It does less than a printer, in more time, only one color, with a lot of noise. YES I definitely need one! 😀 This is the coolest pen plotter i ever seen
I used one of the very first HP desktop plotters in 1985 and the very first picture I plotted was this exact image of the space shuttle.....mind blown!
Love the design for dropping the pen. I used a servo method in the past but would definitely not be able to push it as fast. I will have to give this a go! Thanks for posting!
Built one myself, different design but also using printed parts, Grbl, UGC, Arduino shield. Will compare my Grbl settings with yours. Mine also prints fast and accurate but interested to improve where I can. Great project as it rolls several fields into one. Well done..thanks...
In 1993 I was on a high school internship at a company that manufactured a (multi-color/pen) plotter, and its demo drawing was the Space Shuttle. It was amazing and unreachable (despite the plotter technology was already advanced at that time). And now, I can print a printer. It continues to be amazing!
Cool experience! In 1993 I was using a plotter at work to plot large AutoCad drawings. Some engineers were still using drafting boards. A couple were using AutoCad but hadn't learned how to reduce plotter time and there would be hours of prints before mine would come up. I remember complaining they weren't using simpler fonts and limiting their use of text. But the plotter was a glorious machine. Twenty years later at another engineering company, our mechanical engineers stopped producing paper documentation. They don't even produce a drawing, only a 3D model. They forward models to the machinists with notes in the file about which surfaces require tight tolerances. This saves a lot of engineering hours and calendar time and is much faster for machinists too. Those machinists are like artists. Now I work in a factory where we use a plotter only once in a while, a gigantic inkjet machine that produces full color prints. I have only used it one time in three years. I generally use 11x17 (B4) for electrical schematics. Schematics would take an enormous amount of time in a own plot for all the little lines and lettering. But I miss the pen plotters.
I thought plotters were for larger sizes, I don't see the insterest of an A4 plotter, a cheap laser printer does much more. (I bought my first Laserjet in 1988 !)
Wow congrats ! This looks like a very efficient design. It is really mesmerizing to watch. In an effort to decrease time to print even more, I think there is something that can be done as far as optimizing the toolpath. There is a lot of long move that goes back and fort between different area of the paper. G-code generation and/or post-processing (depending if you have acces to that generative code) could be more clever and pack more effectively toolpaths by area. Simply choosing the closest next possible "pen down" move after each "pen up" move could go a long way I think.
@@ivprojects8143 One simple option--considering just how accurate your system is--would be to cut the drawing up into small sections, convert them, then paste the gcode fragments together. It's not a *great* solution, but one that should be simple enough to get working until a better one comes along.
Just as a suggestion for future ideas. I did have the Toshiba HX-P570 pen plotter for my MSX (end '80s, begin '90s) and this one used nearly the same design principle as your plotter does. (also sold as Sony PRN-C41) It also had a rotating bar to push the pen down (well yours does lift the pen). The plotter had 4 very tiny coloured pens inserted in a small carrousel with a spring to lift the pens up. This way you don't need to carry extra weight to push the pen down, which may allow for even faster prints. However this does mean you need to push the pen down while drawing a line which may cause extra friction. The pen change was done via a "squared" rod and a small worm-wheel inside the carrousel I think I did print the same image of a space shuttle back then as it was the most impressive print to show friends and back then you didn't have a lot of plotter files available on BBS's. Plotting took a lot longer on that plotter than on yours.
Thanks for the interesting comment! I can see the possible advantages of a spring loaded system versus a gravity based one. Not sure which method would end up being better suited for speed, but it might be worth a try.
Really good. Amazing speed too. I think I'd go for an electromagnet for the pen lifter. One less stepper. Though I really like that lifting bar setup! That's a great way to keep the extra mass static to keep the pen inertia at a minimum.
Thank you! Early on I was planning to use a solenoid, but I found there were a lot of advantages to steppers. They're easy to control via Gcode, allow you to fine tune the distance the pen is lifted, and have 100% duty cycle (compared to the rather low duty cycle of most small solenoids).
You printing rockets with this makes it 100000x cooler. It’s perfect for either making pictures look like sketches or printing out “hand drawn” schematics for things like pcb layouts and engineering drawings for manufactured parts
Very nice design. I like the use of Dremel tool sanding sleeves for the paper grit rollers; simple, cheap, effective, and precise. We’ll done, and another new subscriber! 😊
This is way cheaper than a printer, yet the quality of the rendering is superior. You can't even BUY a C- size printer at all unless it cost TEN$ of thousand$. Excellent project idea! Thank you for this video. 👏👏👏👍
Hi, very cool design! This is doubly interesting to me since I would have dismissed the idea of handling the paper like this at the concept phase: I would assume that the paper would twist and rotate ever so slightly each time so that overall after many trips it would become badly misaligned. Does this happen at all in reality? did you have to balance the forces to align the paper in any way?
Thank you! This is the advantage of using grit rollers. I explain this in a little more detail in the description, but basically the abrasive particles on the grit wheels create a meshing interface in the paper like rack and pinion gears. This lets it very repeatably index back to the exact same position in the Y-axis every time.
@@ivprojects8143 I was about to ask about that. Very interesting that this works so well, I would have clamped the paper in place and moved the whole surface back and forth. Your design is way cooler
Have you tried to use 4 color markers (Yellow, Black, Magenta and Cyan) with 4 different pictures to make a full color image? There are some programs capable of vectorizing bitmap images. You could split it to 4 color channels and print them consequently to make a full color image.
@@ivprojects8143 Return to home and change pen once one colour has completed? As I have a traditional (up down) z axis I thought of doing this myself by having pens 4 pens mounted on a central hub at 90 deg to each other, then just dial the hub to the next colour. In my mind that works but in practice??
As someone who built one, I'm mostly amazed by the speed of that pen. I wasn't even going too fast but I had to limit speed because the pen would dry up.
Really an awesome project, and definitely something to build using my plentiful spare parts from various builds. Would you have any assembly instructions anywhere?
When HP were big into pen plotters apparently a lot of the internal specifications used "attoparsecs per microfortnight" to measure speed. One attoparsec/microfortnight is almost exactly one inch per second.
Really cool! You should find a better stepper converting mainboard, I had this kinda noise on my old Ender 3 Pro 3D printer too... Swapped out the mainboard to a BigTreeTech SKR Mini E3, and all the noise was gone..
@@ivprojects8143 yeah, cuz that mainboard has better integrated drivers, instead of using attached modules it's integrated into the board with a chip.. And u can easily bootload your own grbl software into it with a usb. just a suggestion. Could maybe also make a laser engraver version of this..
Thank you! At this point there is no real advantage other than being fun to watch. In the past, plotters could produce more accurate drawings than early inkjet and laser printers.
Bravo! Bravo! Applause! ...sort of a ball point blended with a laser etcher. Amazing speed and results. I wonder if the ball point overheats and maybe cooks the ink if you try to print a black page...
That's excellent!I've been itching to make a pen plotter for some but most are the cute floppy-servo motor kind and not this professional looking beast that's frankly worth the time and money. (Fun extra: This was the first video that popped up on TH-cam that I tested my new ESP32 BT audio against - so double-win)
Hello there, Can i use servo instead of stepper motor for lifting and dropping pen, with the exact mechanism? Will the servo affect its quality or speed?
@@ivprojects8143 I can imagine it connected to a camera and taking a picture of a face and converting to grey scale lo-res to draw the image. A cyber mirror. Don't you just love electronics these days!
Really nice, I just downloaded the project files from github. I was wondering if I could use it as vinyl plotter, with a custom made holder for a vinyl cutting blade. Any sort of reply will be appreciated.
Great improvements! You can use Inkcut project as driver and set the shortest path to save some movements and time, or maximize X or Y travels if you want. Try it!
I highly recommend switching away from gcode to HP-GL since that language is specifically designed for plotters and if you ever implement tool changing it will make your life easier. It also has quite a few build in functions, so the actual arduino would so some calculations, like infill patterns or circle drawings.
@@chocolate_express Sure, you can see the GRBL parameters at 5:07 in the video. I'm not sure exactly what step frequency they reach, but I'm using 1/16 microstepping.
@@ivprojects8143 thank you so much for responding, i have been subscribed to your channel since the domino video. I really appreciate riciat the amount of work you put into making these videos and responding to comments
The choices it makes (or are made for it) as to what to draw next is peculiar. There's got to be a way of further optimising it to prioritise 'local' things so there's less jumping about. How would this be done?
@@ivprojects8143 Good job. It must be most satisfying for you to have made something so wondrous. Another question- almost certainly outside the scope of this vid- do you have any idea why the cad viewport render would have the perspective backwards so nearer things appear narrower than things further away? It's not even orthographic. 2:04
Very, very clever design indeed ! I simply wonder how the paper sheet remains flat, and what maximum width it can reach ? I looks there's no system to keep it flat, by succion or whatever.
Thank you! The grit rollers grip onto the paper preventing it from bunching up. If you wanted to make a wide-format plotter, you'd probably have to add additional rollers in the middle of the page. Check out large commercial vinyl cutter designs if you're curious.
Just had another look...yours's is faster than mine by a way... Mine uses a moving y axis with the paper stretched and held in place with clips. Your direct movement of the paper helps speed wise plus small movement of the z axis pen. Interesting.. I plan to maybe use different types of pen and maybe paint brushes or charcoal so will probably stick on the path I'm on but will definitely try to use some of your ideas.
That's a cool idea! Do you know of any inks or paints that would be conductive enough to carry a little current? I know there are conductive carbon paints for electroplating plastics and RF shielding, but I think those paints have a pretty high resistance.
@@ivprojects8143 using standard inks to draw masks for photo etching might be viable. You'd just draw the negative onto transparency film. I'd be you could achieve some cool effects that way.
Maker Dan mentions in his video how you use sand paper to help the y axis roll. I was just thinking that a laser printer uses a sticky rubber wheels to toll the paper through so it can print the page. I was wondering if that has been experimented with yet?
Have a nice day. It's been a great project. Congratulations. I have a question. I also made a project like this, but the z axis does not lift the pen while drawing. ( I use Light Brun , Easel software. ) Which software program do you use?
I've asked this question on your another video also, please explain how to set zero position, ie. how do we determine where does it start plotting & what if I want to print on a smaller paper?
Great design. I am trying to make. I am printing all the parts with 25% infill and 1.2mm wall Thickness. Is it OK or should I increase the infill density. I don't have a 3d printer so I am printing all the parts from a 3d printing service they are charging thrice the cost of original printing cost.
Hello, congratulations on this and your other projects, they really follow through. In the case of this project, the proof is in the pudding and it has been replicated :-) I've noticed there's no mention of the NEMA 17 motors in the BOM and that the printed parts seem somewhat contingent upon the height of these. Could you either reply to this with more info on what you went with or (ideally) update the BOM? Cheers.
Thanks! They are 38mm NEMA-17 motors, except for the Z axis motor which is smaller since I had it on hand. You could use 38mm motors for all the axes though.
Thank you! At this point there's no real advantage other than being fun to watch. In the past, plotters could produce more accurate drawings than early inkjet and laser printers.
Excellent design that does everything right: heavy parts are stationary, only lightweight parts are in motion. Even the pen lifter motor is stationary, ye olde HP-style. Result: the only non-lethargic plotter design on the net. Looking forward to seeing it with a tool changer :) Did you have much trouble aligning the rollers so that the paper stays aligned after so much sliding back and forth, or is it not really an issue?
Thank you very much! I'm glad you like the design. The paper rollers worked surprisingly well without much iteration. The rollers are mounted on the same rod, so they should be quite collinear.
Thank you! The grit rollers need to create tiny dents in the paper to work properly, and rubber wouldn't do that the same way. The reason rubber rollers can be used in inkjet and laser printers is they don't need to repeatedly feed the paper back and forth hundreds of times.
Thanks! You could change the width of the paper it takes by changing the length of the linear rod and drawing bar. Using a different length of paper shouldn't cause issues.
Hi, what camera did you use to record the project? And did you use any instructions/guide to document the whole process? It is very well put and easy to understand. Thanks!
I recorded it with an IPhone 7 camera. I haven't written any assembly instructions for it, but the SolidWorks assembly shows how all the pieces go together.
Wow. Ein geniales Teil. Habe mich etwas mit GRBL beschäftigt. Wie wird denn an diesem Plotter die Y Drehung gesteuert? GRBL kennt doch nur XYZ als System wie beim 3D Drucker.
@@ivprojects8143 cool thank you. I am using these, too - the RJM model is easy peasy, is it this one? The JSM are nice and small but give me some troubles, I find it hard to make them press-fit precise enough in 3D printed parts to get smooth movement. Yours look really efficient though!!
@@ktl0113 I came up with a method for printing precise linear bearings. I print them slightly undersized, and press them onto a shaft. Then I spin the shaft in a cordless drill while holding the bearing in place to slightly melt the inside face of the bearing from friction. This creates a pretty nice and smooth bearing.
I like this design a lot. I’m curious how it handles thicker materials; have you tried feeding through something like poster board or illustration board?
Thank you! I haven't tried any materials other than paper. I think something like construction paper would work fine, and I think the printhead could easily be modified to work with much thicker materials. I don't think the roller system would have issues with thicker materials.
Awesome design, I've been planning out a build based on your v1 design - and was anxiously awaiting this build! Are the grooves left by the sand paper large enough to be felt? i might either stick to the v1 design if they are, orrr try to get a larger sheet of paper than I need and trim the edges off. I love your designs because they lend themselves so well to printing large quantities at a time. I'm working on a feeder mechanism as well (thought I have no formal engineering experience). I had originally bought a wall plug for both the arduino, and the shield at 12v each. Could I simply use those and just expect slower print speeds? I haven't gotten around to learning grbl yet, but I assume any tweaks that might have to be made would mostly happen in those params? Thanks for the awesome video! I would kill for an actually assembly tutorial video :) EDIT: I just noticed your comment that the lever needs to be lifted by hand to load more paper in. I need to have a think, but it seems like the rubber roller design might be more suited for automating the loading/unloading process
Thank you for the kind words! I would recommend building this plotter over my last one. It's a much more mature design and doesn't experience the coordinate drift issue. The indentations left by the sandpaper are pretty small, and would be tough to notice without specifically looking for them. However, you could also use a lighter weight bar (like 3/8" instead of 1/2") to reduce the pressure on the rollers. The weight bar only needs to be really heavy if you're trying to maximize accelerations. Yes, you can run the steppers at 12v as long as the power supply can provide enough current. I think you will want around 45 watts to comfortably run the three motors. GRBL is fairly simple to use, and yes the speed and acceleration parameters are very easy to change over the serial interface. I think this design would be better suited for automating the paper loading as well. My last plotter had the unfortunate oversight of running the sheet of paper through the X-axis belt loop, which made it tricky to load even by hand. I don't think you would need to lift the lever for automatic loading. I think you could just feed the paper in with the feed rollers and some extra G-code. Let me know if you give it a try! I would be really interested in seeing your approach for the automatic loading.
@@ivprojects8143 absolutely will do! Thanks for the thoughtful response! I’m wondering if the weight alone is enough to stop coordinate drift - using rubber over sandpaper that is. I’m mainly using this to write “handwritten” invitations and what not, so I think some minor level of coordinate drift might be acceptable for my use case. I’ll post an update once I have something to show off! Cheers
Do you mind explaining the power bit a tad more for me? I assume the 45 watt requirement is for the power source going into the shield? Is your power supply also powering your arduino itself? Specifically, I bought a 1.5a 12v plug for my arduino and a 2a 12v plug for my shield. I used a wattage calculator and it seems like my shield cord is only capable of about 27 watts. It’s not too late to return them though
I think I understand a bit more now. From what I read, the arduino can be powered by the shield, though it normally receives power over usb. I ordered a laptop style charger for 24v and 6a so I believe I should be good there. My remaining questions: Do you use any bearings? Where did you get the rubber wheels, and are they the same diameter as the sand wheels?
@@Orinshwift Yes you can power the shield with 12v. My Arduino is powered over the USB. The 24v 6A power supply should work well. The bearings are 605ZZ, except for the pen lifting bar pivot which is a 5x11x4. If you can take a look at the SolidWorks assembly it will be very clear. One component of the wheels is in the .STL files called "idler tires". I printed those in PLA and then carefully glued on one wrap of GT2 timing belt as the rubber tire. You might be able to print the tires in TPU and skip the timing belt though. The diameter of the idlers isn't very critical. I'll try to put together a BOM for people that don't have access to SolidWorks.
![เป็นไปได้ไหม - WanMai [Teaser] | 05-12-24](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/P5Uto6e453w/mqdefault.jpg)
Maker Man Dan posted a video that explains how this plotter works in a little more detail. Go check it out:
th-cam.com/video/yQN9Wl0xA48/w-d-xo.html
This might be the solution to a large scale printing issue I have. Can you please let me know how to get in touch with you?
how big?@@mattasher4306
That video shows "build". It doesn't explain anything. The link merely hi-jacks the project to his channel.
It does less than a printer, in more time, only one color, with a lot of noise.
YES I definitely need one! 😀
This is the coolest pen plotter i ever seen
Thank you very much!
But so much cheaper because of the pen ink
@@TheKitMurkit in a very long time to take these profit instead of electricity etc.
ink cartridges dont cost an arm.
@@genkidama7385 yeah yeah whatever you say rich people
I used one of the very first HP desktop plotters in 1985 and the very first picture I plotted was this exact image of the space shuttle.....mind blown!
This is the best plotter i’ve seen yet. High performance *AND* elegant design.
Thank you very much!
Love the design for dropping the pen. I used a servo method in the past but would definitely not be able to push it as fast. I will have to give this a go! Thanks for posting!
Thank you! Hope it works out for you.
Built one myself, different design but also using printed parts, Grbl, UGC, Arduino shield. Will compare my Grbl settings with yours. Mine also prints fast and accurate but interested to improve where I can. Great project as it rolls several fields into one. Well done..thanks...
H
Arduino is kinda slow for tasks like those imo
Get a 32Bit board like an SKR
@@fusseldieb The Arduino isn't the limiting factor for speed here. GRBL can handle a step frequency of around 40 kHz.
In 1993 I was on a high school internship at a company that manufactured a (multi-color/pen) plotter, and its demo drawing was the Space Shuttle. It was amazing and unreachable (despite the plotter technology was already advanced at that time). And now, I can print a printer. It continues to be amazing!
Cool experience! In 1993 I was using a plotter at work to plot large AutoCad drawings. Some engineers were still using drafting boards. A couple were using AutoCad but hadn't learned how to reduce plotter time and there would be hours of prints before mine would come up. I remember complaining they weren't using simpler fonts and limiting their use of text. But the plotter was a glorious machine. Twenty years later at another engineering company, our mechanical engineers stopped producing paper documentation. They don't even produce a drawing, only a 3D model. They forward models to the machinists with notes in the file about which surfaces require tight tolerances. This saves a lot of engineering hours and calendar time and is much faster for machinists too. Those machinists are like artists. Now I work in a factory where we use a plotter only once in a while, a gigantic inkjet machine that produces full color prints. I have only used it one time in three years. I generally use 11x17 (B4) for electrical schematics. Schematics would take an enormous amount of time in a own plot for all the little lines and lettering. But I miss the pen plotters.
I had a very expensive HP A4 size pen plotter at work many years ago - this appears to be much faster and has better output quality!
Thank you! That's great to hear.
I thought plotters were for larger sizes, I don't see the insterest of an A4 plotter, a cheap laser printer does much more. (I bought my first Laserjet in 1988 !)
Wow congrats ! This looks like a very efficient design. It is really mesmerizing to watch.
In an effort to decrease time to print even more, I think there is something that can be done as far as optimizing the toolpath. There is a lot of long move that goes back and fort between different area of the paper. G-code generation and/or post-processing (depending if you have acces to that generative code) could be more clever and pack more effectively toolpaths by area. Simply choosing the closest next possible "pen down" move after each "pen up" move could go a long way I think.
Thank you! I agree. There are probably more optimized G-code generators out there that could shave off quite a bit of time.
I was going to comment on that. The shuttle image seemed particularly bad in that regard. The pen spent half the time off the paper!
@@ivprojects8143 One simple option--considering just how accurate your system is--would be to cut the drawing up into small sections, convert them, then paste the gcode fragments together. It's not a *great* solution, but one that should be simple enough to get working until a better one comes along.
dude this is awesome! Ingenious design and a very efficient use of 3D printed parts and space. Thanks for sharing!
Thank you very much!
That roller system is genius! great machine.
Thank you!
Just as a suggestion for future ideas.
I did have the Toshiba HX-P570 pen plotter for my MSX (end '80s, begin '90s) and this one used nearly the same design principle as your plotter does. (also sold as Sony PRN-C41)
It also had a rotating bar to push the pen down (well yours does lift the pen).
The plotter had 4 very tiny coloured pens inserted in a small carrousel with a spring to lift the pens up.
This way you don't need to carry extra weight to push the pen down, which may allow for even faster prints.
However this does mean you need to push the pen down while drawing a line which may cause extra friction.
The pen change was done via a "squared" rod and a small worm-wheel inside the carrousel
I think I did print the same image of a space shuttle back then as it was the most impressive print to show friends and back then you didn't have a lot of plotter files available on BBS's.
Plotting took a lot longer on that plotter than on yours.
Thanks for the interesting comment! I can see the possible advantages of a spring loaded system versus a gravity based one. Not sure which method would end up being better suited for speed, but it might be worth a try.
I never imagined these motor could run this fast. Amazing video btw.
Thank you! When there's not much moving mass, steppers can accelerate really quick.
thats a sweet design, looks like i can finally reuse all the old inkjet parts i salvaged.
Thank you! And have fun with the build.
Really good. Amazing speed too. I think I'd go for an electromagnet for the pen lifter. One less stepper. Though I really like that lifting bar setup! That's a great way to keep the extra mass static to keep the pen inertia at a minimum.
Thank you! Early on I was planning to use a solenoid, but I found there were a lot of advantages to steppers. They're easy to control via Gcode, allow you to fine tune the distance the pen is lifted, and have 100% duty cycle (compared to the rather low duty cycle of most small solenoids).
@@ivprojects8143 how about servo? like your v2 plotter
@@rama3njoy Hobby servos are much slower.
This is a really cool project! Thanks for sharing your project files and taking the time to write this detailed description.
Thank you! I'm happy to share the files.
You printing rockets with this makes it 100000x cooler. It’s perfect for either making pictures look like sketches or printing out “hand drawn” schematics for things like pcb layouts and engineering drawings for manufactured parts
Thank you!
Wish I had this for wedding invitations and thank you cards. Would've looked like I signed them with real pen and could've done it all on computer!
I love how this machine works. Well done!!!
Thank you!
Very nice design. I like the use of Dremel tool sanding sleeves for the paper grit rollers; simple, cheap, effective, and precise. We’ll done, and another new subscriber! 😊
Thank you very much!
Thanks for sharing this video. Congratulations on the result. The printer looks very nice, accurate and fast.
Thank you very much!
Very nice design!! Can you make a assamblage video of it?
The spring from the clothespin is a touch of genius.
Thanks! I got the idea from 3D printer belt tensioning springs, but I figured I could make one instead of buying it.
This is one heck of am upgrade from the one you uploaded a video of 10 months ago. Well done 👍👍👍
Thank you very much!
Nice project! I have always liked to watch plotters plot. Subscribed.
Thank you!
I love the machine you built, and the space shuttle it ploted as well!😄
Thank you!
What is the pipeline to get the pics through? What controller etc.?
I explain this a little in the second to last paragraph of the description. Basically it's Inkscape => Universal Gcode Sender => Arduino running GRBL.
i was about to say "yo they made a 3d printer for drawings" then i realized that's just a printer
Not just a printer. A printer that doesn’t require $60 ink replacements ever month.
But takes way longer to create the image on paper
Fantastic project! You gained a subscriber! I was looking for a plotter with this design and performance. Congratulations! Excellent work.
Thank you very much!
This is way cheaper than a printer, yet the quality of the rendering is superior. You can't even BUY a C- size printer at all unless it cost TEN$ of thousand$.
Excellent project idea! Thank you for this video. 👏👏👏👍
Thank you very much!
Great and simple work ,it gives inspirition
Thanks
Thank you!
Very nice design! My favourite project this month, hope to build it myself 😍
Thank you very much!
Oooh! Impressive! And I “need” a new project to get the parts for and then start and then procrastinate for a year or five before finishing it.
Thank you! Have fun building.
Nice design. Gcode could use some optimization. Vinyl drag knife add on?
Thanks! I think a vinyl knife could work. I may give it a try at some point.
This reminds me off the plotters at school
Hi, very cool design!
This is doubly interesting to me since I would have dismissed the idea of handling the paper like this at the concept phase: I would assume that the paper would twist and rotate ever so slightly each time so that overall after many trips it would become badly misaligned. Does this happen at all in reality? did you have to balance the forces to align the paper in any way?
Thank you! This is the advantage of using grit rollers. I explain this in a little more detail in the description, but basically the abrasive particles on the grit wheels create a meshing interface in the paper like rack and pinion gears. This lets it very repeatably index back to the exact same position in the Y-axis every time.
@@ivprojects8143 I was about to ask about that. Very interesting that this works so well, I would have clamped the paper in place and moved the whole surface back and forth. Your design is way cooler
Solves a problem that doesn't exist. Nice.
Hello!
Very nice design, it shows you put a lot of time and effort on the design maybe a couple of iterations.
Thanks for sharing!
Thank you!!
Recently tore down an old CTC 3D printer so I have a few NEMA17s, belts, bearings and rods kicking about. I was wondering what to use them for!
Have fun building!
Have you tried to use 4 color markers (Yellow, Black, Magenta and Cyan) with 4 different pictures to make a full color image?
There are some programs capable of vectorizing bitmap images. You could split it to 4 color channels and print them consequently to make a full color image.
That would be cool. I would have to figure out a tool changing system I think.
@@ivprojects8143 Return to home and change pen once one colour has completed? As I have a traditional (up down) z axis I thought of doing this myself by having pens 4 pens mounted on a central hub at 90 deg to each other, then just dial the hub to the next colour. In my mind that works but in practice??
THIS. IS. AWESOME.
Thanks!
Great machine and great choice of drawings, too!
Thank you very much!
As someone who built one, I'm mostly amazed by the speed of that pen. I wasn't even going too fast but I had to limit speed because the pen would dry up.
I had to test quite a few pens to find one that could keep up. It's a 0.7 Tru Red gel tip.
@@ivprojects8143 thanks for sharing!
Потрясающее изобретение для студента;)))))
Когда курсовик от руки требуют:)))
Это единственное для чего он может пригодиться)
@@aidagamemnon ну еще когда чертеж чернилами нарисовать;)
Really an awesome project, and definitely something to build using my plentiful spare parts from various builds. Would you have any assembly instructions anywhere?
Thank you! Unfortunately I don't have written assembly instructions, but the SolidWorks assembly shows how all the parts go together.
@@ivprojects8143 Awesome. How about the firmware?
@@samernajia I describe all the software used in the description. The firmware running on the Arduino is just stock GRBL.
@@ivprojects8143 got it thanks
very nice! surprisingly good results for the speed!
Thank you!
I love it! Nice project, well done!
Thank you very much!
@3:11 the clothes peg spring being used as a belt tensioner is genius 🤯
Thank you!
When HP were big into pen plotters apparently a lot of the internal specifications used "attoparsecs per microfortnight" to measure speed. One attoparsec/microfortnight is almost exactly one inch per second.
That's hilarious. Certainly makes unit conversions a little more exciting.
1.0043 inch per second. Close enough for government work...
can you make a full tutor on this?
Really cool! You should find a better stepper converting mainboard, I had this kinda noise on my old Ender 3 Pro 3D printer too...
Swapped out the mainboard to a BigTreeTech SKR Mini E3, and all the noise was gone..
Thanks! It could easily be made quiet by swapping out the A4988 drivers for some TMC drivers. I just used the A4988s since I had them on hand.
@@ivprojects8143 yeah, cuz that mainboard has better integrated drivers, instead of using attached modules it's integrated into the board with a chip.. And u can easily bootload your own grbl software into it with a usb. just a suggestion.
Could maybe also make a laser engraver version of this..
Awesome. I gotta ask though, do these things have any advantage over inkjet or laser printers?
Thank you! At this point there is no real advantage other than being fun to watch. In the past, plotters could produce more accurate drawings than early inkjet and laser printers.
@@ivprojects8143 Fuck it, Imma make or buy one anyways. Is this a special pen you are using?
@@heckyes It's just the ink insert from a gel tip pen. Specifically a 0.7 Tru Red brand gel tip pen.
Bravo! Bravo! Applause! ...sort of a ball point blended with a laser etcher. Amazing speed and results. I wonder if the ball point overheats and maybe cooks the ink if you try to print a black page...
I love the belt tenstioner
Thank you!
Super nice. Any plans to scale it up in the future? So it would work with much wider paper that comes on rolls?
Possibly. I think you would need to add a few more grit rollers, and maybe a more powerful motor for the Y-axis.
@@ivprojects8143 You can do it! :-)
Cool stuff! Thanks for sharing!
Thank you!
That's excellent!I've been itching to make a pen plotter for some but most are the cute floppy-servo motor kind and not this professional looking beast that's frankly worth the time and money.
(Fun extra: This was the first video that popped up on TH-cam that I tested my new ESP32 BT audio against - so double-win)
Thank you! I'm glad you like the design.
Such a plotter can be effectively used to draw clothing patterns using a long piece of paper along the y axis.
Interesting idea.
Thanks, I love good open source models. I recommend putting your name or something on the STEP assembly, so ppl can find you
Thanks! I may do that if I have a chance.
Hello there, Can i use servo instead of stepper motor for lifting and dropping pen, with the exact mechanism? Will the servo affect its quality or speed?
That's awesome! A thing of beauty.
Thank you very much!
@@ivprojects8143 I can imagine it connected to a camera and taking a picture of a face and converting to grey scale lo-res to draw the image. A cyber mirror. Don't you just love electronics these days!
GREAT job. That is really cool.
Thank you!
Really nice, I just downloaded the project files from github. I was wondering if I could use it as vinyl plotter, with a custom made holder for a vinyl cutting blade. Any sort of reply will be appreciated.
I think it would take some modifications to get it working, but it should be possible
Great improvements!
You can use Inkcut project as driver and set the shortest path to save some movements and time, or maximize X or Y travels if you want. Try it!
Thanks for the idea! I'll look that up.
@@ivprojects8143 I hope you share your experience 😉
what if the pen is replaced with a drag knife, maybe it can cut the sticker
Yes, I think that could work.
This isn't a complaint, just a suggestion for the next version: pen changing capability.
But this is AWESOME as is! 👍😯
I would like to try that at some point! Thanks for the idea.
Amazing!! What a great project! Do you think you can make a vinyl cutter out of this platform?
Thank you! Yes I think it could be converted to a vinyl cutter.
This is very cool. CJ also supports you!!!
I highly recommend switching away from gcode to HP-GL since that language is specifically designed for plotters and if you ever implement tool changing it will make your life easier.
It also has quite a few build in functions, so the actual arduino would so some calculations, like infill patterns or circle drawings.
Good suggestions, thanks! I'll look into HP-GL.
excellent .. I have tried to make a plotter without success .. 2 times .. I try this design .. I hope it will give good result
Thank you! Have fun building.
Are there any limit switches or is it all soft limits
It just uses soft limits for now. Limit switches are fairly easy to implement with GRBL, so you could definitely add them if needed.
@@ivprojects8143 what is the stepping speed of the servos if you don’t mind me asking
@@chocolate_express Sure, you can see the GRBL parameters at 5:07 in the video. I'm not sure exactly what step frequency they reach, but I'm using 1/16 microstepping.
@@ivprojects8143 thank you so much for responding, i have been subscribed to your channel since the
domino video. I really appreciate riciat the amount of work you put into making these videos and responding to comments
The choices it makes (or are made for it) as to what to draw next is peculiar. There's got to be a way of further optimising it to prioritise 'local' things so there's less jumping about. How would this be done?
I'm just using an open source G-code generator. I'm sure there are more optimized ones out there.
@@ivprojects8143 Good job. It must be most satisfying for you to have made something so wondrous. Another question- almost certainly outside the scope of this vid- do you have any idea why the cad viewport render would have the perspective backwards so nearer things appear narrower than things further away? It's not even orthographic. 2:04
@@gnamp Thanks! I think the perspective thing may be an optical illusion. Not sure though.
Very, very clever design indeed ! I simply wonder how the paper sheet remains flat, and what maximum width it can reach ? I looks there's no system to keep it flat, by succion or whatever.
Thank you! The grit rollers grip onto the paper preventing it from bunching up. If you wanted to make a wide-format plotter, you'd probably have to add additional rollers in the middle of the page. Check out large commercial vinyl cutter designs if you're curious.
Just had another look...yours's is faster than mine by a way... Mine uses a moving y axis with the paper stretched and held in place with clips. Your direct movement of the paper helps speed wise plus small movement of the z axis pen. Interesting.. I plan to maybe use different types of pen and maybe paint brushes or charcoal so will probably stick on the path I'm on but will definitely try to use some of your ideas.
Sounds interesting! You should post a video of your design (if you want to).
@@ivprojects8143 Thinking the same. Will do... But go easy on me... Lol
would be cool to print with something that conducts electricity so you could print circuits.
That's a cool idea! Do you know of any inks or paints that would be conductive enough to carry a little current? I know there are conductive carbon paints for electroplating plastics and RF shielding, but I think those paints have a pretty high resistance.
@@ivprojects8143 using standard inks to draw masks for photo etching might be viable. You'd just draw the negative onto transparency film. I'd be you could achieve some cool effects that way.
@@ivprojects8143 You could print a photoresisting mask with a thin permanent marker and exposure it to UV light.
Maker Dan mentions in his video how you use sand paper to help the y axis roll. I was just thinking that a laser printer uses a sticky rubber wheels to toll the paper through so it can print the page. I was wondering if that has been experimented with yet?
Hello, what software did you use in the video?
Hi, check the description of the video.
Awesome. Well done. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you too!
Would love to se it do some more detailed shading, you could do some amazing crosshatching
That would be cool. I think GRBL Plotter (another Gcode creator/sender) has some shading features.
Have a nice day. It's been a great project. Congratulations. I have a question. I also made a project like this, but the z axis does not lift the pen while drawing. ( I use Light Brun , Easel software. ) Which software program do you use?
Thanks! Check the description for some information about the software.
I've asked this question on your another video also, please explain how to set zero position, ie. how do we determine where does it start plotting & what if I want to print on a smaller paper?
Great design.
I am trying to make. I am printing all the parts with 25% infill and 1.2mm wall Thickness. Is it OK or should I increase the infill density. I don't have a 3d printer so I am printing all the parts from a 3d printing service they are charging thrice the cost of original printing cost.
Bonjour,
It looks like a nice project.
what kind of pen is that?
Thanks! It's the insert from a 0.7 Tru Red gel tip pen.
Hello, congratulations on this and your other projects, they really follow through. In the case of this project, the proof is in the pudding and it has been replicated :-) I've noticed there's no mention of the NEMA 17 motors in the BOM and that the printed parts seem somewhat contingent upon the height of these. Could you either reply to this with more info on what you went with or (ideally) update the BOM? Cheers.
Thanks! They are 38mm NEMA-17 motors, except for the Z axis motor which is smaller since I had it on hand. You could use 38mm motors for all the axes though.
Really great. You need to optimize the gcode to draw lines and remove the travel time
Thanks! That's just the choice of G-code generating software. I'm sure there are better options out there.
Great Project, But just wanted to know the benefits of having a Pen Plotter over a Printer ?
Thank you! At this point there's no real advantage other than being fun to watch. In the past, plotters could produce more accurate drawings than early inkjet and laser printers.
Excellent design that does everything right: heavy parts are stationary, only lightweight parts are in motion. Even the pen lifter motor is stationary, ye olde HP-style. Result: the only non-lethargic plotter design on the net. Looking forward to seeing it with a tool changer :)
Did you have much trouble aligning the rollers so that the paper stays aligned after so much sliding back and forth, or is it not really an issue?
Thank you very much! I'm glad you like the design. The paper rollers worked surprisingly well without much iteration. The rollers are mounted on the same rod, so they should be quite collinear.
Awesome project. Did you consider the rough rubber rollers found inside inkjet & laser printers, when looking for grit rollers?
Thank you! The grit rollers need to create tiny dents in the paper to work properly, and rubber wouldn't do that the same way. The reason rubber rollers can be used in inkjet and laser printers is they don't need to repeatedly feed the paper back and forth hundreds of times.
Hey! Nice project. I would like to make similar. Question what you do then you want to have different paper formats?
Thanks! You could change the width of the paper it takes by changing the length of the linear rod and drawing bar. Using a different length of paper shouldn't cause issues.
Good morning, wouldn't you have an assembly video because I'm going to start making one for myself?
Works great! I've used sandpaper-based rollers myself and they work nicely. Finer grain than yours though.
Thanks! I tried 240 grit, but 120 grit seemed to work a little better.
Hi, what camera did you use to record the project? And did you use any instructions/guide to document the whole process? It is very well put and easy to understand. Thanks!
I recorded it with an IPhone 7 camera. I haven't written any assembly instructions for it, but the SolidWorks assembly shows how all the pieces go together.
Hello! Where is the Arduino code? 😢
Hi, there is no custom arduino code. The arduino is running stock GRBL which you can find on their github and website
@@ivprojects8143 Isn't it necessary to upload code to the Arduino?
@@ivprojects8143 so you don’t need a code for the arduino?
that's awesome, i will try make my own, thanks for sharing .
Thank you! Have fun building.
Wow. Ein geniales Teil. Habe mich etwas mit GRBL beschäftigt. Wie wird denn an diesem Plotter die Y Drehung gesteuert? GRBL kennt doch nur XYZ als System wie beim 3D Drucker.
Oooo This is awesome! Definitely earned a sub! :D
Thank you very much!
прекрасная реализация. мне нравится)
Thank you!
Nice, what kind of bushings / linear bearings are you using for the pen carriage? Thanks for the video and info!!
Thanks! The linear bearing on the printhead is 3D printed, and is modeled after the Drylin linear bearings made by Igus.
@@ivprojects8143 cool thank you. I am using these, too - the RJM model is easy peasy, is it this one? The JSM are nice and small but give me some troubles, I find it hard to make them press-fit precise enough in 3D printed parts to get smooth movement. Yours look really efficient though!!
@@ktl0113 I came up with a method for printing precise linear bearings. I print them slightly undersized, and press them onto a shaft. Then I spin the shaft in a cordless drill while holding the bearing in place to slightly melt the inside face of the bearing from friction. This creates a pretty nice and smooth bearing.
@@ivprojects8143 I will try this!! Thank you so much for sharing.
I like this design a lot. I’m curious how it handles thicker materials; have you tried feeding through something like poster board or illustration board?
Thank you! I haven't tried any materials other than paper. I think something like construction paper would work fine, and I think the printhead could easily be modified to work with much thicker materials. I don't think the roller system would have issues with thicker materials.
Awesome design, I've been planning out a build based on your v1 design - and was anxiously awaiting this build! Are the grooves left by the sand paper large enough to be felt? i might either stick to the v1 design if they are, orrr try to get a larger sheet of paper than I need and trim the edges off. I love your designs because they lend themselves so well to printing large quantities at a time. I'm working on a feeder mechanism as well (thought I have no formal engineering experience). I had originally bought a wall plug for both the arduino, and the shield at 12v each. Could I simply use those and just expect slower print speeds? I haven't gotten around to learning grbl yet, but I assume any tweaks that might have to be made would mostly happen in those params? Thanks for the awesome video! I would kill for an actually assembly tutorial video :)
EDIT: I just noticed your comment that the lever needs to be lifted by hand to load more paper in. I need to have a think, but it seems like the rubber roller design might be more suited for automating the loading/unloading process
Thank you for the kind words! I would recommend building this plotter over my last one. It's a much more mature design and doesn't experience the coordinate drift issue. The indentations left by the sandpaper are pretty small, and would be tough to notice without specifically looking for them. However, you could also use a lighter weight bar (like 3/8" instead of 1/2") to reduce the pressure on the rollers. The weight bar only needs to be really heavy if you're trying to maximize accelerations.
Yes, you can run the steppers at 12v as long as the power supply can provide enough current. I think you will want around 45 watts to comfortably run the three motors. GRBL is fairly simple to use, and yes the speed and acceleration parameters are very easy to change over the serial interface.
I think this design would be better suited for automating the paper loading as well. My last plotter had the unfortunate oversight of running the sheet of paper through the X-axis belt loop, which made it tricky to load even by hand. I don't think you would need to lift the lever for automatic loading. I think you could just feed the paper in with the feed rollers and some extra G-code.
Let me know if you give it a try! I would be really interested in seeing your approach for the automatic loading.
@@ivprojects8143 absolutely will do! Thanks for the thoughtful response! I’m wondering if the weight alone is enough to stop coordinate drift - using rubber over sandpaper that is. I’m mainly using this to write “handwritten” invitations and what not, so I think some minor level of coordinate drift might be acceptable for my use case. I’ll post an update once I have something to show off! Cheers
Do you mind explaining the power bit a tad more for me? I assume the 45 watt requirement is for the power source going into the shield? Is your power supply also powering your arduino itself? Specifically, I bought a 1.5a 12v plug for my arduino and a 2a 12v plug for my shield. I used a wattage calculator and it seems like my shield cord is only capable of about 27 watts. It’s not too late to return them though
I think I understand a bit more now. From what I read, the arduino can be powered by the shield, though it normally receives power over usb. I ordered a laptop style charger for 24v and 6a so I believe I should be good there.
My remaining questions: Do you use any bearings? Where did you get the rubber wheels, and are they the same diameter as the sand wheels?
@@Orinshwift Yes you can power the shield with 12v. My Arduino is powered over the USB. The 24v 6A power supply should work well. The bearings are 605ZZ, except for the pen lifting bar pivot which is a 5x11x4. If you can take a look at the SolidWorks assembly it will be very clear.
One component of the wheels is in the .STL files called "idler tires". I printed those in PLA and then carefully glued on one wrap of GT2 timing belt as the rubber tire. You might be able to print the tires in TPU and skip the timing belt though. The diameter of the idlers isn't very critical.
I'll try to put together a BOM for people that don't have access to SolidWorks.