RickMcConney
commented
2 years ago I am not sure what the issue is but you should not need to change the arduino code if it was working at 900. I also do not think it should be exceeding the size as I would expect a more discontinuous plot if this was the case. That leaves your suggestion of the stepper motors running at different step sizes although I would think this would also cause an issue at 900mm. It sounds more like it is a mechanical issue could the control lines be stretching or slipping at the longer lengths.
I am assuming here that you have moved your stepper motors apart to create a larger drawing surface and have increased the page size in the gui by dragging the control handle on the paper to match the new measured size of the plotter, or changed the machine.width in the default.properties.txt file.
Good luck
Previously I had the plotter set up at a machine width of 900mm and had no issues with plot distortion. Having increased to a plot width of 1400mm I am encountering significant distortion. If I start the machine at the home point and traverse in the X axis the gondola slowly drops in Y. This leads to my plots having a downward draping look. If I plot a square it comes out as a distorted rectangle (elongated in Y axis) and with curved sides. The problem also seems to be more severe on the left side of the centerline.
I have updated the Processing sketch for the new dimensions, I still have the stepsPerRev = 6400, and mmPerRev=80
I am measuring the Machine size as the distance between the outside of the geared pulleys
Do i need to change the Arduino firmware to accommodate the new machine size?
Is this possibly a stepper problem, such as one lead being short circuited resulting in one motor moving at a different micro step rate than the other?
Is this an issue with the machine size exceeding the maximum float values for processing?
as always, thank you for your help, and for compiling this code, Dillon McNamara