RAMPS v1.4 based pen plotter

I am planning to make a pen plotter. I will be using a RAMPS board to make things easier. It will have an hbot / corexy x/y gantry, so I believe I need to use the Marlin firmware.

My question is what would be the easiest way to implement the 'z' axis to actuate the pen. I want it to be fast so I plan on using a solenoid rather than a stepper.

What is the best way to connect the solenoid to the RAMPS board, and what is the best way to modify the firmware (or maybe the gcode?) to change the state of the pen?

There are quite a few pen holder designs for pen plotters on Thingiverse. See things tagged with pen plotter.

Most of the actuated designs appear to use RC servos, and there are unused servo outputs on a RAMPS 1.4 board, so you could just use one of those.

If you really want a solenoid, you could run it off one of the extruder heater outputs.

As far as how to modify the firmware, there are zillion options and what you do really is a matter of personal style more than anything. I guess if I were doing it I would define two new M-codes, one for "pen up" and one for "pen down".

You also might like this link: having some fun on pen plotter i created on my reprap which uses a stepper to lift the pen, standard Marlin firmware, and (if I understand correctly) custom generated gcode.

I have one idea that uses the filament and bowded tube, so the E position effectively controls the pen plotter.. Still have to try it. I take too long on shit, am unreliable..

I do have this design, in the .scad there are `..._add` and `..._sub` thingies in there and the principle is that if you have some object(like a carriage) and add and then substract this in a way that is usable, you have this thing on it. (And then you also need to pen holding slider of course) I think that is what it actually does.

Note that an M5 nut can be screwed onto 5mm outer pfte tubes to hold it.(presumably the larger pfte tubes can use correspondingly larger nuts) Thats what that design uses.

Of course this applies more with people already having a 3d printer with the bowden.

Repetier also has corexy and hbot configurations.

Sorry to revive this old thread, but there was a related question in this new thread and it seemed best to post a response over here and a reference link in the newer thread.

There is some very useful information in this blog post about converting images to gcode using different methods. The blog author also provides three different versions of cad.py, each of which outputs g-code in a slightly different format. For a 2-axis XY plotter, it looks like the best version would be:

Quote

(Cad.py) Plotting with solenoid or laser.py For use with a 2 axis bot where the pen is lifted off the page by an action such as a solenoid... Use fan port for solenoid as it is switched on off with gcode M106 and M107.

This option would be much cleaner than what I suggested in my earlier post up above (from Dec 27 2013) because it uses established g-codes (M106 & M107) and does not require modifications to firmware. According to the RAMPS 1.4 page, Marlin firmware defines FAN_PIN as 9. So to use a solenoid pen lifter with M106/M107 the solenoid would be hooked up to the connector marked D09 on the RAMPS board. I have not actually verified this, so there may be other things that need to be configured properly, but at least I hope this helps anyone who is interested.