Assignment
- Design a machine that includes mechanism + actuation + automation
- Build the mechanical parts and operate it manually
- Actuate and automate the machine
The initial idea was a drawing machine using two stepper motor and a fixed pen; with the ability to interpret
a gcode file and replicate a drawing in a piece of paper. We decide to use two levels for the position of the stepper motors (lower level for x-axis and
upper level for y-axis) and the pencil attached to the upper level.
The design was very simple, the construction and the results can be seen in the next pictures.
To control the stepper motors we use an L293D motor shield for Arduino.
With this shield is necessary to use two libraries (AFMotor and AccelStepper).
The first step was to understand the code and control the motors with simple commands.
As a more user friendly control of the machine is necessary to start with a Serial reading inside IDE, this way the user can set two coordinates and move the motors and start drawing simple draws, as straight lines, diagonal, squares, etc…
To Do...
- Improve the design to facilitate the movement of the stepper motors.
- Calibrate the machine
- Make a user interface
- Read the gcode files to draw more complex sketches