Fire up those 3D printers because if you’re like us, you’ll want your own PlottyBot. Still, have a pile of “thank you notes” to write from recent winter holiday gift exchanges? Hoping to hand letter invitations to a wedding or other significant event? Need some new art to adorn your lock-down shelter or shop? It sounds like [Ben] could help you with that.
Besides being a handsomely designed desktop DrawBot, this project from [Ben] looks to have some solid software to run it, a community of makers who have tested the waters, and very detailed build instructions. Those include everything from a BOM with links for ordering parts to animated GIF assembly for the trickier steps.
If you’d like to graduate from “handwritten” cards and letters to something poster-sized are customization tips for expanded X and Y dimensions. As we’ve included in other recent articles, one caveat to mention is the current scarcity of the Raspberry Pi Zeros that PlottyBots require. But if you have one on hand or think you’ll be able to source one by the time you’ve 3D printed all the parts, it might just be the perfect time to add another bot to your family. As a heads up, this project is self-hosted on a solar-powered server, so maybe take turns reading the complete build log.
A nice bonus if you need help drawing something suitably complex to require a robot’s help, [Ben] also created MandalGaba which looks like an awesome online tool for drawings like the ones shown above.
i could have used this in Catholic school, my hand writing is terrible!
I could have used this in public school when I had to write 300 times “I will not …”
I will not shirk off my punishments to robots.
I will not shirk off my…
Give it a wax extruder and have it make t-shirts.
– CRJEEA
What timezone is that servers location?
Seems like the sun is not shining at the moment. At least I can’t access the website, can only read it with the google cached version.
It’s Eastern Time and it’s back up. Power isn’t the issue, this page is an absolute worst case scenario of large assets. I have issues if it gets the slightest amount of attention. I put a cache in front of it but it ended up crashing my web router (traefik) :\. In any case, I’m moving the cache to Digital Ocean now.
Thanks Ben for the effort of documentation and for trying to get your server back up!
Very nice project, you deserve the attention.
Has being featured on hackaday taken another project of the web?
“If you’d like to graduate from “handwritten” cards and letters to something poster-sized are customization tips for expanded X and Y dimensions.”
What is this trying to say?
Ok I need to say this. THIS IS LIKE THE EFFING BEST MANUAL I’VE SEEN IN AGES
Kudos to Ben, you are an example to follow!
And now i want one, damn!
There was a commercial version comparable to this back in the early 1990’s. or late 1980’s. It was even more compact, and I am surprised that it didn’t really take off. The more traditional pen plotters were in the $3,000 range at the time, and I believe the unit was under $1,000. It could work on a tabletop, or be attached to a wall.
Of course inkjets have taken off. But a D-Sized printer is still over $2,500. The electronics and motors are actually cheaper now than back in the 1990’s. So, this plotter-bot could still have a price advantage.
Just located a current plotter like this for sale. $330 for the iDrawHome, available in various sizes.
Makes me wish I hadn’t tossed/recycled all those metal rods from a recently disposed HP inkjet.