Joystick&Pen
Contents
Joystick control of a drawing pen, using more or less current reprap designs
Joystick control and a marker pen, drawing material-paper or (t Shirt) fabric or PCB
Age suitability: 3+
Problem:
No one retails a ready made system or DIY kit that has a pen to replace the hot end, thus making it suitable for 3-5 year old lego fans to build and use. The nearest current drawing alternative is the Egg Bot using the EiBotBoard electronics board and a Nema17 stepper motor to act as a torn-turner. Unlike a WatercolorBot or AxiDraw the frame is built by children, with adult assistance and the motors and extruder can be upgraded...
Proposal:
To use a standard USB interface device, like a joystick, mouse, trackpad or USB drawing pad, rather than an stl file, will require USB controller chip on the board. Hence the choice of CHIP as replacement for Arduino Nano.
Use a CHIP connected to SinapTec for control. Drawing end replaces ie Dremel with a (Marker) Pen held by screws in a metal tube, or with the Pen_Holder. Snap together designs like Snappy or ToyREP are ideal Repraps for the purpose, BrickRap likely lacks some structural integrity, they should all easily be retro-fitted, or initially printed and made for this purpose. NEMA_Motor choice, 28BYJ-48 as used in the proven design for the ToyREP are cheapest motors, ensure that 12V version is used. No heated bed or hot end mean 12V 4A or less power should supply movement. Teacup_Firmware or Deb-3df (the original BeagleBone_Black port is calledRedeem) firmware on CHIP is currently being examined. These system are/sholud be more than capable of ie. drawing SVG files from PC interface, or web server (Kamaq based), acting as a 'photocopier' or more accurately 'printing press' or 'scribe'
The final model will be called SCRIBE.
Xmas Shopping:
User: jobo, is developing a modified Snappy, the [Joystick&Pen], to be controlled by joystick, and with a pen for drawing, for 350 euros. Christmas delivery planned. Suitable for age 3 to 103. Cheap, small motors. No hot end- a marker pen is used for scribbles and svg vector graphics can be converted to gcode. Custom modified SinapTec electronics will host a CHIP Pro controller, 1Ghz ARM processor with USB mouse/joystick/gamepad/usb drawing pad/... for control, and an onboard webserver to interact with PC, and your programs for vector graphics like inkscape, tuxpaint and tuxdraw etc. Open_source_hardware everywhere! Contact Jobo at [user talk] or email at taosubmarines at mail.ru.
