Beautiful my winter project 2021-22 thanks very much...the only thing I will be changing is I have step sticks in my junk/spare parts box Beautiful video very very instructive...THANKS
If you get a different electronics system and/or software stack running please let me know or make a remix on Thingiverse: the eibotboard is great but they're hard to get so alternatives would be excellent to have in place. Glad to hear it's useful :)
Thanks for the design and assembly instructions. I've had a V3 Axidraw for a few months now and am excited to build my own plotter. From the photo on thingiverse it looks like it looks like the A1 is oriented portrait rather than landscape. Was that intentional or is the pic just a mockup? I know the Axidraw makes it landscape to try and keep the pen weight closer to the base rail. Thanks Again!
It was set up in portrait orientation because of the lengths of extrusion that I could easily obtain and I was testing how large the plotter could be made. With the same length of pen arm and a longer base arm the plotter could be made A0. However the accuracy was already low at the far end of the arm travel and the sag of the arm required a large movement of the pen lift servo to avoid the pen touching the paper. I generally do not recommend building the plotter at larger than A2 unless you really, really need to make it big. It also needs to be bolted or screwed to a baseboard as it can't balance with a long pen arm. If you have an AxiDraw you will find that the precision and general polish of this plotter is much lower.
@@ChrisLynas well, it looks like a great place to start. I've been learning a bit of 3d modeling in Fusion360 so maybe I can adapt along the way to eventually find a more stable solution for an A1 size.
Hello there! Your effort and work in to this projects has been very beautiful all the way! May I ask where I can get the code for the microcontroller board? Are you using a Arduino board? Can the size be changed for international A0 paper size?
Thanks:) There is no code for the stepper driver I've used, it has firmware that already works with Inkscape directly over a USB connection using the Axidraw driver software: there should be a link to one in the Thingiverse page from the description but you could also search for "EiBotBoard". I originally made the machine at A1 size, I don't think A0 would work well but it might be possible if you can find extrusions long enough, again check the Thingiverse page for details on how to configure the Inkscape driver software for large sizes.
If you go to the Thingiverse link in the description there are details on the board there. There is an AliExpress shop that I bought my board from in the Thingiverse page, they might not have stock at the moment but normally there are one or two other shops that carry them. You can search AliExpress or Google for "EiBotBoard" or "EBB". They can be bought from EvilMadScientist's shop also but that might be expensive depending on where you live (they are in the US).
Sorry I didn't reply earlier: this machine was all printed with a mini Kossel delta. However now after 7 years of strong service this printer has been retired and I now use a Prusa Mini.
I'd have to check to be sure but I think it was one of the single stroke Hershey fonts for plotters that come with the AxiDraw/EggBot Inkscape extensions
You didn‘t actually use v-slot profiles, just normal aluminium profiles. Do you know if the roller distances still work with the proper v-slot profiles?
Honestly I have no idea. There is adjustment built into the mountings already and to an extent this can be changed in the model if it needs to increase or decrease. If you have dimensions for different extrusions it might not be too hard to check in the CAD, no promises on how quick I can get around to it :) The OpenSCAD files are available if you'd like to take a look, they can be imported into FreeCad also if you'd like that better, that's how I got the drawings of the models to plot.
Filament cost is very low, I buy PLA at around £20/kg so all these parts are way less than £5 if you already have a printer. Parts cost will vary depending on where you are but the biggest difference will be in the control board: I've used an EiBotBoard clone but these aren't always available and originals can be pricey, other plotter electronics can be used but I don't have that info. Power supply is also hard to say because it depends on your control board but power demand is not huge so probably less than £20 - I use an old laptop power brick. There are more details on the thingiverse page but as a summary for the rest of the parts: bolts and v-rollers ~£30, extrusion ~£25, belts and pulleys ~£15, servos (buy spares, they fail) and extension cable ~£15, steppers ~£20. There are a few other minor bits and you might have to buy some tools but also you might have some parts already so around £130 might be a good estimate. If this seems feasible I'd recommend assembling a buy list from suppliers you can find to get the detailed costs for you before you start the project. That cost won't change much with size, A4 will cost nearly the same as A3 or even A2 or A1 so the main constraint will be space. Generally while accuracy is good the bigger the machine the less accurate it gets at long pen reach so that might also be a constraint for you. If you like the experience of making things and working things out these projects can be fun, if you don't a kit might be better for you although apart from AxiDraw (which will be perfect and supported well - I have an EggBot and their kits and instructions are top notch) I cannot advise on quality. There's also a Drawing Bots Discord where many plotter people hang out where you can probably get more help than you can handle if you decide you want to build or buy something.
@@ChrisLynas wow, thank you for the detailed reply. I do intend on building one using the eibotboard. My main reasoning is the community open source software and it seems they have smoothing logic built in. During my research I found out it is open source and you can upload the files to pcbway or another similar site and get a board custom made. I haven’t priced this out yet but after I do I will send you a comment with the info.
Very interested to see your experience with getting an EiBotBoard made. The acceleration code is built into the AxiDraw Inkscape extension, the EiBotBoard doesn't do any of the motion planning. I think it's possible to make an Arduino act like an EiBotBoard but I never tried.
The Thingiverse page linked in the description has a list of parts to print and parts to buy. Make sure you know what you're going to use for electronics before you start: EiBotBoard clones are not always available so your options for buying one can be limited sometimes www.thingiverse.com/thing:2994920
HI.Thank you for sharing this project. What size of aluminum extrusions do i need to use to create an A3 size model like the original axidraw A3 model?
Sorry I didn't reply earlier, I didn't get a notification about the comment; hope this is still in time to be useful. My machine can do a bit more than A3 and the 20x20 is 57cm, the 20x40 is 74cm. This gives a plottable area of about 59x44cm.
The board I use is the same one used in the AxiDraw plotter, it uses an Inkscape extension that allows you to plot directly from the drawing in Inkscape. There are other control boards where you have to convert the drawing to GCode but I have never used one of those.
@@ChrisLynas incredible !!! Thank you so much. So you press print? Or a button in the plugin? Any chance that would print on a 3d printer tgat is usually fed via Cura?
I'm happy you liked the video, thanks for watching :) Unfortunately I'm not really set up to make things for people and support them so I can't do that, sorry. Even if I were to make it for you at cost it would probably end up more expensive than just buying one of the commercial products that do the same thing, this is only really worth doing if someone wants to build their own and already has a 3d printer to make the parts
Beautiful my winter project 2021-22 thanks very much...the only thing I will be changing is I have step sticks in my junk/spare parts box Beautiful video very very instructive...THANKS
If you get a different electronics system and/or software stack running please let me know or make a remix on Thingiverse: the eibotboard is great but they're hard to get so alternatives would be excellent to have in place. Glad to hear it's useful :)
Loved this!! Great engineering
I love it.. Thanks for sharing and great interesting explanation.
Really cool design
Thanks for the design and assembly instructions. I've had a V3 Axidraw for a few months now and am excited to build my own plotter. From the photo on thingiverse it looks like it looks like the A1 is oriented portrait rather than landscape. Was that intentional or is the pic just a mockup? I know the Axidraw makes it landscape to try and keep the pen weight closer to the base rail. Thanks Again!
It was set up in portrait orientation because of the lengths of extrusion that I could easily obtain and I was testing how large the plotter could be made. With the same length of pen arm and a longer base arm the plotter could be made A0.
However the accuracy was already low at the far end of the arm travel and the sag of the arm required a large movement of the pen lift servo to avoid the pen touching the paper. I generally do not recommend building the plotter at larger than A2 unless you really, really need to make it big. It also needs to be bolted or screwed to a baseboard as it can't balance with a long pen arm.
If you have an AxiDraw you will find that the precision and general polish of this plotter is much lower.
@@ChrisLynas well, it looks like a great place to start. I've been learning a bit of 3d modeling in Fusion360 so maybe I can adapt along the way to eventually find a more stable solution for an A1 size.
Gracias su video muy completo y detallado ❤ se le agrádese mucho 👍🏻🍺
can you provide some instruction on installing the eibotboard? I am stuck.
I'll try to help but I don't know what you mean: are you asking about fixing it to the plotter or installing it on a PC?
@@ChrisLynas Just the plotter. I'm not sure how to connect the stuff the the board
Hello there! Your effort and work in to this projects has been very beautiful all the way! May I ask where I can get the code for the microcontroller board? Are you using a Arduino board? Can the size be changed for international A0 paper size?
Thanks:) There is no code for the stepper driver I've used, it has firmware that already works with Inkscape directly over a USB connection using the Axidraw driver software: there should be a link to one in the Thingiverse page from the description but you could also search for "EiBotBoard". I originally made the machine at A1 size, I don't think A0 would work well but it might be possible if you can find extrusions long enough, again check the Thingiverse page for details on how to configure the Inkscape driver software for large sizes.
@@ChrisLynas can you please give me a link where I can buy the board?
@@ChrisLynas by inspecting your board in the video. It looks like a breakout board MACH3 100khz interface!
If you go to the Thingiverse link in the description there are details on the board there. There is an AliExpress shop that I bought my board from in the Thingiverse page, they might not have stock at the moment but normally there are one or two other shops that carry them. You can search AliExpress or Google for "EiBotBoard" or "EBB". They can be bought from EvilMadScientist's shop also but that might be expensive depending on where you live (they are in the US).
This is the page from the designer of the board www.schmalzhaus.com/EBB
hi Chris,
Such a nice machine..
which printer are u using?
Sorry I didn't reply earlier: this machine was all printed with a mini Kossel delta. However now after 7 years of strong service this printer has been retired and I now use a Prusa Mini.
Would you mind if i asked for the code?
Hi, anyone knows the font @ 19:10. Thank you in advanced :). By the way noice design dope pen printer!
I'd have to check to be sure but I think it was one of the single stroke Hershey fonts for plotters that come with the AxiDraw/EggBot Inkscape extensions
@@ChrisLynas Thank you will try them out, there are also some nice hatching options in these Inkscape extensions :).
You didn‘t actually use v-slot profiles, just normal aluminium profiles. Do you know if the roller distances still work with the proper v-slot profiles?
Great project and video. Thinking about building my own. The plotted project poster really brought it home 😁
Honestly I have no idea. There is adjustment built into the mountings already and to an extent this can be changed in the model if it needs to increase or decrease. If you have dimensions for different extrusions it might not be too hard to check in the CAD, no promises on how quick I can get around to it :) The OpenSCAD files are available if you'd like to take a look, they can be imported into FreeCad also if you'd like that better, that's how I got the drawings of the models to plot.
Do you have estimate on how much money all the parts and filament cost?
Filament cost is very low, I buy PLA at around £20/kg so all these parts are way less than £5 if you already have a printer.
Parts cost will vary depending on where you are but the biggest difference will be in the control board: I've used an EiBotBoard clone but these aren't always available and originals can be pricey, other plotter electronics can be used but I don't have that info. Power supply is also hard to say because it depends on your control board but power demand is not huge so probably less than £20 - I use an old laptop power brick.
There are more details on the thingiverse page but as a summary for the rest of the parts: bolts and v-rollers ~£30, extrusion ~£25, belts and pulleys ~£15, servos (buy spares, they fail) and extension cable ~£15, steppers ~£20. There are a few other minor bits and you might have to buy some tools but also you might have some parts already so around £130 might be a good estimate. If this seems feasible I'd recommend assembling a buy list from suppliers you can find to get the detailed costs for you before you start the project.
That cost won't change much with size, A4 will cost nearly the same as A3 or even A2 or A1 so the main constraint will be space. Generally while accuracy is good the bigger the machine the less accurate it gets at long pen reach so that might also be a constraint for you. If you like the experience of making things and working things out these projects can be fun, if you don't a kit might be better for you although apart from AxiDraw (which will be perfect and supported well - I have an EggBot and their kits and instructions are top notch) I cannot advise on quality.
There's also a Drawing Bots Discord where many plotter people hang out where you can probably get more help than you can handle if you decide you want to build or buy something.
@@ChrisLynas wow, thank you for the detailed reply. I do intend on building one using the eibotboard. My main reasoning is the community open source software and it seems they have smoothing logic built in. During my research I found out it is open source and you can upload the files to pcbway or another similar site and get a board custom made. I haven’t priced this out yet but after I do I will send you a comment with the info.
Very interested to see your experience with getting an EiBotBoard made.
The acceleration code is built into the AxiDraw Inkscape extension, the EiBotBoard doesn't do any of the motion planning. I think it's possible to make an Arduino act like an EiBotBoard but I never tried.
I would like a list of the necessary parts please
The Thingiverse page linked in the description has a list of parts to print and parts to buy. Make sure you know what you're going to use for electronics before you start: EiBotBoard clones are not always available so your options for buying one can be limited sometimes www.thingiverse.com/thing:2994920
@@ChrisLynas thank you very much
HI.Thank you for sharing this project. What size of aluminum extrusions do i need to use to create an A3 size model like the original axidraw A3 model?
Sorry I didn't reply earlier, I didn't get a notification about the comment; hope this is still in time to be useful. My machine can do a bit more than A3 and the 20x20 is 57cm, the 20x40 is 74cm. This gives a plottable area of about 59x44cm.
@@ChrisLynas thank you!
How did you send the drawing to printer?
The board I use is the same one used in the AxiDraw plotter, it uses an Inkscape extension that allows you to plot directly from the drawing in Inkscape.
There are other control boards where you have to convert the drawing to GCode but I have never used one of those.
@@ChrisLynas incredible !!! Thank you so much. So you press print? Or a button in the plugin? Any chance that would print on a 3d printer tgat is usually fed via Cura?
Could you build it for me and sell it to me? Btw i loved the video amd watched it completely. Thank you sir.
I'm happy you liked the video, thanks for watching :) Unfortunately I'm not really set up to make things for people and support them so I can't do that, sorry. Even if I were to make it for you at cost it would probably end up more expensive than just buying one of the commercial products that do the same thing, this is only really worth doing if someone wants to build their own and already has a 3d printer to make the parts
Ok thank you