Less than a newbie

Posted by bolts on July 29, 2008, 4:52 pm

I want to start tinkering with robotics, more specifically, I'd like
to make a portable X-Y plotter to take on location to print on things
like sheets of drywall or plywood. For now, I'd like the device to
only be about 2 ft. by 3 ft. and be able to place it directly onto the
surface to be printed on.
I'm guessing that some of the things I'll need is two stepper motors
(unless another type of motor would be better), a controller board
(like Arduino or better?), a print head, and the railing and arm for
the print head to ride on. Not to mention some sort of programming to
make it work.
Does anybody know of any website where people did similar projects and
documented it?
Any suggestions on books or websites where I can start with the
fundamentals?
Any body interested in helping a complete rookie with this?

Posted by cadcoke4 on July 29, 2008, 8:16 pm

> I want to start tinkering with robotics, more specifically, I'd like
> to make a portable X-Y plotter to take on location

I recall seeing something like this about 20 years ago. It was
intended to be a low cost substitute for a stand-up pen plotter.
However, I don't think it ever succeded.

A good start might be an old pen plotter. Since ink-jet plotters now
dominate, many places are getting rid of the old pen plotters.

Here is another source of info. http://www.cnczone.com They have a
few forums related to home made CNC machines, and also one for
plotters.

Joe Dunfee

Posted by on July 30, 2008, 12:11 pm

On Tue, 29 Jul 2008, bolts wrote:

> Date: Tue, 29 Jul 2008 13:52:58 -0700 (PDT)
> Newsgroups: comp.robotics.misc
> Subject: Less than a newbie
>
> I want to start tinkering with robotics, more specifically, I'd like to
> make a portable X-Y plotter to take on location to print on things like
> sheets of drywall or plywood. For now, I'd like the device to only be
> about 2 ft. by 3 ft. and be able to place it directly onto the surface
> to be printed on.
> I'm guessing that some of the things I'll need is two stepper motors
> (unless another type of motor would be better), a controller board (like
> Arduino or better?), a print head, and the railing and arm for the print
> head to ride on. Not to mention some sort of programming to make it
> work. Does anybody know of any website where people did similar projects
> and documented it? Any suggestions on books or websites where I can
> start with the fundamentals? Any body interested in helping a complete
> rookie with this?

I seem to recall someone in a recent issue of Servo, Nuts and Volts, or
Make or some such did a home brewed wall plotter which could be
arbitrarily large, and worked in such a fashion ... sorry, I don't have
the reference to hand, but it was definitely in the last year or so ...

HTH,
Rob.
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Posted by on July 30, 2008, 4:01 pm

It appears that the article was in Circuit Cellar:

March 2008 Issue 212:
Vertical Plotter System, by Miguel Sanchez, p. 30

You will likely have to purchase the .PDF file from Circuit Cellar if you
can't find the issue ... hmmm ... Looks similar to what you described.

HTH, Cheers,
Rob Sciuk

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Posted by bolts on July 31, 2008, 11:43 am

On Jul 30, 4:01 pm, s...@controlq.com wrote:
hmmm ... Looks similar to what you described.

I don't think I explained it well enough. I want this for printing on
large horizontal surfaces, and it will need to be rock solid. Things
hanging from cables and pulleys are out of the question. It will not
actually be a "plotter" but more of a "printer" since it will be using
a 256 nozzle industrial inkjet head.

THIS is an "On Steroids" version of what I'd like:

This would be my second choice:

This would be my third choice:

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