As is Tradition

Thanksgiving handwriting capture.

It’s pretty cool that Esther learned writing just as this project came online so I could capture her progress from the beginning. For comparison purposes, this doesn’t show lowercase letters, special characters, or cursive that she recently acquired.

PlottyBot Port

I stumbled upon electronically actuated Etch-a-Sketches, and I pretty much had to see if I could port the PlottyBot stack to the toy. It was pretty straightforward. I got the parts from someone else on Thingiverse for a smaller Etch-a-Sketch and the fit isn’t great, but it’s enough of a proof of concept to know I want to make a nice big one, and really the work is all mechanical at this point. How about a web enabled Etch-a-Sketch that can write in your handwriting?

Experimenting with Larger Ink Reservoirs

When I plot stuff that goes beyond a pen’s ink capacity, it’s a pain to swap pens. It’s a constant worry and the operation has the potential for ruining a plot. So I’m experimenting with ways to have enough ink on board, or maybe refill. Of course I’m learning that pens are designed within tight tolerances of pressure & viscosity.

I think this one is going to work. I made the reservoir’s volume 5 times that of an unaltered Precise v5 pen.

I always make an ink mess with each experimentation. I’ve learned that PLA printing is not liquid tight. And so thank you Nathan for the resin printing :). One other silly lesson I’ve learned is that various paper can suck up ink at different rates.