[Jeff Thompson]

Thanks – not sure I understand re pen though. If I put a different pen in the machine I need to raise/lower the pen motor to set the pen’s position in the holder. (I have 3D printed some pen holders and stop-collars for just this purpose, which makes swapping pens faster.) I know this is maybe a boutique addition, but at least in my use would make the workflow faster.

I looked on Github but don’t see the firmware source code – is it open source? I don’t suppose it already polls unused pins on the board, meaning I could just mod the Inkscape extension? I could stick an Arduino Mini or something in there to read the button, but was hoping for a cleaner solution.

[Jeff Thompson]

I’ve noticed that I often want to adjust the pen position: to replace the paper, to adjust the pen itself, add/remove weights (which I find very helpful with certain drawing implements), etc. Basically, I find I use the pen up/down and motors off to re-Z a lot, making a hard-wired button helpful. My studio is set up in such a way that my Axidraw isn’t very close, so I have to go back and forth. By no means a must-have but seemed like a useful mod.

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