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Author Topic: No dark pixels on drawings
mbcook
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Posts: 11
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Post No dark pixels on drawings
on: August 8, 2012, 19:40
Quote

OK, I've managed to do something, but I don't know what. I thought it might be an issue with the recent firmware changes, but going back to the first firmware I used (late July) has the same issue.

One of my first drawings was a picture of a Honeytone amp. You can see the result (http://www.flickr.com/photos/foobarsoft/7687681420) and a closeup of the corner (http://www.flickr.com/photos/foobarsoft/7687681838) on Flickr.

Well, now the drawings don't look like that. I tried to redraw that image, and I've attached what the corner looks like now. I tried another large drawing with the same kind of result. The dark pixels just aren't being filled.

I tried to sample all the drawing methods (the gameboy pictures on my Flickr account), but I'm starting to wonder if they suffer the same issue.

The pen width is 1mm (which is what I calibrated it to be). The detail is cranked as high as I can get it. Here's the top of the code that was running:

C02,1.0,END
C31,600.0,END
C32,400.0,END
C09,1194,1194,END
C17,836,1772,2,END
C17,1752,849,2,END
C17,2460,1925,2,END
C17,1919,2474,2,END
C17,836,1772,2,END
C08,2,2,END
C01,1730,860,END
C13,END
C05,1740,860,20,255,END
C08,2,4,END
C05,1760,880,20,255,END
C05,1740,880,20,255,END
C05,1720,880,20,255,END

It sets everything, marks it's self as home, jogs around the drawing (so I can be sure it's all on the paper), the does it's thing. Later in the file there are pixels that should be quite dark, ex:

C05,1560,1100,20,23,END
C05,1580,1100,20,3,END
C05,1600,1100,20,25,END
C05,1620,1100,20,58,END
C05,1640,1100,20,12,END
C05,1660,1100,20,7,END
C05,1680,1100,20,82,END
C05,1700,1100,20,242,END

The preview in the Polargraph software shows things nice and dark.

At this point, I'm very confused.
Image
mbcook
Newbie
Posts: 11
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Post Re: No dark pixels on drawings
on: August 8, 2012, 19:41
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Note: That picture is supposed to be rotated 90 degrees clockwise.

kongorilla
Pro
Posts: 362
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kongorilla
Post Re: No dark pixels on drawings
on: August 8, 2012, 21:23
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1mm pen width is too wide. Perhaps it should be .1? (That's probably too thin, but closer to what you need). Calibrate again and keep a close watch on the decimal point.
sandy
Administrator
Posts: 1317
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sandy
Post Re: No dark pixels on drawings
on: August 8, 2012, 23:23
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Hey up, that's no good eh, but I think Kong is probably right about it being a pen width thing. The darkest bits on your new drawing is the same pixels as the darkest bits on the first drawing, its just the whole thing has had its dynamic range compressed terrifically - I can only see four different levels of density expressed.

(lt's also true that making the pixels very small does cause this compression to a greater or lesser degree, regardless of pen size.)

1mm is pretty big for such small pixels, and it's clear from the drawing that it's not the real size of the pen, I'd have said 0.3ish.

It could be an issue with the pen width test that it's mangling the numbers somehow. To be honest, I wouldn't be at all surprised, this refactoring started off being surprisingly straightforward and I've been bitten on the bum at every turn by not testing it very well and assuming the best. It's a shame that the functional testing for this code takes six days to draw 🙂

If you are able to play with it, you could start the drawing, and then use the touchscreen controls to change the pen width on-the-fly. It'll only make a difference at the beginning of each pixel, but might be a way to see what the real setting of the penwidth is, if it isn't the same as you instruct it to be.

Do you have a pic of the pen width test output and the command that inspired? I would have a test here, but my machine is currently doing a big norwegian drawing. And has been doing for the last 50 hours. After the first day I thought I might as well let it finish. The upside of that is it has revealed some oddities that I hope only crop up on very long / norwegian pixel prints. Will make a post about it when this finally finishes in the year 2014.

sn
mbcook
Newbie
Posts: 11
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Post Re: No dark pixels on drawings
on: August 8, 2012, 23:28
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It looks like that was it. I must have accidentally moved that decimal at some point when I was adjusting my profile.
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