I got some materials around and came with the idea to build a homemade 2D printer a really basic one
nothing complicated. I just came to share the idea and ask in between few questions that I'm interested.
So the idea is to build a 2D printer using the following materials:
2x DC motors
1x servo motor
1x 2port DC motors controller
Arduino Uno
IR Sensors (leds, transmiter/emitter)
long screw rod
nuts and bolts
square platic material plate (I got it our from a 17Inch LCD)
power supply
cables..etc
So the main frame is to connect the 1x dc motor with a screw rod bellow the plastic plate so the plate will act as Y.axe and above the plate a X.axe crew rod with DC motor and in the middle of the rod a Servo motor to touch down and get up the pen/marker.
So as we know the DC motors can't be controlled as step motors and for what we need a long paper with white and black lines which we gonna determine the actual position of the 0 point axe (of the pen/marker) using the black/white lines and the infra red sensors.
Quick rev. about the IR sensors/ how they work
So we got 2x infra red sensors, one is transmiter which acts as a regular led (you can't see it) and the other one as receiver which get the infra red light and said ("hey i can see the light"). That 2 leds are close to each other but separated in between with something, when the IR led is on the light reflect the "wall/object" and the IR receivers gets the data/light. If the "wall" is white then it reflects the light but if the "wall" is black it does not.
So that's how we get the steps with DC motors. We put one of those for each axe.
So my question now is:
../I got an idea how to insert few characters to print them out as axe coordonates
but i need to write them manually, is there a software which can make the characters in cords?
That will not work but looks like I'll need to create a software based on my step/cords which I'm gonna write text and send the cords to arduino.
Another question is:
Should I better use 2x servos to white the letter of keep it as it is?
So my question now is:
../I got an idea how to insert few characters to print them out as axe coordonates
but i need to write them manually, is there a software which can make the characters in cords?
Also look at gcode, which is used to send data to 3D printers and other CAM machines.
Another question is:
Should I better use 2x servos to white the letter of keep it as it is?
No.
It looks like you're planning to put a long optical encoder strip along each axis. This means that your best resolution is going to be 1mm or worse. Your program can't make a smaller movement than one of those lines because it can't know where it is between two lines. Put a small encoder disk on each motor. That way you can get several measurements per rotation of the main screw, which might have a thread pitch of 1mm or so, which immediately gives you resolution much smaller than 1mm.
Domino60:
is there a software which can make the characters in cords?
Are you asking if there is a program which will create a series of instructions that will result in a character being drawn by your plotter?
I pose this just for clarification. I suspect there are such programs. But it would not be too difficult to write one using Python (or your favourite PC programming language).
It is a very common requirement. For all I know you can download GCode files for alpha-numeric characters.
However I would start by getting your device to draw simple shapes such as circles, squares and diamonds.
It looks like you're planning to put a long optical encoder strip along each axis. This means that your best resolution is going to be 1mm or worse. Your program can't make a smaller movement than one of those lines because it can't know where it is between two lines. Put a small encoder disk on each motor. That way you can get several measurements per rotation of the main screw, which might have a thread pitch of 1mm or so, which immediately gives you resolution much smaller than 1mm.
Yea I was thinking as well instead using the IR on the rod using it on the motor and draw some lines.
I've seen it in the past but I thought it's just a tech joke , looks nice but kinda slow, it's a cool idea
but time consuming.
I pose this just for clarification. I suspect there are such programs. But it would not be too difficult to write one using Python (or your favourite PC programming language).
It is a very common requirement. For all I know you can download GCode files for alpha-numeric characters.
However I would start by getting your device to draw simple shapes such as circles, squares and diamonds.
I had the same idea to start with simple stuffs at the beginning, another idea that came in my mind which I can't use it because I don't have servo motors (sadly) is to make a hand write printer I was inspired as well from internet information (couldn't find the exact video) but this is an example :
My idea is to use that servos as input data moving them x,y axe writing letter and after that storing that data intro a memory and use it as output data
This is what I mean in a move specific video (some people don't understand my just from my worlds ):
Domino60:
Kinda expensive for me to buy big step motors+step drivers..etc,
Industrial CNC machines use DC motor and encoders in place of stepper motors so you are in excellent company. But the industrial servo motors are expensive because it is not so easy to get them to work as it is with stepper motors.
Reading a fast-moving or finely divided encoder can use up a lot of Arduino cpu cycles.
, looks nice but kinda slow, it's a cool idea
