Unlocking a locked/deactivated e-waste Cricut Maker

2 comments

• kennywinker46 minutes ago
  Just a PSA to anybody considering buying a new cricut:<p>They are cool machines mechanically, but the software is an absolute nightmare, DO NOT BUY.<p>Source: i bought one. Regret sunk in the moment i tried to do anything even slightly interesting. This isn’t a bambulabs situation where it’s mostly a philosophical objection to a closed ecosystem. It’s bad software that makes it hard or impossible to use the machine except in a very narrow set of ways.<p>I’ve not firsthand used any of the competing machines (silhoutte, et al) but i hear they are a bit better - and i don’t know how they could be worse.
  • cellular31 minutes ago
    Could you just hook new motor controllers to the motors &#x2F; puncher and add an Arduino to control it?
    • kennywinker28 minutes ago
      Possibly. But i wanted a machine to play with, not to tinker with. At that point it’d be wayyy cheaper and easier to just convert an old CR-10 printer into a vinyl cutter
    • Junk_Collector13 minutes ago
      Can you build a CNC machine out of nothing but a computer and a CNC machine?
    • tdeck25 minutes ago
      This is a very Hacker News usage of the word &quot;just&quot;.
      • CamperBob221 minutes ago
        The modern equivalent is &quot;Just&quot; use Fable or Sol to reverse-engineer the protocol, then write new control software that works locally the way you want to work, using the file formats you want to use.<p>There is no longer any reason to put up with hardware like Cricut that doesn&#x27;t do what you want, or that includes artificial dependencies on remote servers. If worst comes to worst, then yes, have the clanker write a new controller.
• EvanAnderson46 minutes ago
  I was hoping this would be a hack that repurposed the unit to work standalone.<p>Getting the unit to work again in the Cricut &quot;ecosystem&quot; just means Cricut can disable it later when they catch on.<p>Companies that &quot;lock&quot; or otherwise brick viable hardware as part of the business model (I&#x27;m thinking about Sonos here, too) are really terrible. People shouldn&#x27;t be rewarding them by buying their garbage to begin with.
  • Benanov2 minutes ago
    I&#x27;m just imagining the amount of damage some determined people can do to the Cricut ecosystem because the serial numbers are guessable...