Created October 19, 2015

Art Machine and Arduino Shield

BeginnerFull instructions provided629

Things used in this project

Hardware components

Arduino UNO

Story

Drawing Machine : Art Using Flour and Magnets

Original Design Concept: My original concept for the drawing machine was utilizing two different stepper motors to create interesting designs and pattern in sand.

Concept Sketch for my Drawing Machine

Mechanism: One stepper motor would be stationary while the other stepper motor would be placed on a lever connected to the original stepper motor and spin in a circle while drawing its own circle.

On top of the final level would be a magnet and above this entire assembly would be an iron/steel ball filled with sand. As the servo motors moved, the magnet would drag the ball across the sand and form patterns.

My inspiration from this design came from astronomy (see above photo) in which I wondered what the orbit of the moon around the sun would look like.

Laser Cut Outlines for Stepper Motor Levers

Believe it or not, almost 1/3rd of the time I spent on this project was used to create the above 2 levers. The reason for this is because the unique holes had to be toleranced so that they fit just snug onto the stepper motor pins. This meant multiple iterations on the laser cutter to get just the perfect fit.

Base Stepper Motor with Laser Cut Lever and Male Pivot Rod

Secondary Stepper Motor with Female Pivot Washers

Dual Stepper Motor Wiring Incorporating 1x Arduino, 1x Mini-Breadboard, 2x Stepper Motor Drivers, 2x Stepper Motors

Troubleshooting: This was the point in the project at which I was having the most difficulty. With the current design, I just could not get the steel ball to consistently draw in the quinoa. It was a delicate balancing act: too little distance between the magnet and the steel ball would cause the low torque base stepper motor to stall. However too much distance would cause the stepper motor with the magnet to run off leaving the steel ball behind. In the end, my original design was just not robust enough. I therefore had to downsize my project and just include the base stepper motor

Drawing Machine Reflection:

In the end, I was able to create a drawing machine that utilized the original mechanism that I had envisioned. (See above video). Although the dual stepper motor idea was simply not robust enough, I am still very I am very proud of my work. This project gave me much more laser cutting experience, especially with respect to strict dimensions tolerancing. in addition, the project allowed me to explore stepper motors in much greater detail along with the Arduino code that accompanies them.

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Do it Yourself Arduino Shield

Strip-Board and Arduino Initial Alignment

Strip-Board Alignment: I first laid the soldering board on top of the Arduino to line up the pins with the holes . Afterwards, I soldered one connection on each of the 3 Arduino blocks to lock them into place. Finally, I took the locked pins and board assembly off the Arduino and soldered them away from the micro-controller to prevent any potential damage caused by the heat conducting through the pins

Finished Circuit Board Assembly

Circuit Assembly: I first soldered on all the components (resistors, LEDs and Servo Header Pins), Afterwards, I ran a ground and power bus along all the LEDs and Resistors respectively in addition to the Servo Header pins. Finally, I connected each bus to their respective pins that eventually feed into the Arduino

Working Arduino Shield! (Also see Working Video Below)

Workbench Containing Tools and Equipment Used to Create Arduino Shield

DIY Arduino Shield Reflection:

This project was great practice as it gave me a lot more soldering experience. One problem I did run into during the course of this homework was that sometimes the soldering iron's tip would not heat up for some reason. While in the Invention Lab, I actually switched out 2 different soldering irons before I finally managed to obtain one that worked as intended. However, other than that little hiccup, the Arduino Shield project was relatively straight forward.

Code

Untitled file

// very simple stepper motor test program
// for L298 type 
// each input controls one output
//
// Change log
// Michael Shiloh 10/5/15 - created
// Michael Shiloh 10/12/15 - corrected for crossed wires
//
// 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(50);
    
    digitalWrite(OUT1, LOW);
    digitalWrite(OUT2, HIGH);
    digitalWrite(OUT3, HIGH);
    digitalWrite(OUT4, LOW);
    delay(50);
    
    digitalWrite(OUT1, HIGH);
    digitalWrite(OUT2, LOW);
    digitalWrite(OUT3, HIGH);
    digitalWrite(OUT4, LOW);
    delay(50);
    
    digitalWrite(OUT1, HIGH);
    digitalWrite(OUT2, LOW);
    digitalWrite(OUT3, LOW);
    digitalWrite(OUT4, HIGH);
    delay(50);
}

Credits

Jimmy Huang

16 projects • 9 followers

Art Machine and Arduino Shield

Things used in this project

Hardware components

Story

Drawing Machine : Art Using Flour and Magnets

Do it Yourself Arduino Shield

Schematics

IMG_3008.JPG

Code

Untitled file

Credits

Jimmy Huang

Comments

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Art Machine and Arduino Shield

Art Machine and Arduino Shield

Things used in this project

Hardware components

Story

Drawing Machine : Art Using Flour and Magnets

Do it Yourself Arduino Shield

Schematics

IMG_3008.JPG

Code

Untitled file

Credits

Jimmy Huang

Comments