brachiograph.py

The BrachioGraph class

class BrachioGraph:

  def __init__(
      self,
      inner_arm,
      outer_arm,
      virtual_mode=False,
      bounds=None,
      servo_1_centre=1500,
      servo_2_centre=1500,
      servo_1_degree_ms = 10,
      servo_2_degree_ms = -10,
      arm_1_centre=-60,
      arm_2_centre=90,
      servo_1_angle_pws=[],
      servo_2_angle_pws=[],
      pw_up=1500,
      pw_down=1100,
  ):

• inner_arm, outer_arm need to be measured from the actual plotter. They don’t need to be equal, but some combinations are uselessly restrictive. Use the turtle_draw.py script to see how different geometries affect the plottable area.
• virtual_mode allows you to run a BrachioGraph without hardware attached
• bounds needs to be determined empirically. Or possibly, computed.
• servo_1_centre and servo_2_centre: the pulse-width at which each servo arm is exactly on the plotting grid’s x or y axis. Ignored if the servo_<x>_angle_pws arguments are provided.
• servo_1_degree_ms and servo_2_degree_ms: how many ms per degree of movement. Reverse the sign to reverse the direction.
• arm_1_centre and arm_2_centre: the angles of the arms when the servo is at servo_1_centre/servo_1_centre respectively
• servo_1_angle_pws and servo_2_angle_pws: lists of pulse-width/angle pairs. If provided, then numpy.polyfit will be used to produce a function for calculating required pulse-widths. If not, a more naive formula will be used.
• pw_up and pw_down: pulse width values at which the pen is up/down. It makes more sense to attach the lifting servo horn at a different angle than to change these.

Management methods

park()

Sends the arms to the parking position, with the inner arm at -90˚ and the outer arm at 90˚ to it. This corresponds to an x/y position:

• x: -inner_arm
• y: outer_arm

Image drawing methods

plot_file(image)

• image: path to image file

Drawing utility methods

box()

Draw a box marked out by the bounds.

grid_lines()

Draws a grid within the box area marked out by the bounds.

Reporting methods

report()

The BrachioGraph instance has four attributes, angles_used_1, angles_used_2, pulse_widths_used_1, pulse_widths_used_2. They are all Python sets. Each time the set_angles method is called, it records the angle and pulse-width recorded for each of the two arm servos.

This creates a running record of all the positions the arms have been in.

After the arm has finished drawing, you can find the minimums, maximums and mid-points:

>>> bg.report()
               min   max   mid    min   max   mid
      angles  -124     7   -59     43   154    99
pulse-widths   771  2048  1410   1047  2063  1555

In this case, it’s good to know that the mid-points in the range both servos have covered while plotting all over the paper are not too far from 1500ms - which means that their range is reasonably well centred.

The Pen class

A BrachioGraph instance has an instance of a Pen class, as BrachioGraph.pen.

class BrachioGraph:

    def __init__(
        self,
        bg,                         # the BrachioGraph instance to which the Pen is attached
        pw_up=1500, pw_down=1100,   # pen up and pen down pulse-widths
        pin=18,                     # the GPIO pin
        transition_time=0.25        # how long to wait for up/down movements
        ):