Tag Archives: brainstorming

TinyCNC: Too Many Ideas

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ideas photo

Thinkin’ hard

I’ve been brainstorming ways to make the TinyCNC better:

  1. Drawing and Recording.
    1. My idea is to be able to control the robot through they keypad, perhaps going through the motions for a drawing or to perform a small task, and then have it “replay” the same motions.  Ideally, press the “*” key to start “recording,” draw something with the keypad, press “*” to stop recording, and then press the “#” button to replay the motions.  Could be nifty!
  2. Drawing by Remote Control.
    1. The Adafruit keypad I’m using is great!  There are only two, very minor, problems with it.  First, it requires 7 input pins, which means that I definitely need a full-fledged Arduino to run the robot, even though it can run off a tiny Adafruit Trinket or Digispark.  Second, the buttons are a little difficult for my youngest daughter to press.
    2. Using an IR receiver sensor, I could use a small IR remote to control the robot – which would be great.  Or, I could possibly even use an old remote control from a TV or VCR.12345
  3. Changes to Y Axis.  The Y-axis tends to “droop” when it is fully extended.  If the underside was slightly longer, it could just have a plastic runner that would keep it level.
  4. Changes to Z Axis.  The current Z-axis sucks.  It is very wobbly and not able to hold a pen very well.  If it had a sliding slot/notch system like the XY axes do, it might not be as bad.
  5. Changes to X Pinion/Gear.  If this were very slightly thinner, I wouldn’t have to raise the X rack slightly off the drawing surface.  Or, of course, I could make the X rack slightly taller.

”Tiny
  1. Uses for a Tiny CNC Robot
  2. TinyCNC: Too Many Ideas
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  1. That’s a “video cassette recorder.” [↩]
  2. That’s like a DVD that you have to rewind at top speed before you can watch it again – and where the quality degrades slightly every time you watch it [↩]
  3. Oh.  Sure.  Yes.  A DVD is like a Blu-Ray, only it doesn’t look quite as good on your TV. [↩]
  4. Blu-Ray?  Yeah, okay.  That’s…  like… if you had a coaster that could only stream just one movie off Netflix if you stick into a box next to your TV [↩]
  5. TV?!  Seriously?!  Okay, okay.  It’s like a really big phone that can’t make calls or text. [↩]