Pen Plotter Spring Loaded Z-Axis

[coopermor]

I have a Bachin T-A4 pen plotter. The Z Axis is spring loaded so turning the servo motor engages the pen with the paper, letting the motor free spool will return the pen to Z=0. I'm not sure if this is unsupported in GRBL-Plotter or if I just don't know how to configure it. I have included serial logs of sending the same SVG using both GRBL-Plotter and Bachin Draw. GRBL-Draw will properly command the XY axes but the pen does not engage the paper.

The Bachin Draw software uses

$1=254
G0 Z0 F500

as the pen up command and

$1=255
G0 Z9 F500

as the pen down command. I changed the custom buttons to this but I have to click twice as I get error:20 Unsupported or invalid g-code command found in block. due to the GRBL command in the custom button GCode.

If you can provide any advice on how to use my spring loaded Z-axis with GRBL-Plotter I would really appreciate it. GRBL-Plotter.txt BachinDraw.txt

[svenhb]

How did you set the commands? It is working with my controller, without error message: Set command either in setup, seperated by ";":

Or in seperate lines using right-click menu on button:

[svenhb]

Your BachinDraw.txt shows:

• on program start you need $1=255;$32=0; (set this in the "G-Code Header")
• on program end you need a $1=250; (set this in the "G-Code Footer")
• as pen-up you need G1Z1F5000; set this as "Invidual command"
• also pen-down G1Z9F5000

[coopermor]

Thanks this is working great.