Restarting a Stalled DrawBot Drawing

Over the last two days or so I’ve drawn the largest picture yet with my DrawBot.  I started it on Friday night and, with numerous pauses and other misadventures, finished it this morning.  The drawing is roughly 12″ x 18″ or so. ¹  With no apparent rhyme or reason the drawing would pause numerous times.  I would estimate about 25 or so.  Also, the pen had a difficult time towards the end.  I believe this was in part due to the angle of the pen on the drawing surface and the quantity of the ink left.  As of this morning I was still using version 1.1.2, but I’m installing version 1.1.4 right now. ²

Here are some additional thoughts:

• In an earlier post I had mentioned I was having stalling problems while drawing.  Sandy asked whether I was able to change serial ports to a different one and back again.  The answer is “sort of.”
• When there’s a stall, here’s what I do:
1. Click “SETUP->SERIAL PORT…“
2. Click on some other serial port other than the one I’ve been using
3. Disconnect and then immediately reconnect the USB cable from the computer
4. Click on the original serial port I had been using
5. As soon as the Drawbot reestablishes a connection with the Polargraph controller software, it starts drawing right where it left off
• I used to export a copy of the existing queue before doing all of this, and while it is still a very good idea, it doesn’t seem necessary.
• This exact process has worked several times in a row without a problem.  Interestingly, step number 3 above³ is critical.  If I exclude this step the program crashes.
• For this drawing I used a Pilot Precise Rolling Ball V5, extra fine tip, black.  I had used a red pen of the same make for a prior drawing and it worked reasonably well.
• I’m in the process of designing a new pen gondola.  I think something that can angle the pen downwards would help the pen apply ink to the page.
• Interestingly, I noticed after about 80% of the drawing was done the pen had a little bit of paper fuzz on it.  Once I removed this, the pen seemed to work a lot better.
• The pen stopped drawing completely after about 85% of the drawing over all.  This was a bit disappointing.  However, since I was drawing from the top right to the bottom left and the version of the Polargraph controller I was using allows you to specify which area to start from, I just restarted the same drawing from the bottom right corner and ended up with a very satisfactory result.

In other words, it’s a nice day to start again.

1. I rolled it up and gave it to a friend before I thought to take a photogram [↩]
2. One of Sandy’s latest posts suggests there’s a 1.1.5 available, but I couldn’t find it. [↩]
3. The disconnect and reconnection of the USB cable from the computer [↩]