I caught a deal on cricut.com where they were selling their original “Cricuit Personal Cutter” (refurbished) for $49.99 ($65 with shipping). This seemed like a very good deal to me, so I bought one. By itself, the Cricuit can cut specific shapes and letters from paper (it includes a free set of shapes/letters, and you can purchase cartridges to add more). I plan on using it to cut metal foil (one of the few things you can’t cut with a laser cutter, because it is reflective) and potentially make stencils. I may also be able to use it as a plotter using special attachments for pens. (Circuit board resist markers anyone?)
To make full use of it, I wanted to be able to cut arbitrary paths from my material, which means controlling the Cricut from my computer. Luckily it comes with a built in USB port that is recognized as a standard serial port. Also luckily, other people have already figured out the command and control protocol and built a library to control it.
I found the directions on this page very useful getting libcutter working. So far I have simply use the draw_svg utility program that is included with libcutter to cut out vectors created in Inkscape.
Thanks for this. You are the top Google result for “Cricut Linux.”
Hi Jay. I’ve also been following these direction from the wiki, and I’ve had no luck. I got ./draw_gcode to run, it just doesn’t do anything. I have a hunch the problem may be that I don’t have a cartridge inserted, because of the photo you include. Does it work without a cartridge for you, before I go and buy one off ebay?
Thanks!
Hi Zach,
I’m afraid my Cricut is currently in a box…..somewhere….(we just moved and have Mt. Boxmore right now…) so I won’t be able to try it without a cartridge for a good amount of time. The cartridge installed in the picture is their basic “sample cartridge” that came with every Cricut. I don’t specifically remember HAVING to have the cartridge installed to make it work (but it’s been a while since I fired it up), but I also don’t remember ever using it without the cartridge installed either. Sorry I can’t be of more help right now…
the cricutwiki is no longer available.
could you help a fellow maker out and point me to it ?
i found a cricut personal and want to design some things with it.
thanks
The wayback machine has a copy for 2013….
https://web.archive.org/web/20130501063646/www.built-to-spec.com/cricutwiki/index.php?title=Cricut_Commands