Author: Dan

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Antonio builds the largest Drawbot so far

“I managed to get a huge drawbot working, with a serious rethinking of the hardware. In the end it was an Egg of Columbus, and I’m proud to have discovered it: you can avoid all the mess of the electrical wiring from motors to arduino and from arduino to PC, by simply let them all stay very close together and making only the fishing line go around the drawing area, driven by idler pulleys! … It is now very easy to draw on huge areas, and the hardware remains completely unchanged independently from the size of the drawing area! You only need to change the position of the idler pulleys.

I will be disclosing this tecnique during the Makers Italy Fair in Milan (only in italian, sorry). I wanted to share it with you as another mean of saying thanks for all the effort you put in the code. I will be advertising your firmware and your site during the 3 workshops I’ll be doing during the Fair.”

Antonio: Just how big is it? How long does it take to draw that picture?

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Let’s put together an Adafruit Motor Shield

I’m just back from a week at the all-inclusive Hacienda Hotel in Puerto Vallarta. So relaxing! Snorkling, 3 buffet meals a day… I must have put on a pound a day.

While I was gone HALO 4 came out. I thought I’d watch a bit of game play and see if it was any good. Then a light went off in my head. Why doesn’t anyone do this for Makers? So here’s my first attempt.

I had to solder 10 of these boards in a row and when I was done the solder fumes were giving me a headache. Apologies for the heavy breathing, my nose was half an inch from the camera.

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Website Reno Work

I’m really happy with the software I’m using so far for this site. Having grown it over time I’m reminded of Tom Waits when he said “it used to be a men’s room until they knocked down a wall and expanded.” It’s clear to me that it looks like three separate sites on one domain: a grey on grey blog, a green store, a blue forum, and a home page that looks like it is selling but makes you go to the green store in a hard-to-find way. So yesterday I set up a dev server and the next goal is to integrate the three designs into a single common look & feel. Do you know of a particularly beautiful online store? Have you got some constructive criticism, or a wish? Tell me in the forums or in the comments below. I’m looking to learn and get it right.

In other news… I received my first Purchase Order. I’m going to fill and I think going forward I’m going to say all orders have to be through the online order system, thank you very much. Even the local pickup option has to be paid online so my accountant stays happy.

I received my first international customer support call. Nice! Always glad to talk to people.

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Image isn’t everything, but it’s worth more than I’ve invested to date.

I start way too many sentences with the word “So”. When I bought the label maker and the new printer a few weeks ago I was delighted that everything started to look more professional. Now that I’m back from Stanford and looking ahead I see that’s a really low hanging fruit – I can get a logo made, improve the look & feel of the website, maybe even get tshirts. Those count as company uniforms, right? That’s a tax write off, yes? Nice.

Have you got ideas that would make this place look more put-together? Let us know in the forums or contact us directly.

Also: I’m trying to get Robert Khoo‘s attention. If you are connected to him in some way, please let me know!

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Transforming a line-following robot into a maze-solving robot

On a dare about a year ago I built a line following robot in an hour. I made it into CanDo, the robot in a can. People said “what’s the point? If you tell me how to do everything then what’s left for me to discover?”

Great feedback! I like a puzzle as much as the next person. I think the way forward is to prove that it can be done and then put all the modification instructions into a separate document… like a walkthrough or a cheat sheet for your favorite game. Of course, if you want to figure it out with other people then join the forums now and start a conversation.

Pictured here are some of the first steps as I’m testing the new “eyes” and making sure the robot knows what to do when it reaches an intersection. Here’s a hint: Right-hand rule.

The middle piece that looks like a Y is the end of the maze.