Pen plotter image printer mk3

Here is a comprehensive tutorial how i did it.. no need for gcode generator tool or inkscape or drawbot. just do it in your own slicer.

First  your (my)   ingredients:


Stabilico fineliners (0.4)

Printed parts :

Parts from https://www.printables.com/model/63385-pen-plotter-attachment-for-prusa-mk3s
you only need 4 parts for the stabilico pens .

The e-block holder
Threaded.stl
Collet.stl  and the calibrator.stl...very handy.


For Prusa slicer  the ini files.   or for other printers read the ini. You can find all the settings to repreduce it in your prefered slicer.


filament folder : pen color 1.ini  (copy as much of pens you want or need  "pen color 2.ini ..etc)
printer folder : My Plotter multicolor.stabilo.fineliner.ini
print folder : My Plotter print settings.ini

In Linux (flatpak) the expected folder is in /home/$user/.var/app/com.prusa3d.PrusaSlicer/config/PrusaSlicer/

and last but not least 

Pythonscript APP  from my github.  Its called Colorstack.py

https://github.com/Mazhive/SCRIPTS/tree/main/python/


While youre at my github maybe you can find some more usefull scripts ,.......... 


Oke.. ladies and gentle man, boys and girls.

When your done downloading the files from reven, and github ,make sure your x and y offset is correct ,in my ini file they are set to my offset this can be different from your case. What i end up doing i used the calibrator as instructed by reven , the illustration from the picture should give you a good idea how to calibrate.
Then tighten the collet , watch out while tightening the pen could move forwards because  of the tightening of the collet so you need to take close attention while tightening.

Determine your x and y offset:

You could eye ball it.. or measure it by using a ruler, or .....
Draw lines on the paper with your move option of the printer. Mark a point or cross on the paper where the nozzle touches the bed ( do this before you put the collet and pen in the e-block) then mark the point where the marker points the bed/paper draw lines using the move options  in x and y so you get lines for  something to use measuring with a ruler.

Determine your z offset:

Make sure you did your homing first ,  set the coordinates to 100x 100y  and the z height of 11 then put the calibrated pen with the collet and threaded part in the e-block secure it with a rubber band.
Then move the z height down until the pen touches the paper/bed if you see the collet moving minimal up your oke if it moves to much like 2 or 3 millimeters then your to low.  Now you know the height of the pen you can subtract the 11 from it that's your z height offset . Mine  in the ini file is set to 5 mm (change it to your number) you can fine tune it later in the slicer settings. the fine liner should touch it  not to hard. This  will otherwise crush the tip of the pen. the height should be so it does not scrape the paper just touching. 

The Handy dandy app.:

The app takes every  image / layered or non layered  and separates colors X times ( by you determined) and shows it to you  what color is separated,  use the slider to make adjustment to suit your preferences. I made 1 preset as a starting point.  the app can save and load presets if needed for special use case.
When you have the coloured layers dailed by using the calculate button after settting your sliders ,if your not satisfied just  use the sliders again until you find it to your satisfactions, recalculate and  you can then save them as seperate layers to your disk.

The sliders in short :

Sliders

The name of the files are refering to layer height and colour so you dont have to figure out what colour is which layer.
When you have the layers ( svg or obj preferably)   add in a new project as  a part (svg)  ,use select svg and select the layer file you want to use . some times the layer is to big for you build platform therefor i made on every layer  a border to take care of the issue if a layer has being loaded in on a different coordinate so you can always center it , using the slicers world coordinates. The app also gives you the ability to exclude layers on save.
The second way is save it as obj and just add it as you normaly would with a stl file. 

Attention the prusa slicer has some limitations (for good reason) involving the print volume if a layer  has less then 9 square millimeter the layer is not properly loaded into the slicer, therefore i made a warning in the app so you can  take care of it using the sliders , or ignore it and exclude those layers by using the check box on each layer you do not want to save.

The Github also has a dep.txt read it !!!!!!!  it is fairly easy to install  before you use the app, it shows you what you need to run the app . It should work for windows and linux.

Set your settings:

I included all the ini files you need for prusa are you interested in the specific settings you can just read the ini files in a text editor and study the setting.
A view setting i would share here is the tool change settings .
And some explained settings.

toolchange settings:

Since you don't need a mmu you can disable it (if you have one) just to fill in the tool-change settings.

toolchange_gcode = ; --- Pen change ---\nM400 ; wait until all moves are done\nG91 ; set relative coördinates\nG1 Z5 F300 ; lift print head for safety\nG90 ; set absolute coördinates back\nM300 S400 P400 ; Sound akoestic signal (blieb)\nM117 Place Pen {next_extruder + 1} ; show message on screen( for example. Place Pen 1)\nM0 exchange pen and press continue ; pause print until button is pushed\nG90 ; set absolute coördinates back

These settings are already provided in the ini file just put them in the appropriate folder restart prusaslicer (flatpack) and it should popup in your prusa slicer settings.

If you use a fineliner check the points diameter  mine is  0.4 so the nozzle should be 0.4 to get a good covering of all lines the rest of the settings are specific for the pen since overlap is disabled , extrusion width bigger so the pen does not write the same path as the previous stroke and a lot more fine tuned settings obvious you can  change it but this gives you a starting point.

As a bonus i made a stand to use or store the pen in a holder  use 6mm x3mm magnets and you can chain them as many as you want.

I hope it was helpful as it was fun for me...