Result. The plotter drew a cat-face emoji from an SVG: 451 mm of line, with round eyes, a clean nose and whiskers. Then it moved the pen out of the way and lifted it so the sheet came straight out. Its screen followed the whole job, from the name and progress bar to "swap the pad".
What made this one better
| Before | Now |
|---|---|
| Small circles came out as rounded squares | Backlash compensation (X 0.9, Y 0.8 mm): the eyes are round |
| The first stroke was often dry | A small Hypnochip H in a free corner primes the pen (the little mark bottom right) |
| At the end the pen went back to the middle, over the drawing | The pen goes out to the side (X −44), lifts to the paper height, then the servo switches off |
| Changing paper meant opening the project | Unload / Load buttons on the Plotter page |
The screen
- The job has a name and a progress bar. The Plotter page tells the plotter what's coming (the drawing's name and how many moves) before it sends the first line. The bar fills amber while drawing and turns green at 100%. Under it: 451 mm drawn.
- Each drawing starts on a clean pad. The last drawing's lines are cleared first.
- PAPER badge and "SWAP THE PAD, THEN PAPER DONE" when it finishes. The position shows where the pen parked: the page is turned a quarter turn, so the machine's X −44 reads as y −44.5 on the page.
- The title is centred between the H logo and the badge.
Bugs found on the way
- The pen lifted in the middle of the last circle. The end-of-drawing moves were added to a nearly full queue and overwrote the circle's last moves. Now anything that adds moves waits for room for seven.
- The progress bar never showed at first. The screen decided the job had finished before its first move arrived. A job now counts as finished only after it has moved.
What I learned
- Small things add up. No single fix made this drawing. It took backlash, priming, the finish move and paper handling together.
- A screen that says what's happening saves walking back to the computer. Name, progress, and "swap the pad" are all I need to see at the machine.
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