#line control

The trick to getting good at lineart is in three steps:

1. TIME

2. Muscle memory

3. Pen pressure/correction

In that order. I’ll talk about each of these separately. 

1. TIME

This is pretty self explanatory but I’ll demonstrate anyway. Lineart is a skill that requires precision and precision takes TIME to train. Just because you can draw a straight line on a random, empty piece of paper doesn’t mean to can draw it in the correct place when linearting. At least… not without time and practice!

What I mean by this is not “oh, but I’ve been practicing for 6 months now!” 

Here’s a comparison of MY lineart over the YEARS. 

It’s taken me about 10 years to get clean lineart. It takes time to train that kind of thing, because lineart isn’t a talent you’re born with, it’s something you choose to focus on and train! 

It’s….

2. Muscle Memory!

Precise lineart requires TONS of fine motor skills. It’s literally the same type of skill required for any precise mechanical movements like adjusting the bowing on a violin or welding neatly. 

To train this skill, you need to repeat the desired motions over and over and over again until the movements are each as familiar to you as picking up a spoon full of cereal and (successfully) sticking it into your mouth.

Here’s an easy and straightforward way to do this as a warm-up to your regular drawing routine! Before you get started, sit down with a notebook or open up a clean canvas on your drawing program and practice the following:

1) Drawing lines spaced equally apart, freehand.

2) Drawing circles as close to circle proportions as you can, freehand.

3) Drawing random dots on the page and connecting them with a single, smooth line. 

4) Drawing 4 dots and connecting them with perpendicular lines, as straight as you can get them.

5) Drawing a curve and then replicating it with similar spacing, like the line exercise. 

Of course, if this seems tedious and you’d rather get some support, there’s also printouts you can use to help you get started! Here’s one!

(Further line training exercises!) 

And last but not least we have the technological side of things - 

3) Line correction on digital drawing programs! 

Some people may be up in arms right about now - but wait, isn’t that cheating? Using digital programs as tools may seem like it takes away from the integrity of drawing. 

I tend to view it instead as a tool - and like all tools, digital art programs NEED to be adjusted to work at their best. The truth is, they are NOT a godsend. Many artists that are wonderfully adapt at traditional media struggle with digital because of the necessity to develop different hand-to-eye coordination, the lag from the computer and other things like pen pressure, which has a tendency to malfunction. 

I’ll focus on only one of these for now - the line correction.

Line correction is a setting on most drawing programs which adjusts for the potential shakiness of your hand when drawing. The strength of this can be toggled - at your own risk. Higher correction adds lag, and lower correction doesn’t. 

For example, in my program (MediBang Paint Pro) the correction setting is on top of the canvas when you have the pen tool selected.

Close up, you can see it has a counter.

I keep mine at 10, but you can play around with it quite a bit. 

Another thing I always recommend is to play around with various brushes and - this is important - MAKE YOUR BRUSH BIGGER.

I’m actually shocked by this, but many people draw with very tiny brushes or set their brush diameter to the exact width of the lines. This is disastrous. Your brush should be at least twice as wide as what you want your lines to be. It will make them that much easier to draw! 

Case Details

In modern food and beverage production, the efficiency and precision of filling lines are directly related to product quality and production costs. Traditional manual operations and outdated control systems can no longer meet the growing demands for automation.  BL340 series ARM Based Embedded Computer, with its excellent performance and reliability, provides an ideal control solution for industrial filling lines, ensuring accurate metering and optimizing production processes.

Challenges in Filling Line Control and BL340's Solutions

Industrial filling lines face multiple challenges during operation:

High-precision metering:

Whether liquid, paste, or granular materials, precise control down to the milliliter level is required to avoid waste and ensure product consistency. The BL340 is equipped with a high-performance Allwinner Technology T507-H processor, featuring a quad-core ARM Cortex-A53 CPU with a clock speed of up to 1.4GHz. This ensures the system can process large amounts of data from high-precision sensors (such as flow meters and liquid level sensors) in real-time, performing calculations and control within milliseconds to precisely drive filling valves and ensure highly consistent filling volumes for each bottle.

Adaptability to harsh working conditions:

Filling lines are often located in humid, dusty, or even chemically corrosive environments. The BL340 series ARM Based Embedded Computer has undergone rigorous electrical performance design and high-low temperature testing to ensure stability and reliability. It supports a wide operating temperature range of -40°C to 85°C (depending on the SOM module selected, such as SOM340 and SOM341 which support this range). It also supports a wide voltage range of 9-36VDC with reverse polarity protection and overcurrent protection. Its DIN35 rail mounting design and aluminum alloy casing + stainless steel material allow it to seamlessly integrate into various industrial application environments, ensuring long-term stable operation.

High-speed production and real-time response:

To meet market demands, filling lines need to operate at high speeds for extended periods, requiring high real-time performance and response speed from the control system. The BL340 supports various operating systems including Linux, Linux-RT, Ubuntu. The real-time operating system ensures priority and determinism for control tasks, guaranteeing quick response of filling actions and smooth operation of the production line.

Data integration and intelligent management:

Modern factories require the integration of filling data with other production segments for intelligent management and remote monitoring. The BL340 is compatible with BLIoTLink industrial protocol conversion software for data collection and transformation. It can seamlessly integrate with various mainstream IoT cloud platforms and industrial SCADA software such as AWS IoT Core, Thingsboard, IgnitionSCADA, Alibaba IoT, and HUAWEI IoT. Additionally, with support for Node-Red, users can rapidly develop IoT applications on the BL340, enabling data collection, transformation, and upload for remote monitoring, data analysis, and fault pre-warning.

Flexible configuration and easy maintenance:

Filling lines may have different scales and levels of automation, leading to varying I/O interface requirements. The BL340 series ARM Based Embedded Computers adopt a flexible design concept, allowing users to customize ROM (8GB/16GB eMMC) and RAM (1GB/2GB DDR4) combinations by choosing different System-on-Module (SOM) boards as needed. It offers a rich array of interfaces including up to three 10/100M Ethernet ports , two USB 2.0 ports , an optional HDMI 2.0a port , and optional X series and Y series IO boards , supporting various functions such as communication, PWM output, pulse counting, data acquisition and control, DI, DO, Relay output, AI, AO, PT100, PT1000, and TC. This modular design not only facilitates customized control systems for filling lines but also significantly simplifies future maintenance and function upgrades.

Typical Application Scenarios of BL340 in Industrial Filling Lines

In a typical industrial filling line, the BL340 can act as the core controller, performing the following functions:

Precise material metering control:

By connecting to high-precision flow sensors and servo motor-driven filling pumps or solenoid valves, the BL340 real-time collects data and uses PID algorithms to precisely control the filling volume. For example, through the Y series IO board (e.g., Y31/Y33 models supporting 4-channel analog input), sensor signals can be accurately read, and Y41/Y43 analog output boards can control actuators, achieving precise analog control of 0/4~20mA or 0~5/10V.

Multi-point liquid level detection and overflow prevention:

Integrating multiple liquid level sensors (such as ultrasonic or float type), the BL340 monitors the liquid level inside the filling bottles in real-time. Once a set threshold is reached, it immediately triggers the valve closure, effectively preventing overflow or underfilling, and can dynamically adjust the filling speed based on liquid level feedback. DI/DO modules (e.g., Y01/Y02/Y11/Y12/Y13 for DI and Y21/Y22/Y24 for DO) can be used to receive digital input signals and control relay outputs for liquid level alarms and valve switching.

Production line coordination and linkage:

Through its multiple Ethernet ports (up to three 10/100M Ethernet ports ) and rich serial ports (RS232/RS485 ), the BL340 can communicate at high speeds with PLCs or motion controllers of other equipment on the production line (such as bottle unscramblers, capping machines, labeling machines, and packaging machines), coordinating the actions of each segment to ensure a smooth, efficient, and seamless filling process.

Real-time data acquisition and visualization:

The BL340 can collect critical data such as filling volume, production speed, equipment operating status, and fault codes in real-time. This data can be uploaded to SCADA systems or IoT cloud platforms via Ethernet for visual display, helping operators and managers monitor production status in real-time for efficient production scheduling and problem diagnosis.

Remote operation and maintenance, and fault diagnosis:

With the BLRAT remote access tool, technicians can remotely access the BL340 for system diagnosis, program updates, and parameter adjustments, significantly reducing on-site maintenance time and increasing equipment uptime

Conclusion

The BLIIoT BL340 series ARM Based Embedded Computer provides a robust and efficient automation control foundation for industrial filling lines. Its excellent performance, rugged industrial-grade design, and flexible scalability, coupled with compatibility with various industrial protocols and IoT platforms, enable enterprises to achieve precise metering in the filling process, effectively control production costs, and move towards intelligent and networked industrial 4.0, ultimately enhancing overall production efficiency and market competitiveness.

See what I did there? Yup.

Anyway...I did want to inform you that tonight will be my final night of light saber duty (unless I fill in for someone and also probably during DCM).

I want to thank everyone who's ever given me doughnuts or hot beverages or cold beverages or really anything at all. To the regular patrons and students who've been understanding that those of us who work here, and herd you around like the sheeple you are, do so cuz it's our job,  I thank you as well.  Continue to come see shows and when you bring friends, just let them know the deal. Respect the line DAMNIT :-)

To those of you who have been jerks, you can go ahead and fuck right off! Feel free to bring me your bull at the beast box office sometime! I might just run out of tickets :-P

That's right,  guys I'll still be a door guy, just less frequently and indoors at our East Village location! Guess they'll finally get their due on this blog. :-)