Blackboard V-Plotter
Tuenhidiy turned his children's blackboard into vertical pen plotter using Arduino.
Creator 'tuenhidiy' had a 780 x 1200mm blackboard surface that his kids no longer used. Rather than discarding it, he decided to convert it into a vertical plotter. The idea behind this type of device is that two stepper motors control a hanging pen device, via cables that dictate the X/Y position based on their lengths.
Tuenhidiy’s project utilizes a pair of NEMA17 stepper motors for control, and lengths of timing belt as "cables" to suspend and move the pen. A pair of counterweights keep the belt in place, which look interesting as they move up and down to oppose the movement of the pen itself. A micro servo moves the pen in and out of writing position, which rides on a carriage assembly made out of an empty solder spool and other parts.
A RAMPS 1.4 controller, along with a pair of A4988 driver modules actuate the two steppers. An Arduino Mega running Makelangelo firmware provides processing power for the operation. Computer software for generating the needed G-Code is also available, and tuenhidiy even came up with an Excel template to simulate different plotter positions.
The results look really great in the clips below, generating robo-art on a piece of A1 paper!
