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Introduction

This guide should empower you to assemble your Zarplotter to start your first drawing.

    • The pulley attaches to the motor shaft with two set screws.

    • The order of operations is important. Follow the video!

  1. Connect female power plug, red wire to +.
    • Connect female power plug, red wire to +.

    • Attach LCD cables. Note orange and red cables swap sides AND flip over. Same as Makelangelo. If power is connected the LCD will only light up in the correct wiring.

    • If required, with power off, remove all four driver chips and make sure all three DIP switches are pressed down.

    • With power off, adjust the dial on each chip. A multimeter reading between the dial and the bottom right pin of each chip should read 0.17v when power is on. DO NOT turn the dial when power is on.

    • With power off, connect each motor. The yellow wire must be on the left.

    • Connect the servo extension cable to pins in the EXP3 zone. There is a small black arrow on the right end of EXP3. The cable connects on the bottom row, with the black wire on the right (one pin under the arrow)

  2. We do not supply the board on which you will draw.  It should be square, flat, and smooth.  Measure it and mark the center for later.  The board pictured is 600mm*600mm and is good for an A4 drawing.
    • We do not supply the board on which you will draw. It should be square, flat, and smooth. Measure it and mark the center for later. The board pictured is 600mm*600mm and is good for an A4 drawing.

    • tighten the clamp screws to hold the motors on each corner. the first motor is NW, the second NE, the third SW, the fourth SE. The order is very important!

    • Feed timing belt around a pulley, through the idlers, and out to the pen holder. Maintaining tension is crucial to accurate drawings.

    • Attach the servo extension cable to the servo. The extension cable white/red/black should connect to the servo orange/brown/red.

    • Alligator clips are a great way to hold your paper down during drawing, and can also make sure the servo cable does not catch on anything.

    • If you purchased your zarplotter from us then your firmware is already installed.

    • You can download it from https://www.marginallyclever.com/product...

    • All upload steps are the same as our makelangelo firmware update tutorial EXCEPT that in configure.h you have to change #define MACHINE_STYLE POLARGRAPH to say #define MACHINE_STYLE ZARPLOTTER before upload.

Conclusion

Congratulations! Your zarplotter components are assembled. Now get drawing with the Makelangelo software. Don't forget to tag your posts with #zarplotter, #plotter, or #makelangelo so we can like them!

Dan Royer

Member since: 02/13/2019

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