[Windell Oskay]

I’ve just done some testing here, and I was able to reproduce your error. I was also able to get around it by temporarily removing the 0.1 uF capacitor when initially writing the ArduinoISP sketch. Would you please give that a try?

Also: we looked into the “misleading” LED instructions. It turns out that the last batch of these LEDs that we received from the manufacturer (1) had the plastic lenses backwards, so that the flatted side was on the wrong side, and (2) we did not notice at receiving time. (Yikes!) Thank you for bringing that to our attention. As usual, the only way to be sure is by the lead length. :(

[Windell Oskay]

Well, you could take that existing kit and reprogram it– or you could do it on an Alpha Clock Five (or in any other number of ways) — but unless there’s a full readymade solution to do exactly that, there will be *some* programming required.

[Windell Oskay]

Here is a very simple way: http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=random+number+between+354+and+754

[Windell Oskay]

It depends what you’re after– this is pretty easy to do in software on a computer, or with a microcontroller. However, it depends how random you want your random numbers to be. Pseudorandom is easy. True hardware random number generation is a bit tricker.

[Windell Oskay]

It is not currently possible through that API.  

However, I have submitted a feature request for it, because it’s a good idea: 

https://github.com/evil-mad/robopaint/issues/224

Also, if you’re handy with javascript, you may find it straightforward to disable the automatic return from Remote Print mode. I’d start looking at main.api.js.

[Windell Oskay]

Have you been able to make any progress on this? (I do have a couple of other things that you might try, depending on how those things turned out.)

[Windell Oskay]

Thank you for the info– that all sounds sane. 

I had only meant to try restarting the computer. (Sometimes in Windows-land, that solves problems.)

If you are able to, please try temporarily disabling Malwarebytes before plugging in the EggBot. It may block access to the USB port. If it does turn out to be the issue, please check its settings, to see if you can allow USB port access.

If that does not help, I would suggest to try installing the previous version of the EggBot software (2.4.0). You can find it here: https://github.com/evil-mad/EggBot/releases/tag/v2.4.0

[Windell Oskay]

That’s no good! The error is spelled out in the last two lines there — it looks like there is some serious problem communicating over USB to the EggBot. (Something along the lines of “Open USB? File not found!”)

I have not seen this exact error before. I’ll see if I can find a solution. 

However, in the meantime you might try restarting, and I have a few questions for you: 

Do you have any unusual USB devices (other serial devices) or software (e.g., anti-malware) that could be preventing access to the USB port?

Can you please say which version of Windows you are using? 

And, did you run the EggBot installer version 2.5.0?

[Windell Oskay]

> Is the wbc drawing components dependant on inkscape? If so would it be scriptable to specify a svg to be drawn? 

The WaterColorBot driver for Inkscape is built as an Inkscape extension, and does rely upon Inkscape. So far as I know, Inkscape does not provide a scripting ability that can automatically call this extension.

However 

(1) It is only one of several available interfaces that can be used to control the WaterColorBot/AxiDraw/EggBot (or other machines based upon the EBB), and 

(2) The Inkscape extension is a plain-text python file, and the Inkscape features that it uses are almost exclusively to manage its GUI. If you wanted to, it should be reasonably straightforward to pick out the “good parts” and call them from a different context in a python script.

(3) It may be possible to use a macro-script to control Inkscape, even outside of its normal intended scripting ability. What would you actually need to automate? Two menu items, ultimately: File> Revert and Extensions > Previous Extension. Those two in combination with changing the contents of the SVG file programatically would be sufficient to do what you need.

Obviously, for RoboPaint and RoboPaint RT, Inkscape is not whatsoever involved.

> Does any of the other software have little/no dependancies on user input in their drawing components? 

I’m afraid that I don’t understand this question. Which other software, and what “drawing components” do you mean?

> Can I run any of your software through a terminal specifying a svg file either via terminal or code.

Yes. For example, by using RoboPaint’s API, which allows you to just send an SVG file to print.  

(See here: https://github.com/evil-mad/robopaint/blob/master/resources/api/API.md )

However, in many cases it is nicer to go through Inkscape, for example if you want to give it exact curves to trace, rather than an SVG to try and approximate. RoboPaint and the Inkscape extensions work very differently “under the hood.”  Since you’re programmatically generating the data, you might also want to skip the SVG stage altogether, and directly control the EBB through the CNCServer API built into RoboPaint– that allows direct “goto x,y” type control over the behavior of the robot.

[Windell Oskay]

Can you please clarify what your questions are?

The Axidraw is already a drawing bot, already automated, so it’s not clear what mean when you say that you are developing an automated drawing bot for it.

I don’t know what “peeling the note” means. 

You ask whether you have missed something that already has “this functionality”, but haven’t said what “this functionality” is. Can you please say what functionality it is that you feel is missing?

[Windell Oskay]

The only straightforward way to modify the duration is to use the DIP switches– that is what they are there for.  If you need two different delay times, you will likely need to either 

 (1) reprogram the microcontroller to add an additional, fixed delay time, 

 (2) use a second Art controller, with its DIP switches configured to give the other delay time, or 

 (3) provide an external signal or delay that halts or triggers the Art Controller at the appropriate times.

[Windell Oskay]

Yes, you can edit the extension itself to customize it for your use.  

I’d honestly suggest just messing with the parameters there, and try it over and over again until it does what you want. Each time you edit the code and save the file, you can just select Extensions>Previous Extension (and then undo) to try out its function. You don’t need to restart Inkscape in order for the changes to take effect, and the worst thing that can go wrong would be that you get an error message. Remember that as a python file, it is sensitive to invisible whitespaces.

I think that adjusting the scale parameters should be straightforward. I don’t know exactly how all the bend parameters work. One other thing you can do is save an SVG file with a single shape and a bend preset that you like. If you open that file with a text editor, you can see what parameters look good to you.

[Windell Oskay]

Yes; solder your components. :) 

You may want to read this great old article by Bob Pease, What’s All This “SMWISICDSI” Stuff, Anyhow?, that speaks to the question.

[Windell Oskay]

I’ve split off this discussion since it was not relevant to the one that it was attached to.

Try adjusting the speed of the clock to 8 MHz. The original makefile for the project uses a  “-U lfuse:w:0xE2:m” argument, which sets the internal clock to 8 MHz.  You do not need an external crystal. 

[Windell Oskay]

Please reply to the e-mail that we sent you earlier. You can add it as an attachment to your e-mail.

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