Control WaterColorBot

Overview

This article is about "Control WaterColorBot," the most important of the WaterColorBot extensions for Inkscape. This is the tool to use when you are ready to "print" your drawing, assuming that you wish to do so from within Inkscape. It is your painting "control panel". In addition to painting, you will also use it to adjust settings for your WaterColorBot. For example, to control how high to raise or lower the brush.

The Control WaterColorBot extension has a number of tabs, each of which is described in its own section below. When opening the extension the first time after launching Inkscape, the selected tab will always be the "Paint" tab. However, during a working session, Inkscape remembers which tab you last selected and will automatically select that tab upon re-opening the extension.

Values which you specify in the various tabs and set with the "Apply" button will be saved by Inkscape along with your other Inkscape preference settings. You do not need to set these values each and every time you run Inkscape.

Paint

The function of this tab is straightforward: send your Inkscape drawing to your WaterColorBot. Once you've adjusted the Inkscape control values with the other tabs, you will mostly use this tab and the "Setup" tab in order to set up the robot and paint your drawings.

Simply click the "Apply" button, and plotting will begin (assuming, of course, that your WaterColorBot is powered, connected via USB to your computer, and that the carriage is already in the upper-left START corner). If you wish to close the extension, click the "Close" button. To select another tab, click on the desired tab.

Painting with Automatic Paint Color Changes

To paint with multiple colors, and have Inkscape automatically change the paint color as it goes, you need to do three things:

• Prepare a file with named layers that represent the colors that you want to print with (see here for how to do so).
• Select a painting mode in the "Modes" tab that has "AutoChange" enabled (e.g., Watercolor, Tempera, or manual with AutoChange selected),
• Start your painting by clicking "Apply" with the "Paint" tab selected

Painting without Color Changes

To turn off automatic paint color changes, make sure that none of the "AutoChange" modes (e.g., Watercolor, Tempera, or manual with AutoChange selected) is enabled in the "Modes" tab.

Then, start your painting by clicking "Apply" with the "Paint" tab selected. All paths, in every layer of your drawing will be plotted, regardless of which layer(s) they appear upon.

Painting with Manual Paint Color Changes

For use with media that require manual paint color changes-- for example colored pencils or permanent markers -- do not use the "Paint" tab. Instead, use the "Layers" tab. (And, make sure to select a painting mode in the "Modes" tab that does not have "AutoChange" enabled.

Setup

The setup tab is used to configure the three vertical setpoints: UP (brush raised), PAINT (Brush down for painting), and WASH (Brush down, further yet, for cleaning).

The action when you click "Apply" is determined by your choice of the "radio" buttons below:

• Raise brush and turn off motors to manually move the carriage to the upper left corner prior to painting.
• Toggle between UP and PAINT to test those two endpoints.
• Toggle between UP and WASH to test those two endpoints.

Timing

The Timing tab lets you adjust various timing parameters that control the WaterColorBot.

Options

The Options tab lets you adjust options about WaterColorBot behavior. Most importantly, you can set the distance (in inches) after which the WaterColorBot will go to get more ink, when configured in a mode that does re-ink the brush.

Mode

The "Mode" tab allows you to select the painting behavior of the WaterColorBot.

There are six presets for different behaviors plus a manual mode that allows custom configuration.

WaterColor

In WaterColor mode, the robot will automatically change between paint colors, washing the brush in water between each. It will also periodically dip the brush in water and then into paint, to prevent the brush from going dry.

A.) Initial Sequence:

1. Begin by washing the brush in water

2. Swirl brush in chosen paint

3. Begin painting first color

B.) Periodic re-inking cycle:

1. Dip brush in water (top dish)

2. Dip brush in same paint

3. Continue painting

C.) Color change sequence:

1. Wash brush

2. Swirl in (next) chosen paint

3. Begin painting next color

(This behavior can also be generated in Manual mode by selecting AutoChange, Pre-Dip, and Re-Ink.)

(This behavior can also be generated in Manual mode by selecting AutoChange, Re-Ink, and Pre-Dip.)

WaterColor + Post-Dip

In WaterColor + Post-Dip mode, the robot behaves the same as it does in WaterColor mode, except that it also dips the brush in water after acquiring paint.

A.) Initial Sequence:

1. Begin by washing the brush in water

2. Swirl brush in chosen paint

3. Dip brush in water (top dish)

4. Begin painting first color

B.) Periodic re-inking cycle:

1. Dip brush in water (top dish)

2. Dip brush in same paint

3. Dip brush in water (top dish)

4. Continue painting

C.) Color change sequence:

1. Wash brush

2. Swirl in (next) chosen paint

3. Dip brush in water (top dish)

4. Begin painting next color

(This behavior can also be generated in Manual mode by selecting AutoChange, Re-Ink, Pre-Dip, and Post-Dip.)

Tempera

For use with water-washable paints, including goaches and tempera. Or, with liquid watercolors or dip-pens printing in water-soluble inks. In Tempera mode, the robot will automatically change between paint colors, washing the brush in water between each. It will also periodically dip the brush in paint (without any water-dip step), to prevent the brush from running out of ink.

A.) Initial Sequence:

1. Begin by washing the brush in water

2. Swirl brush in chosen paint

3. Begin painting first color

B.) Periodic re-inking cycle:

1. Dip brush in same paint

2. Continue painting

C.) Color change sequence:

1. Wash brush

2. Swirl in (next) chosen paint

3. Begin painting next color

(This behavior can also be generated in Manual mode by selecting AutoChange and Re-Ink)

WaterColor Pencil (water-dip only)

In "WaterColor Pencil" mode, the brush is "re-inked" with water only. It can be used for drawing with Watercolor pencils or a "Buddha board" type drawing surface that darkens when painted with water alone. No paint will be used. There is no brush-cleaning step, nor any ability to automatically change between colors. The pencil (or brush) will occasionally be dipped in water (alone) to keep the tip wet.

A.) Initial Sequence:

1. Begin by dipping the pencil/brush in water

2. Begin painting

B.) Periodic re-inking cycle:

1. Dip brush in water (top dish)

2. Continue painting

C.) Color change sequence: None

There is no automatic color changing sequence. To create multiple-color drawings with WaterColor pencils, use the "Layers" feature to print a single layer at a time, and change pencils between printing individual layers. If you print from the "Paint" (leftmost) tab, all layers will be drawn.

(This behavior can also be generated in Manual mode by selecting Re-Ink and Re-Ink w/ Water)

Dip Pen (Re-Ink only)

A dip pen, for example a glass-tip pen, can be used as well. In this mode, no paint will be used, and there is no brush-cleaning step, nor any ability to automatically change between colors. The pencil (or brush) will occasionally be dipped in paint (alone) to keep the tip wet. No water will be used. The ink is assumed to be located in the top paint well.

A.) Initial Sequence:

1. Begin by dipping the pencil/brush in ink (top paint well)

2. Begin painting

B.) Periodic re-inking cycle:

1. Dip brush in ink (top paint well)

2. Continue painting

C.) Color change sequence: None

There is no automatic color changing sequence. To create multiple-color drawings with dip pens, use the "Layers" feature to print a single layer at a time, and change inks between printing individual layers. If you print from the "Paint" (leftmost) tab, all layers will be drawn. NOTE: If you are using water-soluble inks that can automatically be changed between, you may prefer to print in the Tempera mode, which performs automatic washing and color changes, without extra water dips.

(This behavior can also be generated in Manual mode by selecting only Re-Ink.)

Pen/Pencil (No ink, no water)

This mode is for drawing with a "regular" pen or pencil that does not need any kind of re-inking sequence. There are no color changes, and no dipping in water or paint.

A.) Initial Sequence:

1. Begin drawing

B.) Periodic re-inking cycle: None

C.) Color change sequence: None

If you print from the "Paint" (leftmost) tab, all layers will be drawn. To create multiple-color drawings with pens or pencils, use the "Layers" feature to print a single layer at a time, and change drawing implements between printing individual layers.

Manual Mode Config

If the manual option is selected, you can set up the WaterColorBot for other, unanticipated behavior types.

The options available in Manual Config are:

• [AutoChange] between colors w/ water wash
• [Re-Ink] brush after given distance
• [Pre-Dip] brush in water before re-inking
• [Post-Dip] brush in water after re-inking
• [Re-Ink w/ Water] instead of paint

Manual

The "Manual" tab is so named as it allows you to manually send select, basic commands to the WaterColorBot. Most of these commands are intended to aid in fine tuning your WaterColorBot setup, or to allow you to perform operations that are not otherwise automatically supported.

The actual commands available to select from the pop-up menu are as follows. To execute a given command, select it from the pop-up menu and click "Apply."

• Raise the brush: This command raises the brush to the UP position.
• Lower the brush: This command raises the brush to the "down" position-- normally defined as the PAINT position. (The WASH position is only used when actually washing the brush.)
• Walk Motor 1 (X): This command will cause the carriage to move in the X (horizontal) direction by some number of inches, given by the value of the "Walk distance in inches" field. A positive value (Say, 3 inches) will cause the carriage to move to the right, i.e., away from the START corner. A negative value (Say, -4 inches) will cause the carriage to move to the left. See important note below about walking the motors.
• Walk Motor 2 (Y): This command will cause the carriage to move in the Y (vertical) direction by some number of inches, given by the value of the "Walk distance in inches" field. A positive value (Say, 3 inches) will cause the carriage to move "downwards" towards the front of the WaterColortBot, away from the START corner. A negative value (Say, -4 inches) will cause the carriage to back towards the START corner. See important note below about walking the motors.
• Enable Motors: This command energizes (locks in place) the stepper motors, in case they had (a) not yet been turned on, or (b) you had disabled them either with the "Disable Motors" command or with the "Raise brush, turn off motors" command in the setup tab.
• Disable Motors: This command de-energizes (unlocks in place) the stepper motors, so that you can move the carriage by hand.
• Wash Brush (from home corner): This command executes the full brush-washing cycle, assuming that the brush began in the home (START) corner. See important note below.
• Check EBB Version: This command queries the EBB for its version number.
• Strip WCB data from file: This is an "advanced" command that removes WaterColorBot position data from your SVG file. (This may come in handy, in some obscure but important sets of circumstances.)

Important note about walking the motors: Motor walking is a manual command, and assumes that you know what you're doing. You can walk the motors with either the brush in the up or down position. The motion is strictly relative to the starting point-- and no limit checking is performed. It can walk the carriage right into the wall, if you're not careful.

Important note about Wash Brush: Only execute this command if the carriage is actually located the home (START) corner.

Resume

The Resume feature allows you to resume a plot that was paused by pressing the "PRG" button while painting. There are two options, to either resume from where it was paused, or to simply return the carriage to the home corner. If you use this tab to return the carriage to the home corner, you can resume painting from that location as well.

The Resume feature makes an assumption that you should be aware of: That the last-known position of the carriage is accurate. When you pause a plot, Control WaterColorBot saves the following information in your SVG file:

• The most recent physical location of the WaterColorBot carriage
• The "segment number" in the painting where you paused
• The physical location in your painting where you paused

Layers

By default, from the "Paint" tab, the Control WaterColorBot extension will plot your entire drawing.

However, if you divide your drawing into separate Inkscape layers, you can then plot each layer or groups of layers in distinct plotting runs. To take advantage of this, create one or more layers in Inkscape and assign them names that begin with integers. The integer can be in the range from 0 - 100, and that integer can be followed by a description.

For example, if you create four layers with the names:

2 - Red swirls

2 - Red zig zags

5 - Green circles

62 - Rectangles

Then you can plot the two red layers by specifying "2" in the "Plot only layers beginning with" field, or the one "green" layer by specifying "5" in that field. Click the "Apply" button each time to begin plotting of the selected layers.

This makes it easy to plot drawings with multiple colors by separating each color into its own layer, especially in cases where you are using colored pens or pencils that you need to switch out by hand.

Using Layers with automatic paint coloring

The Layers feature can be used to plot individual colored layers, even when using the automatic paint color changing features, for layers that begin with a number in the range of 0 through 8.

To do so, make sure that you are using one of the "AutoChange" modes (e.g., Watercolor, Tempera, or manual with AutoChange selected) in the "Modes" tab. Then, if you have selected to plot layers that begin with an integer in the range 0-8, the WaterColorBot will go and get the right color of paint when painting layers that begin with that number.

The numbers correspond to the position of paint pans, with 1 representing the top color (normally black) and 8 representing the bottom color, normally brown. A layer that begins with integer 0 will be painted with a wet, uncolored brush, to give a water wash. A layer with a name that begins with 2 will be painted with the second color from the top, normally red.

Note that if you are using any of the "AutoChange" modes, then any layers that are not in the range 0 through 8 will be ignored.

Using Layers with manual tool changes

Make sure that you are not using any of the "AutoChange" modes (e.g., Watercolor, Tempera, or manual with AutoChange selected) in the "Modes" tab.

In the example above, you can plot the two red layers with a red pen by specifying "2" in the "Plot only layers beginning with" field. You can then change the pen to green and plot the green layer by specifying "2" in that field. Click the "Apply" button each time to begin plotting of the selected layers.

Any numbered layer (0 - 100) can be plotted in this way.

The "*" Tab

This final tab is the Control WaterColorBot's "About" page and shows the version of the extension which you currently have installed. Also, it lists any known requirements, limitations or problems with the extension.

Known issues

While the Control WaterColorBot extension is running, Inkscape will present to you an option to "cancel" that does not actually work; the "cancel" button does nothing. (This is a known bug in Inkscape and fixing it is unfortunately outside the scope of WaterColorBot software.)

To pause a plot in progress, press the "PRG" button on the EBB. This will stop the plot after the end of the current segment. The plot can be resumed by using the "Resume" tab, described above.

Troubleshooting

If Control WaterColorBot cannot connect to the WaterColorBot for any reason (which most commonly turns out to be a disconnected USB cable) you will get the message "I couldn't find the WaterColorBot. :("

If you get this message (and everything appears to be plugged in correctly), always try clicking "Apply" again at least once; the first attempt to connect in any given session is most prone to failure.

For additional hints, please see our troubleshooting page.

If you need additional assistance, please request technical support in our forums.

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