The Pen Plotter
This device was made as part of the computer numerical control (CNC) robotics course, as a way for us to learn the basic mechanics of gcode and how CNC machines work. We assembled them ourselves, and when functional, they would draw a picture on the table with an expo marker.
The pen plotter is a machine operated by an Arduino with a CNC shield. There are limit switches to tell it where to home, and there are stepper motors to move it around. It uses gcode commands sent to it through the Universal Gcode Sender (UGS) to draw a picture designed by the user.
The pen plotter helped me understand a lot about gcode and CNC machines as a whole. One of the projects we did with it involved writing gcode by hand, which was very involved but also very informative. I developed a much better appreciation for CNC machines and how they work.
All of these images were made with gcode that I wrote by hand. Rounded shapes were much more complicated. All of the code is based off of a coordinate plane system, as well as up and down motion for when you want the pen to be drawing or not drawing.
These images were made with a post-processor in fusion 360. It was much easier to make complicated shapes and curves, but that also made much more room for error when using the pen plotter.
This is one of the first times I got the pen plotter to work correctly. I was just jogging it with UGS, but it was incredibly satisfying to see my hard work pay off.
This is a video of the pen plotter drawing out the smiley face that is pictured above.
