# Vinyl Express Lynx...worth messing with?



## hcb (May 26, 2015)

Hello, all. A local screen printing, embroidery, promo item, etc., business ate it and I got some equipment out of the fallout. One piece of equipment is a Lynx plotter/cutter from Vinyl Express. 

Doing some looking briefly online, I found that this thing was announced as a new product in 1999! Jeez. It only has a serial (RS-232) and parallel ports on it.

I'm strictly an amateur here. I have a second-hand USCutter (I think it is) CoPam cutter and I use Sure Cuts a Lot 3 Pro (don't make fun of me, it was fairly cheap).

I fired up the Lynx with no PC connection just to see if it worked at all. It turned on, loaded media, and did test cuts just fine. The first thing I noticed was that the machine was QUIET (the loudest part was the cooling fan). Movement was quiet, even when doing a test cut. The CoPam I have was noisy as hell when I got it. It got quieter when I changed the MB to a newer one with USB port (I have real reason for this other than maybe step resolution for the motors).

Until I can find one of my ancient serial 9 pin to 25 pin adapters to work with my current USB to RS-232 9 pin cables, I cannot actually try to test the machine. But I'm impressed with how quiet and smooth this old machine moved.

I think my questions are really these:

1) is there any reason I shouldn't try to use this machine? That it's old doesn't necessarily mean it's not good. I'm just a hobbyist at this stage, speed is not a really big deal (the Lynx seemed to have a low speed compared to the CoPam I have). Higher-quality cuts would be nice (for smaller work, less than 8" x 8" graphics).

2) In SCAL 3 Pro, I find Vinyl Express listed as maker with only 3 models (IIRC), including the S60 which I believe this is. Can anyone weigh in on whether or not I'm correct or if this thing will work with SCAL?

3) Is it normal/common for servo cutters/plotters (which from the Sign Warehouse site, IIRC, the Lynx is) to be so much quieter than a stepper unit (which I believe the CoPam is (model 2500...maybe?)

Thanks for your time.

--HC


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