I got a XY Plotter and I have been trying to make it draw as per the layout on a A4 sheet and it never draws in the desired location. Not sure what I am doing wrong here. How does one know what should be the right settings for Width and Height in the settings (image attached)? And how can I position my drawing with numerical input in the drawing area (image attached)?
XY Plotter draws at random position
sunil
#3
It is one of the problems, but my main problem is even more basic. I have an A4 Paper and I want to have my drawing framed in the centre of the sheet.
I have been aligning the centre of the paper to the centre of the metal frame, assuming that the resulting drawing would be in the centre of the paper. But strangely the resulting drawings are never in the centre, sometimes they are not even on the paper as plotter would be drawing outside of the paper area but within the metal frame of course.
And the second problem I face is with the software. Im using mDraw on macbook, not sure if there are other better softwares for mac. Im unable to move the A (a,b) numerically, and it is never precise by positioning with the mouse. Is there a way to do this? And are there advanced tools that can help align drawings precisely?
Also, how do I know the exact working area (canvas area) dimensions of the plotter? currently Im using with the default dimensions that came with the mDraw. Perhaps if I know the origin, xy-plotter working area and the paper dimensions and if I have the ability to position the drawing A(a,b) precisely then it should be easier to have the drawings as desired.
tech_support
#4
We can set width and height to similar size as A4 paper 210/300mm, then open a file to drag to the center. We cannot get exact position of A point, we have to move mouse several times until it gets to the position that you need like A(35,100), now you can drag the picture you loaded again, make sure it is in the center of pager.
If the file is 100*150mm, according to calculation, the picture left corner coordinate should be (55,75), then in the right corner of mDraw, we can input Gcode command G0 X55 Y75 F200, and click on send. So we can find A position easily.
By the way, A4 paper should be align at home position.
sunil
#5
Unfortunately, something seems off, when I input the position manually till 310 and 390, the wires dont seem to have enough length to travel all the way to the corners and starts to jam. Not sure if the wiring i have done is correct although I followed your instructions precisely. And it never worked on A4 paper 
it always starts at some random position and the drawing is either off from centre or sometimes nothing on paper.
tech_support
#6
Hi Sunil,
310380 is the limitation.
A4 paper size: 210297, smaller than XY supports. I did send you a picture via email. Please check it.
sunil
#7
Thanks for the detailed response. My previous mac is crashed and I moved to a new macbook, but I’m now unable to see the COM ports in the Mdraw. I tried installing the USD drivers from Makeblock_Orion_Driver_for_MacOSX and still no luck.
I am running the tool on the same OS as my previous mac - macOS High Sierra. Im not sure what wrong now.
sunil
#8
I managed to run the mDraw on the new macbook. With the calculations provided, Im able to get the drawing as per the visual position on screen. While half the issue got resolved, but however, I’m unable to change = the drawing’s/svg position A(x,y) even after updating the numbers on the top right extruder position values of X, Y. I also tried to send the command get position (45, 78.5) through the command input option on the bottom right corner with a send button.
not sure what is wrong now.
tech_support
#9
Well, input number in the up right corner, and press enter, will it move to the position?
If it still have issue, can we offer remote control of your computer? We can use skype for video call and teamviewer for remote control. And we work from 9:00 am to 6:30 pm, China time, Monday to Friday.
system
#10
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