Brother CM350 Electronic Cutting Machine

I have yet to really do anything with it other then to set it up and update the firmware. But, there are somethings that are immediately relevant to your understanding of the machine. The system has 2-USB 2.0 connectors; a USB "A" male and a USB "B" male. Their use is important for you to understand. The USB "A" male is specifically designed to take a flash-drive (more on that in a moment). The USB "B" male is to connect to your computer. There are dire warnings in both the manual and the web-site about using the wrong port for the connection. It seems odd to me, because a USB is a USB and should be able to take data from any source. The other point has to do with the flash-drives themselves. I tried to install the firmware update from a 64-Gb drive and it wasn't recognized. I then formatted a 16-Gb drive with straight FAT and it saw it. It may have been the drive size, the fact that the 64-Gb was USB 3.0 or the file structure. I will be calling Brother and see if they can narrow it down. * * * The ScanNCut 2 connects to the cloud based service Canvas to do all of the online work. It does NOT work with Firefox, works POORLY with Internet Explorer (very slow) and seems fine with Google Chrome. * * * According to Brother Tech Support, the USB ports (both of them) are effective used for limited communication. The "B" port will show up on your PC as a removable drive, but it's not bi-directional. The same can be said for the wireless card. It's good for moving files down from Canvas" but that's about it. I am beginning to feel made a mistake. This is not fitting into my work flow as smoothly as I had hoped. * * * Well after making 6 cuts with the system my mat is almost shot (and it's getting cut up). I used the Brother guide for blade depth bases on material type and it still cut into the mat. So now I have learned to back off at least .5 on the cutting depth setting. I've cut 1-sheet of plain paper and 5-sheets of card stock. (DON'T use plain paper! You will spend an hour getting the leftovers off!). The first few cuts on card stock went well, but because of the loss of tackiness, the scan developed what I would describe as "chatter". Rough cut lines and edges on part of the cut. I brought the cut into Canvas and saw that, indeed those portions of the design were ragged. So 6-cuts and the mat has lost the ability to hold. (This is not a new issue, from reading other post). Maybe it's time for the Krylon Re-position Spray and painters tape around the whole mat. * * * Between the Canvas software, lack of hands on classes (the tutorials are NOT showing what I need) problems with the mat and things that should be simple cuts (see 2nd image), I think it's time for this machine to go back. It is screwing up my work flow. 3rd image was not me tearing the cut off the mat. It was cuts not being aligned and completed properly. The 2nd image was converted via Canvas with 5-color recognition and seemed fine. The end result was not. Unfortunately I am going back to using laser color printed acetate for my clear work. * * * Thank you Amazon Customer Service. Today I set up the returns for the Brother and associated items that I purchased to support it. They gave me no problems, even when I explained that it had been used and that the mat was worn. WARNING: If you are planning to buy this or any other machine in this range beware. If you are doing outline cuts or large, non-complex work its fine. BUT, if you are planning to do intricate small cuts and complex designs, forget. The machine can't seem to handle it and the Canvas software does not provide the granular control necessary to work. I primarily work in Visio and Paint.Net. Even saving the drawings in .svg doesn't help.