advance vinyl forward.
Firmware update: During initial setup the Cameo 4 requires internet access to perform a firmware update. This worked well using USB cable connected to my iMac. Completing in less than 1 minute.
Construction: Well built where the Knife or other tools come in contact with your materials. As far as the Lid, Roll Feeder and rear slicing assembly. Lots of tiny plastic pivot points. Use gingerly.
Bluetooth: I couldn't find much help.. Silhouette's troubleshooting steps refer to Cameo 3's
Touchscreen. I've added 2 photos, The first shows the device's touchpad indictor glow WHITE. No Bluetooth in use. If it switches to Blue it is communicating with your computer. To get to this point, with Silhouette Studio open, I had to POWER down my Cameo by unplugging it. Wait a minute plug power back in. Check the Cameo's touchpad for the Blue indicator or check the bottom right on the SEND screen, device status. See Photo 2. This shows both my USB and Bluetooth successfully connected. There is no upside to having both options connected. If your computer is close enough to the Cameo 4 use USB, otherwise Bluetooth if you are not too far away.
Design Studio: My disappointment stems from upgrading to Design Studio ($25). You have to further upgrade to the top tier software level Business ($40), in order to export your creations to standard file formats that can be used in other programs or devices.
Registration marks: There are 2 kinds. One for print and cut type crafting where the software places machine readable marks on the page. The other is when you make a multi-color decal. For this just create a vertical and horizontal rectangle near the edge. The cameo will cut these out. They are used to help you align the various color vinyl sheets. I tried to just turn on Registration marks with a normal cut out, it fails because it’s looking for the PRINT part of a Print and Cut. Don’t turn on registration marks for regular vinyl cutting.
Cutting Vinyl: The most common products you will use is 631 and 651 vinyl. Type 651 is solvent based adhesive that is considered permanent. 631 is removable with a less glossy finish. Neither 631 or 651 is listed in the drop down list of Material types in Silhouette studio. Instead it's Vinyl Shinny and several other varieties. Here is where some trial and error is required. I’ve shown in photos trying to ‘weed’ small font cutouts. These were 70 pt or about half and inch tall. I experimented with many different settings. I was able able to cleanly remove the surrounding vinyl on the 4th try.
Note:
Always check material settings before cutting. The Materials drop down defaults to CARDSTOCK. This needs to be changed to cut other types of product.
November Software update.
This update installs software to enable use of Cameo 4’s new cutting blades.
Design Studio License is a Rip Off
Might be time to remove a star. I bought into Design Studio up to the business level. I purchased objects and the coresponding .SVG files. Today I find myself with a need to export into another program so I can send the file off for a sublimation print. However..objects I purchased and designed with do not export. WTH Silhouette? I can export as PNG or JPEG but the color profile doesn't match the finished art. See screen shot.
