[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3a59yj-HZsg&w=580]
Two strings, two motors, and some very creative software. That’s the magic behind the Plotterbot, which was drawing Daleks when we crossed its path at Maker Faire. This is the Mark II, which was built after cannibalizing Mark I. Unfortunately we can’t tell you what the difference is between the two.
The machine itself is a pretty nice little package. There is a box that hangs on the wall with a motor/spool combination at each end. In the middle of those two is an Arduino Mega with a custom driver shield. It takes an SD card with the drawing files on it. There is also a small touchscreen display which allowed for easy selection of what you’d like drawn on that paper taped to the wall below the unit.
Back when we were running the Trinket contest [Jay] used the Plotterbot to draw a Skull and Wrenches made out of a multitude of smaller Skull and Wrenches. He was nice enough bring that piece of art and present it to us at the Faire. Thanks [Jay]!
Looks like he’s a few years behind sprite_m http://spritesmods.com/?art=whiteboard
These hanging-cable-triangulation-plotter-things interest me. If only I had the motivation and justification to try to build my own.
This is sad to see. Hackaday regurgitating things at a faster rate without much research. In the beginning of the video he mentions Sandy Noble and Polargraph…. He bought his hardware. You could post a link to that page where they sell kits of exactly this:
http://www.polargraph.co.uk/
or maybe some of the many many others you have highlighted in the past:
http://hackaday.com/2010/06/06/drawbot-produces-portraits-very-slowly/
http://hackaday.com/2012/08/06/drawing-things-very-slowly-very-easily/
http://hackaday.com/2013/12/10/hanging-plotter-with-a-color-twist/
http://hackaday.com/2012/11/16/raspberry-pi-driven-polargraph-exhibits-high-precision-drawing-ability/
http://hackaday.com/2011/11/17/polar-pen-plotter-draws-huge-images-very-slowly/
Just because it’s at makerfaire….
http://makezine.com/2011/09/01/the-drawing-machine-harvey-moon-video/
And let’s not forget Hektor: http://juerglehni.com/works/hektor/ – AFAIK the very first plotter of this kind. And in my opinion also still the nicest.
Btw., @Mike – I really <3 your styrofoam Jolly Wrencher :)
This drawing robot made from Lego at SIGGRAPH in 1988 is probably the first one. http://www.polargraph.co.uk/2012/12/drawbot-history-and-thanksgiving/
:)
@Harvey Moon:
Yup – you’re right. I bought Sandy’s electronics and use his software. My contribution is the research, design, and development of the 3D printable hardware pieces, specific implementation, as well as the work I put into all of this. All of my work is open source, published on one of my blogs or available for download. Not every contribution is about electronics.
I credit Sandy, and everyone else whose shoulders I’ve stood on, extensively on both of my blogs. There’s even an entire page (on each site) devoted to the dozens of examples of prior art. Not only do I give my work away, I give away a ton of the drawings as well, and teach others how to build their own.
But, since you’ve brought up your Drawing Machine… It’s open source, right? https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/notever/the-drawing-machine/comments I’d love to take a look at it. :)
Never intended to be a personal attack. I know your work well! I do appreciate the time and effort you have taken to speak about the others working in a similar way. I appreciate that you mentioned Sandy. I don’t appreciate that Hackaday has not acknowledged this in the interview or write-up afterwards. It just seemed silly to me that they will keep showing similar projects without even linking to previous articles.
I love the Plotterbot!
Hey now! Jay is the man. His mini cnc 3 axis plotterbot (shown here on HAD) design was my introduction to arduino and processing. Dude went out of his way to help me out…..so maybe this plotter should be my next one? So many variations. First bitches.?