A DIY 3D Scanner for Your Android Phone
AAScan is comprised of 3D-printed parts, a cheap motor, and an Arduino.
3D printers allow us to make all manner of parts and decorations — as long as you have the proper model. For those situations where you don’t have a model, and would rather not produce one yourself in CAD, another option is a 3D scanner. These amazing devices spin an item in place — or otherwise change perspective — progressively taking pictures that can be combined into a virtual object. These can, of course, be quite expensive. If, however, you have an old Android phone, 3D printer, and a few electronics bits, you can create your own rig to handle the task automatically.
The scanner, dubbed AA Scan, rotates objects via a 3D-printed turntable assembly and a common 28BYJ-48 steper motor. The turntable is controlled by an Arduino Uno, along with a ULN2003 driver board. For its part, the phone is running a script on QPython to automate the picture-taking process, producing roughly 180 pictures at 5120 x 3840 resolution.
Once the process is finished, the images can then combined with Meshroom to produce an actual 3D model for use in prints or any sort of virtual environment. Scanning is demonstrated in the video below, and if you’d like your own setup, 3D-printed components and more info are available on Thingiverse.
[h/t: Reddit]