Pen plotters

From XPUB & Lens-Based wiki

HPGL

Hewlett-Packard Graphics Language 

IN;IP0,0,4000,4000;SC0,100,0,100;
SP1;
PA0,0;
PD;
PA100,0;
PA100,100;
PA0,100;
PA0,0;
PU;

Plotters at XPUB

HP DraftPro DXL/EXL user manual (10.4MB PDF)
HP DraftPro DXL, promotion photo (1988), found in the HP Museum: http://www.hpmuseum.net/display_item.php?hw=393

HP DraftPro EXL

A0+ pen plotter.

Currently borrowed from Varia. It was a gift from Gijs (OSP).

http://hpmuseum.net/display_item.php?hw=393

http://www.hpmuseum.net/document.php?hwfile=3232 (user manual) http://www.hpmuseum.net/collection_document.php (list of HP museum user manuals, in case the download link above does not work)

HP DraftPro EXL demo plot: press P1 + P2 simultaneously (the buttons with a small 1 and 2)

It speaks: HPGL (HP graphics language)

HP 7475A

A4/A3 plotter

https://www.hpmuseum.net/display_item.php?hw=74

https://archive.org/details/HP7475AInterfacingandProgrammingManual

demo plot: hold down the P1 + P2 keys and turn on the power

HP ColorPro

A4 plotter

http://hpmuseum.net/display_item.php?hw=80

HP 7440A

A4 plotter

Hp 7440A advertisement image
☐ mod: cutout plastic to use regular pens
☑ check if it works with 230V 
> yes, it works with 230v, but it needs a special power supply (0v - 10v - 20v) - info in the hp museum

TAXAN X-Y KPL710

BBC Metrawatt SE-283

CLI

Most plotters connect to this socket on a Linux machine: 

/dev/ttyUSB0

Add your user to the dialout group first: 

$ useradd USERNAME dialout

Then configure how your computer and the plotter communicate, these settings should work with most plotters: 

$ stty 9600 parodd parenb ixon ixoff -F /dev/ttyUSB0

Then send a file with cat: 

$ cat myfile.hpgl > /dev/ttyUSB0


Chiplotle

Chiplotle is an HPGL plotter driver that implements and extends the HPGL (Hewlett-Packard Graphics Language) plotter control language. It provides direct control of your HPGL-aware hardware via a standard usb<->serial port interface. Chiplotle is also a general purpose vector drawing library with functions for creating and transforming shapes, which can then be sent directly to your HPGL plotter for printing.

Chiplotle is written and maintained by Víctor Adán and Douglas Repetto.


Use

Connect to plotter to computer with usb.

Start the plotter.

Wait! until the plotter is fully running.

Activate the venv you made.

In Linux: 

$ source FOLDERNAME/bin/activate

In Windows (using Powershell): 

$ FOLDERNAME\Scripts\Activate.ps1

Now you can start chiplotle: 

$ chiplotle3

It should automatically detect the plotter...

If it doesn't, you can try to turn the plotter on and off, or load paper.

Once the plotter is detected, you can send a HPGL file to plotter: 

plotter.write_file('FILENAME.hpgl')

When you're done, close chiplotle with: 

exit()

Install

Install pip, venv

First install pip and the virtual environment python module, if you don't have them yet.

On Linux: 

$ sudo apt install python3-pip
$ sudo apt install python3-venv

On Mac and Windows:

follow the instructions at https://www.python.org/.

Make a virtual environment

On Linux and Mac: 

$ python3 -m venv FOLDERNAME

For example: 

$ python3 -m venv plotter-venv

On Windows: 

py -m venv FOLDERNAME

For example: 

$ py -m venv plotter-venv

Activate the virtual environment

On Linux and Mac: 

$ source FOLDERNAME/bin/activate

On Windows (using Powershell): 

FOLDERNAME\Scripts\Activate.ps1

You can exit again by writing deactivate.

Install Chiplotle

Install Chiplotle inside this virtual environment (the Python library to speak HPGL to the plotter): 

$ pip install Chiplotle3

Run Chiplotle

See #Use.

Errors

Windows: Script Execution Policy

See: https://www.makeuseof.com/enable-script-execution-policy-windows-powershell/

Mac: ImportError: module not found "imp"

?

Windows: "port" not found (?)

File "C:\Users\aless\OneDrive\Desktop\PENPLOTTER_venv\lib\site-packages\serial\serialutil.py", line 268, in port
   raise ValueError('"port" must be None or a string, not {}'.format(type(port)))
ValueError: "port" must be None or a string, not <class 'int'>

Alessia and Manetta spend an hour on this error on Nov 13th 2023, but did not figure it out. There is little documentation on using Chiplotle on Windows unfortunately. A next step could be do open serialutil.py to see if the error can be resolved directly there.

It's the next day now, we looked into this again and solved it!

First, edit your Chiplotle config file, which is stored in your home folder, which you can edit on Linux/Mac with: 

$ nano ~/.chiplotle/config.py

or on Windows: 

> notepad C:\Users\USERNAME\.chiplotle\config.py

Change this line: 

serial_port_to_plotter_map = None

into: 

serial_port_to_plotter_map = {'COM4' : 'HP7475A'}

or use another plotter model number.

Secondly, you need to also edit a Python script within the Chiplotle library, which you can open on Linux/Mac with: 

$ nano PATH-TO-YOUR-VENV/chiplotle3/src/chiplotle3/plotters/baseplotter.py

or on Windows: 

> notepad PATH-TO-YOUR-VENV\chiplotle3\src\chiplotle3\plotters\baseplotter.py

Then edit the following on line 196: 

@property
def _buffer_space(self):
    self._serial_port.flushInput()
    self._serial_port.write(self._hpgl.B().format.encode())
    bs = self._read_port()
    return int(bs)

and just change the last line: 

@property
def _buffer_space(self):
    self._serial_port.flushInput()
    self._serial_port.write(self._hpgl.B().format.encode())
    bs = self._read_port()
    return int(128)

Now Chiplotle should work.

Raspberry Pi

Numpy error: 

libopenblas.so.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

Install the missing library: 

$ sudo apt install libopenblas-dev

Debian / Ubuntu / Raspbian: "Chiplotle3" command not found

After running chiplotle after intalling it through pip3 install chiplotle3, you might be prompted with an error that the command is not found. This might be caused due to a PATH problem. pip installs into ~/.local/bin, which is not part of the default PATH on Debain based operating systems.

Check your path: 

> echo $PATH

Add to path: 

> nano /.bashrc
 
[scroll to the bottom and add the line:]
export PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH"

restart your shell


Inkscape

Example settings of a A3 landscape .hpgl file.

The plot function is under: export > plot

Error: pySerial is not installed.

Please follow these steps:

  1. Download and extract (unzip) this file to your local harddisk: https://pypi.python.org/packages/source/p/pyserial/pyserial-2.7.tar.gz
  2. Copy the "serial" folder (Can be found inside the just extracted folder) into the following Inkscape folder: /usr/????????
  3. Close and restart Inkscape

Make a vector file in Inkscape.

Save it as a HPGL file. See the image on the right for the settings.

For example: A3 landscape

Tip (!): landscape file = portrait plot. Make a landscape document, it plots in portrait orientation on the plotter (weird, but works)

Rasterize

Color Separation

This ColorSeparation tool from OSP: http://osp.kitchen/tools/pdfutils/ 

$ sh ColorSeparation FILENAME

Creates: 

.
├── gunta-stoelzl-study-cmyk-page001(Black).jpg
├── gunta-stoelzl-study-cmyk-page001(Cyan).jpg
├── gunta-stoelzl-study-cmyk-page001(Magenta).jpg
└── gunta-stoelzl-study-cmyk-page001(Yellow).jpg

GIMP 

filters > distorts > newsprint

spotfunction: lines
oversample: 1
cell size: 5

Inkscape

Bitmap tracing time!

However, it would be great to have a trace that does not create outlines of the lines, but renders them as single lines ... (also to speed up the final penplot!).

For this there must be an extention: center trace.

... But where?

Ah! install Inkscape 1.0 (or higher)! It comes with the newer version :).

(removed my inkscape and installed from backports!) 

sudo apt remove inkscape

sudo apt -t buster-backports install "inkscape"

Pens

HP Fiber Tip Plotter Pens S Style Pens:

3d printable adapters for pens:

this pen plotter is (not) made to die

30 + 31 Oct 2023

Joak: On Monday (30/10/2023) and Tuesday (31/10/2023) I will be helping to repair the pen plotters between 5:15pm and 7:30pm. You have probably seen all the different (broken) pen plotters in the XML or Studio, these come from WDKA and other places. Most of them need probably just a small fix, some have a complex problem. These two evenings are just a start. I think by the end of this term 3/4 of the pen plotters should be working again.

If you are interested, just pass by. No previous knowledge of electronics, programming or pen plotters are required. These repair evenings are intended as an introduction to these topics. Everyone is welcome. Modus operandi: You will get an pen plotter on your table and step by step you will repair it over the next weeks or you will even modify it and do some imaginary (but still real) drawing tool/device.

Location: aquarium or studio

The plan is to do in the second trimester the same with (electronic) typewriters and in the third trimester with dot-matrix-printer!

6 + 7 Nov

13 + 14 November

...

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