Created October 19, 2015

Drawing Machine, Soldering an Arduino shield

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Story

Project 1: Create a Drawing Machine

Tasked with creating a machine that draws anything, I began with exploring different ways through which pen could interact with paper.

Here are some of the rough sketches I started with to jog my imagination:

1 / 4 • Cryptic sketches of my thought process

Ultimately, those sketches led to this: A system in which pens or pencils are angled through two vertical boards onto a rotating base, where paper would be attached. A stepper motor would be attached to the rotating base.

The "final" sketch

To test its very basic viability, I made a low-fi prototype with paper and a pen

A paper prototype of the drawing machine

Next, I tested out the distance of the two vertical boards using cardboard and tape

1 / 4

From here, I reflected the dimensions that worked on Illustrator and laser cut acrylic.

Laser cutting the parts

One component I foresaw being difficult to assemble, was the attachment between the stepper motor and the rotating base. Because the stepper motor's shaft has a flat side, the attachments, which I planned to glue together and stack, needed to line up precisely. As a result, I designed them with triangular insets, so that they could simply be matched up at the angle, shown below.

The angles and a lollipop stick ensured the flat sides of the D-shape lined up

Making sure this attachment was centered so that the base would spin without rubbing each side was difficult, and failed my first try, shown below.

To fix the problem, I printed a new base, with the shape of the attachments etched onto the acrylic, so that I knew where exactly to place them.

1 / 2 • The D-shape hole and the triangular fit

Before (left) and After (right)

The rest of the assembly was relatively straightforward. I used acrylic cement to adhere the acrylic and it dried within minutes.

1 / 4

One problem I found was that there was not enough constraint on the drawing utensils, particularly long ones, so I printed another vertical board and slid it in between the others.

Here's how it turned out:

The stepper motor was controlled with code adapted slightly from that which we used in class. The circuitry was the same.

Homework 5: Soldering 3 LEDs and a servo motor to a perfboard on an Arduino

Before soldering the LEDs and servo to the board itself, I tested the circuitry on a breadboard, shown below. This guide helped me start: circuit. The code I used to control the LEDs and servo is attached.

One challenge I couldn't resolve is that the LEDs do not light up when the servo is not moving. I attempted to manipulate the code to fix the problem, but I believe it may be that the system calls for too much power than the Arduino can handle.

The final product:

1 / 2 • The bottom of the board

//
// Licensing:
// This program is in the public domain 
//
// for the stepper motors with wires
// coming directly out of the motor,
// connect the wires like this:
// grey: OUT1
// green: OUT2
// yellow: OUT3
// red: OUT4

// for the stepper motors with small
// plastic connectors on the side,
// connect the wires like this:
// red: OUT1
// grey: OUT2
// yellow: OUT3
// green: OUT4

// these four Arduino outputs connect to the 
// L298 inputs which correspond to the L298
// outputs attached to the motor wires as 
// above 
const int OUT1 = 4;
const int OUT2 = 5;
const int OUT3 = 6;
const int OUT4 = 7;

void setup()  {
  pinMode(OUT1, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(OUT2, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(OUT3, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(OUT4, OUTPUT);
}

void loop() {
    digitalWrite(OUT1, LOW);
    digitalWrite(OUT2, HIGH);
    digitalWrite(OUT3, LOW);
    digitalWrite(OUT4, HIGH);
    delay(10);
    
    digitalWrite(OUT1, LOW);
    digitalWrite(OUT2, HIGH);
    digitalWrite(OUT3, HIGH);
    digitalWrite(OUT4, LOW);
    delay(10);
    
    digitalWrite(OUT1, HIGH);
    digitalWrite(OUT2, LOW);
    digitalWrite(OUT3, HIGH);
    digitalWrite(OUT4, LOW);
    delay(10);
    
    digitalWrite(OUT1, HIGH);
    digitalWrite(OUT2, LOW);
    digitalWrite(OUT3, LOW);
    digitalWrite(OUT4, HIGH);
    delay(10);
}

/* Sweep
 by BARRAGAN <http://barraganstudio.com> 
 This example code is in the public domain.

 modified 8 Nov 2013
 by Scott Fitzgerald
 http://www.arduino.cc/en/Tutorial/Sweep
*/ 

#include <Servo.h> 
 
Servo myservo;  // create servo object to control a servo 
                // twelve servo objects can be created on most boards
 
int pos = 0;    // variable to store the servo position 
 
void setup() 
{ 
  myservo.attach(7);  // attaches the servo on pin 9 to the servo object 
  pinMode(3, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(5, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(6, OUTPUT);
  digitalWrite(3, HIGH);
  digitalWrite(5, HIGH);
  digitalWrite(6, HIGH);
} 
 
void loop() 
{ 
for(pos = 0; pos <= 180; pos += 1) // goes from 0 degrees to 180 degrees 
  {                                  // in steps of 1 degree 
    myservo.write(pos);              // tell servo to go to position in variable 'pos' 
    delay(10);                       // waits 15ms for the servo to reach the position 
  } 
  for(pos = 180; pos>=0; pos-=1)     // goes from 180 degrees to 0 degrees 
  {                                
    myservo.write(pos);              // tell servo to go to position in variable 'pos' 
    delay(10);                       // waits 15ms for the servo to reach the position 
  } 
//  myservo.detach();
}

Drawing Machine, Soldering an Arduino shield

Story

Project 1: Create a Drawing Machine

Homework 5: Soldering 3 LEDs and a servo motor to a perfboard on an Arduino

Code

Stepper motor Arduino code

Arduino shield code

Credits

Adam Mansour

Comments

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Drawing Machine, Soldering an Arduino shield

Drawing Machine, Soldering an Arduino shield

Story

Project 1: Create a Drawing Machine

Homework 5: Soldering 3 LEDs and a servo motor to a perfboard on an Arduino

Code

Stepper motor Arduino code

Arduino shield code

Credits

Adam Mansour

Comments