Revision as of 11:18, 21 June 2011

This wiki page is part of the documentation for The Original Egg-Bot. Click here to return to the Egg-Bot overview.

Eggbot is designed to work well on Mac, Windows, and Linux computers. To use it, you'll need to install certain software on your computer.

The Eggbot software actually consists of several different parts:

1. Inkscape, the superb freeware vector graphics application
2. The Eggbot extensions for Inkscape, which let you control the Eggbot from within Inkscape
3. The Eggbot USB driver, on Windows systems.

Optionally but suggested, you may also want to download the set of example files from the EggBotCode Google Code site.

The particulars of installation depend on the operating system:

Mac

1. Download and install the latest version of Inkscape (version 0.48.1 or newer) from the download page at Inkscape.org.

• Hot links: Download Inkscape 0.48 for your particular Mac OS version (10.4-10.6) here.
• Install Inkscape in the default location, the main "Applications" folder.
• Note that inkscape is an X11 application, and will require that X11 or XQuartz is installed on your Mac.

For MacOS 10.5-10.6 (Leopard and Snow Leopard), download and install the latest release of XQuartz, unless you already have a working X11 install.

For MacOS 10.4, use the X11 that came on your system installer disks.

• If you need additional assistance for installing Inkscape, you may be able to find good advice at the the Inkscape wiki and/or the Inkscape Forums. Please do not use Inkscape support resources for Eggbot-specific issues-- see note below about troubleshooting.

2. Download and install the Eggbot Extensions for Inkscape

• Recommended method: Download the Mac installer package from the EggBotCode Google Code site. Run the installer (a standard Mac installer package) to install the Eggbot extensions. The installer requires MacOS 10.4 or newer.
• Alternate method, Manual installation: Download the latest version of the Inkscape extension (not the mac installer) from the EggBotCode Google Code site. Copy the entire contents of the Eggbot software archive to /Applications/Inkscape.app/Contents/Resources/extensions/ and restart Inkscape.

Note for MacOS 10.6: There is a known bug in Inkscape 0.47 and 0.48, in that extensions (even the built-in ones) do not work under Snow Leopard without patches. The installer contains a patch, so manual installation is not recommended on Snow Leopard. If you have solved this issue separately in one of several ways, you can use the manual installation method.

Note for MacOS 10.4: You may also need to install Python 2.5, if your system does not already have it.

• The "Eggbot" submenu should appear in the Extensions menu of Inkscape after you restart Inkscape.

3. Troubleshooting

Your software should now be set up to work correctly.

• If you encounter difficulty installing the Eggbot extensions for Inkscape (or with plotting, in the next stage), please request assistance through the Eggbot mailing list or forum, which you can find on our front page.
• If there is any chance that a problem you encounter is specific to Eggbot software or hardware, it is important that you do not directly seek assistance through Inkscape's support resources. You're much more likely to get your problem solved by asking people who know about Eggbot. And, we'd like the Inkscape team to be ready to help us when we do encounter Inkscape-specific issues.

Windows

1. Download and install the latest version of Inkscape (version 0.48 or newer) from the download page at Inkscape.org.

• Hot links: Download Inkscape 0.48 for windows here.
• Install Inkscape in the default location, the main "Program Files" folder (or "Program Files (x86)" on newer systems).
• If you need additional assistance for installing Inkscape, you may be able to find good advice at the the Inkscape wiki and/or the Inkscape Forums. Please do not use Inkscape support resources for Eggbot-specific issues-- see note below about troubleshooting.

2. Download and install the Eggbot extensions for Inkscape

• Recommended method: Download the latest version of the Windows installer package from the EggBotCode Google Code site. Run the installer (a standard Windows installer package) to install the Eggbot extensions. The installer has been tested to work from XP through Win7.
• Alternate method, Manual installation: Download the latest version of the Inkscape extension (not the Windows installer) from the EggBotCode Google Code site. Copy the entire contents of the Eggbot software archive into (Program files)\Inkscape\share\extensions\ and restart Inkscape.
• The "Eggbot" submenu should appear in the Extensions menu of Inkscape after you restart Inkscape.

3. Download and install the Windows USB driver for Eggbot

• This driver is necessary for Windows to recognize the Eggbot USB device.
• Recommended method: Download the latest version of the Windows USB Driver installer package from the EggBotCode Google Code site. It is called the UBWDriverInstaller_v10.zip. Unzip the file, and run the USBDriverInstaller.exe application. Click on the Installer Drivers button. When it is finished, close the application. The USB driver installer has been tested to work from XP through Windows 7 (32 and 64bit).
• When you plug in your EggBot to your computer, the drivers will already be installed, and you can tell Windows to search for the drivers (XP) or allow the drivers to be installed when you connect (Vista and Windows 7).
• Alternate method: Download the USB driver itself from [1]. Extract the files and point Windows to the inf file when asked for drivers when you connect your EggBot. Note that if you use Vista or Windows 7 and you use this method, Windows will silently fail when you plug in your EggBot for the first time, and you will need to go to the Device Manager and manually install the drivers for the device from there.

4. Troubleshooting

Your software should now be set up to work correctly.

• If you encounter difficulty installing the Eggbot extensions for Inkscape (or with plotting, in the next stage), please request assistance through the Eggbot mailing list or forum, which you can find on our front page.
• If there is any chance that a problem you encounter is specific to Eggbot software or hardware, it is important that you do not directly seek assistance through Inkscape's support resources. You're much more likely to get your problem solved by asking people who know about Eggbot. And, we'd like the Inkscape team to be ready to help us when we do encounter Inkscape-specific issues.

Linux

The Eggbot extension for Inkscape has been developed and tested extensively under Ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid Lynx). We expect it to work equally well in other distributions where Inkscape is known to work.

Ubuntu install instructions:

• Use the Ubuntu Software Center to install Inkscape 0.47 or newer (0.48 or newer is recommended.)
• Launch Inkscape from the Applications menu, and then quit it.
• Download the latest Inkscape extension .ZIP file from the downloads section of EggBotCode Google Code site.
• From the "Places" menu, open your Home Folder.
• From the "View" menu select "Show hidden files" -- the .config folder should be visible.
• Place the contents of the folder inside the ZIP archive inside .config/inkscape/extensions/
• The "Eggbot" submenu should appear in the Extensions menu of Inkscape after you restart Inkscape.