[Windell Oskay]

The AxiDraw is a machine; nothing that it ever writes will be genuinely “handwritten.” That said, there are handwriting like fonts that you can use, and it is possible to save your thank you note card design as a template in Inkscape. Then, one only needs to (1) change the relevant text and (2) convert the text to paths (Path menu > Object to Path) to prepare it for printing.  We use a similar system for updating (for example) the serial number on the final test document that ships with each AxiDraw.

[Windell Oskay]

Every time that you remove and apply power again, you will need to set the initial pen position. When power is first applied, the motor will “snap” into position, which may be up to one degree away from where you initially set it — typically about 1 mm of apparent horizontal movement.

[Windell Oskay]

Yes, you need to sign in with Evil Mad Scientist to post here.

[Windell Oskay]

I don’t think that I’ve heard of MES; what is that?

[Windell Oskay]

Yes, looks like a pen height issue. Try plotting more slowly as well, until you are up to speed (pun intended), and know how to watch its behavior a little more easily.

[Windell Oskay]

I’m not sure that I can understand exactly what is going wrong from that description. If part of a letter draws, but the top does not, perhaps you could watch a little more closely and see exactly what is going on there. Did the pen actually *lift up* (i.e., with a movement of the pen lift motor), or was it simply not touching the ornament there? 

Most likely, the pen tried to go there, but was not set at the right position over the full curvature of the ornament.  Please see section “4.5 Inserting a pen, and checking alignment” in the EggBot Pro user guide– you likely need to adjust the position of the pen holder. For spheres (like ornaments) the vertical pen position should be set fully up (see section 4.4), and the horizontal position should be set according to the chart in section 5.5, to make sure that it neatly traces over the full arc.  

I say “most likely” because you have indicated separately that the pen position is not in the right place. If the pen does not lift completely in some places, that indicates that the pen holder position is not correct. Again, see the chart in section 4.5.

[Windell Oskay]

While some amount of noise is normal, it is also possible that your machine is making an excess of noise or a noise that it shouldn’t make at all. One of the most common types is a buzzing that comes from the moving carriage itself while operating. We allow a machine to pass final inspection with some amount of buzzing there, so long as it does not affect the output printing quality. Adding some additional oil (yes, sewing machine or light machine oil such as 3-in-1 oil) to the 6 mm and 8 mm shafts before and after each of the linear bearings can help to alleviate (or even eliminate) this type of sound.

If it’s something else– a skipping or grinding noise, or if your machine is losing position control, try operating at a lower operating speed (see the speed guidelines in the user guide) or contact customer support directly.

[Windell Oskay]

Awesome; thanks! We posted about it on our linkdump: http://www.evilmadscientist.com/2016/linkdump-november-2016/

[Windell Oskay]

I think that you’ve identified most of the things already– learn about how logic circuits work, learn how nixie tubes work, and try to figure out how that particular clock works — or is supposed to. Learn how to use a multimeter, watch out for the high voltage, and see if the power supply is working, and then see if the logic circuits are working.

The electronics hobby clubs are mostly called “hackerspaces” and “makerspaces” nowadays. Go meet the people at TXRX and/or similar spaces around. Find one that you like and join it. (Meet the people, and learn _how to learn_ what you need to learn. Don’t ask them to fix it for you, or to teach you to fix it.) Go to the mini maker faire next year. There are lots of resources, and it sounds like you’d like to dive in.

[Windell Oskay]

There is a “developer mode” within RoboPaint. If you can open that up, perhaps there are some error messages there that might help to clarify things. In RoboPaint Settings, under Advanced, there is a “Misc” option to enable RoboPaint Debug/Developer features. With that turned on, you should see a console, and possibly some error messages listed.

[Windell Oskay]

OK great– progress finally. The machine, and its connection to your computer are clearly working. However, you seem to have discovered a new issue with RoboPaint– I am still trying to find additional things that we can test there to see if we can figure out what’s going on. Did you get a chance to try with one of the older beta versions? 

[Windell Oskay]

The “connected successfully” message refers to the backend/API that RoboPaint uses internally; as you note, that’s separate from connecting to the EBB itself. 

Can you please say what kind of an error you were getting in Inkscape?

Also, is there any chance that you could try on another computer, just in case there’s something specifically blocking access on that one?

[Windell Oskay]

Inkscape is fundamentally an “SVG editor” and any other SVG generator can create input for it. Many of them are web based or can be run on a Chromebook without issue. However, I don’t have a template pre-generated 

Here are links to a few:

SVG Edit, https://github.com/SVG-Edit/svgedit

Try it here: https://svg-edit.github.io/svgedit/releases/svg-edit-2.8.1/svg-editor.html

Method Draw

Try it here: http://editor.method.ac

Boxy SVG  https://boxy-svg.com

Free at the Chrome web store

[Windell Oskay]

Thank you for following up. 

I have a few suggestions of things that you might try. First, you might consider trying out the Inkscape-based software for WaterColorBot. It has an independent codebase, and might help to verify that the machine itself is working properly and can communicate with your computer. Second, check to see if you have any software on your computer (anti-malware, firewall, etc) that might prevent you from communicating properly with the USB port. Third, you might try installing the previous beta version of RoboPaint (available at: https://github.com/evil-mad/robopaint/releases/tag/v2.0.0-Beta.2.2016-07-29 ) just in case– Beta 3 is very new, and we do not have as many user reports on it.

I’ve contacted the other RoboPaint developers, and we’ll see if we can suggest some additional things to try.

[Windell Oskay]

I’ve split this topic, as what you are seeing appears to be unrelated to that in the prior discussion. 

Now, RoboPaint and RoboPaint RT share no code whatsoever, so if you are failing to connect in both that suggests that something else is wrong, possibly unrelated to either. 

Since you’re describing COM6 and COM7, it sounds like you _are_ getting some kind of a connection to the WCB– can you please say under what circumstances (or in which software) you are seeing these COM names?

Also, you might try running RoboPaint RT right after restarting, just in case something was still running in the background from RoboPaint.

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