Robot Challenge Marathon

3. Materials required: 8 plastic parts

Eight plastic parts

Whew!  It’s been a wild few weeks!

Just a few weeks ago I found out about WyoLum 2013 Innovation Grant and discovered that the AFRON 2013 Design Challenge had been extended.  I then began a foolish feverish attempt to enter both challenges before their respective deadlines (12/31/2013 for the WyoLum Innovation Grant and 1/15/2014 for the AFRON Ultra Affordable Educational Robot challenge).  I found it difficult to get the robot’s plastic part design and software to an acceptable point for submission for the WyoLum Grant and probably more difficult to get all the documentation in for the AFRON challenge since their challenge required so many parts – pictures, videos, putting on a robot building workshop.

If you’re interested in reading a LOT about the Tiny 3-axis CNC drawing robot, my entry into the AFRON 2013 Design Challenge is here.  Between that page and the software user guide, I’ve written more than 11, 000 words and added 115 pictures and 5 videos.

If there was just one page on this entire site to teach you more than you ever wanted to know about how to build a tiny drawing robot (including what parts you could scavenge, where to find them, what parts you can substitute, how to wire up the robot, program it, and get it drawing) look no further.

Tiny Drawing Robot Gallery

Two R2D2's

Two R2D2’s

This last weekend, when I should have been working, I was having a blast drawing tiny drawings with my tiny drawing robot.  Under the kind and benevolent tutelage of TechNinja, I improved my Arduino and Processing sketches, started a repository for the software/firmware for the Tiny CNC drawing robot, and merged his pull request to add some code to make this little robot compatible with the CNC server software written to run the WaterColorBot and EggBot.

Above are probably the best drawings I’ve managed with my little robot to date.  The drawing is about 2 inches tall.  The one on the left is from a single “pass” of the drawing robot, the second is from the robot drawing the same picture three times in a row.  I was quite surprised that the robot was able to draw the same picture several times and repeat the drawing so well.

An image of a weeping angel is itself a weeping angel

An image of a weeping angel is itself a weeping angel

This drawing, of a weeping angel from Doctor Who, is also about 2 inches tall.  This image wasn’t the best topic to draw – but my daughter specifically requested it.  I found a full color JPG/bitmap picture online, imported it into Inkscape, and converted it into a single-color vector graphic for the robot.

A robot drawn robot turtle

A robot drawn robot turtle

This one is a drawing of a robot turtle, from the game “Robot Turtles.”  I pledged to help support this awesome game on Kickstarter and it arrived a little before Christmas.  While it didn’t get immediate attention on Christmas day, we played the game for the first time a few days later and my daughter loved it.  I think it was really smart to design the game with “unlockables” which give the game a gentle learning curve to start and a challenge later on right when the players start to get complacent.  I pulled the JPG/bitmap image from the Robot Turtles community page, turned it into a two-tone vector image using Inkscape, and fired the drawing robot.

I also tried to draw a Death Star, but it turned out terrible.  The SVG version of the image I found was terrible and the robot drawing was even worse.

The Tiniest Drawing Robot Actually Draws!

Tiny Drawing Robot satisfied with itself for having drawn a robot

Tiny Drawing Robot satisfied with itself for having drawn a robot

One of the most asked for features of this tiny drawing robot is that it needs software to actually draw things.  Well, wait no more!  The software to actually draw things is now a reality.  Above is a picture of the little drawing robot acting quite smug after having drawn a little copy of the Make robot.

While I’ve developed a basic “toolpath” to draw things, this is not yet a polished work.  There are lots of little hacks I’ve used to get the robot to work.  I’ll jot down as many as I can here so you can follow along at home if you like.  I anticipate developing a much better system very soon that won’t require as much fiddling.  🙂  For now, you can make your own tiny robot draw by following this rough guide:

  1. Download the TinyCNC-Gcode.ino Arduino sketch from Github and upload it to your Arduino.
    1. The Arduino sketch for the Tiny CNC has some hardcoded “limits” to the X, Y, and Z axes.  I added the limits of my own robot, but your mileage may vary.
    2. The robot treats the left most position with the Y axis totally retracted as the (0,0).  (Well, really, the X minimum and Y minimum position).  Thus, it doesn’t try to draw anything that’s not in the +X,+Y quadrant.
  2. Import or draw a picture in Inkscape.
  3. Export the drawing into Gcode using the MakerBot Unicorn Gcode Plugin by Marty McGuire.
    1. Since the plugin treats the center of the drawing as the coordinate (0,0), you’ll need to put your drawing in the top right quadrant of the picture.  I used a drawing area that was twice the height and width of my robot’s drawing area, so that the top right quadrant would be equal to the drawing area.
    2. It’s important to “break apart” the SVG drawing before you try to export the image to Gcode.  If you don’t you’ll probably end up with an error message and an empty Gcode file.
    3. Interestingly, since Marty’s Gcode plugin is written in Python and Python can communicate over USB with an Arduino, there’s no reason you couldn’t make the robot draw something directly from Inkscape.  Wouldn’t that be nifty?!
  4. Download the SendingSerial003.pde Processing sketch from Github and save it in your sketch folder.
    1. Ideally, the Processing sketch would send a Gcode command, wait for the robot to perform the action and then respond saying it was ready for the next command.  I just wanted something that works, so the Processing sketch just waits 1000 miliseconds between commands.  It’s a hack, but it’s a hack that seems to work well enough for now.
  5. Rename your Gcode file to “file.gcode” and place it in the same folder as the Processing sketch
    1. You could just change the filename in the Processing sketch too.
  6. Open the Processing and run the sketch
  7. The robot should leap into action drawing your design!

Here’s a photograph of just the drawing itself:

Make Robot, drawn with a robot made from Make and Adafruit parts, printed on a MakerBot

Make Robot, drawn with a robot made from Make and Adafruit parts, printed on a MakerBot

As you can tell, I haven’t spent a lot of time tuning my robot.  I know it is capable of smoother, more accurate drawing.  These are all things I’m hoping to improve with the next iteration of the design of the plastic parts.

If you’re interested in learning more about drawing robots, you might enjoy joining my mailing list about drawing robots.  No spam, just emails about drawing robots.  🙂

Tiny Drawing Robot Updates, Incremental Progress, and More!

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It’s been about a week since my last blog post and I’ve really been enjoying working on all aspects of the Tiny CNC.  With the year winding to a close, I wanted to squeeze in one last update.

The really cool thing about working on a robotics project from the ground up is that you can work totally different aspects of the project, whatever happens to interest you at that moment.  Sometimes 3D design appeals to me, other times working on Arduino or Processing code.  And then sometimes working on making the project really real by contacting suppliers to source parts for kits.  Here’s what’s going on now:

  • Adventures with Online Ordering.  I pulled the trigger and bought 100 micro servo motors.  I’m hoping that once I get this tiny drawing robot’s designs a little more finalized some people will be interested in having me create kits for them.  I simply cannot tell you how much fun it was to open up a box fresh from China stuffed with 100 motors.1 I spent several days shopping around on Alibaba and trying to reach out directly to motor manufacturers and in the end I finally placed an order with a “distributor/middleman” because it was a decent deal and he could ship immediately.  I know I overpaid a little, but this is kind of a test run anyhow.  With 100 micro servo motors, and each robot taking 3 motors, I’ll be able to create at most about 30 bare-bones kits for sale.
  • Micro Servo Motors.  These are the really common, and reasonably cheap, TowerPro SG90 motors that you see for sale everywhere.  People who have printed the Tiny CNC on Thingiverse to date have had to try to get their more standard micro servos to work in my designs that were made for the more badass Batan 2122 analog feedback micro servos that I received courtesy of Adafruit and Make.2
  • Arduino Code.  With the gentle prodding of TechNinja42, I created a Github account where I’ve uploaded some of the Arduino code I’ve been experimenting with so far.  While I have uploaded my prior sketches to Thingiverse, Github does seem like a better place to share these files which are changing quickly.  If you grab this code and load it up, you’ll be able to control your Tiny CNC drawing robot just by using the Arduino’s serial monitor and the WASD for directional control and OL to raise and lower the Z axis.
  • Teaching Programming to a 6 Year Old.  Christmas day was the first time I wrote some Arduino code that actually made my robot do something interesting.  Long story short, I actually got my daughter on the first step to programming.  I had her draw a simple shape on some graph paper, we took down the coordinates, plugged the coordinates into the Arduino code, and then the little robot got to work.  We had a great time creating the program and an even better time watching the robot repeat her drawing, pause for five seconds, and do it again.  The reason for the five-second pause was so that we could slip a sheet of paper into the robot, have it draw something, then pull the paper out.  I can’t wait to get this robot drawing more complex pictures.  🙂
  • Tiny 3-Axis CNC Redesign, Again.  I’ve already started revising my designs to work with the Tower Pro SG90 motor form factors, so it will be easier for everyone to print and build their own drawing robots.  I’ve added lots of improvements based on feedback from those who have printed their own, and I’m very nearly done with this latest version.  So far it is shorter, probably uses less plastic, should be offer more stable and accurate drawing, and uses one more plastic piece than prior versions – all while slightly increasing the drawing area.  Since I offered a sneak peak at this design in progress in an earlier post, I’ll leave off with a glimpse of this design-in-progress.
Tiny 3-Axis CNC version 0.34

Tiny 3-Axis CNC version 0.34

  1. And one Arduino Uno of dubious authenticity []
  2. I call these motors badass because they’ve got metal gears inside rather than plastic, analog feedback so they can sense and report their position back to the microcontroller, and cost $15 each []

Competing Design Ideals in a Drawing Robot

New possible design direction for the Tiny 3-Axis CNC

New possible design direction for the Tiny 3-Axis CNC

I find myself at a design crossroads, as it were, with the Tiny 3-Axis CNC.  There are certain improvements that I think are necessary to make the overall robot more functional and reliable.  However, to adjust these designs to accomplish these improvements would require a compromise of some part of the design ideals I’ve been employing so far.

One unintended consequence of having a low number of interlocking parts is that when I make a design change to one part of the robot, the design implications ripple throughout the rest of the robot.  Thankfully, this is made slightly easier by using OpenSCAD which automatically adjusts parts depending upon changes to variables.  These changes also have the side effect of making each version of the robot unique enough that almost no parts are compatible with other versions.  As a result, I’ve got a pile of parts from intermediate non-functional versions which don’t really work with any robot version.

In order to overcome some problems with the last design1 , I basically now need to choose what I value most:

  • Elegance.  Design elegance is a very murky and personal topic.  I think of design elegance as incorporating the fewest possible number of parts, simplicity, and (when possible) symmetry or the reuse of parts.  Even “simplicity” is a convoluted and subjective ideal.  I think of this as the least amount of plastic and least amount of complex features.
  • Low Part Count.  I love the idea of a super low part count.  If I were to print parts with support structures or had a very complex design for injection molding, I could probably reduce the part count to the absolute bare minimum possible number of parts – 7.2 However, if I try to make the parts easily printable without overhangs or support structures I have to increase the number of parts.
  • Easy to Print.  Even if a 3D printer is capable of printing with mild overhangs and support structures, a design is more easily printed if it doesn’t include such features.  It is very important to me that the parts are easy for people to replicate on their own.  For me, part of being “easy” to print is having as little plastic as is required.  The most recent stable version of this design takes about 2 hours of printing on my Replicator.  I think I can do better.
  • Easy to Assemble.  Generally, I’ve found the more complex and numerous the parts, the more difficult and less intuitive a thing is to assemble.  I would really like this robot to be able to be assembled by my 6 year old with minimal adult intervention.  She’s pretty good at building Lego designs from the graphical instructions and I’d like to have something similar here.  Fortunately, OpenSCAD make it really easy to create Ikea/Lego style graphical assembly instructions.

After discussing these issues with some friends, I think I’m going to sacrifice the super low part count as I push the design forward.  I don’t anticipate this will cause the design to have a higher plastic content – just a few more pieces.  Overall, if I had to sacrifice one particular design ideal in order to adhere more closely to the others, I would have to choose the super low part count.  After all, I could always publish an additional version that combines two or more parts into a version that could be printed with support structures.  🙂

  1. Principally the XYZ carriage tipping out of the X rack []
  2. I think this would require: the X rack/base, the X pinion, X motor mount, Y pinion, Y rack, Z pinion, and Z rack. []

Nine Drawing Robots On the Loose!

It’s incredibly exciting to me to see people printing my designs and posting pictures.  It’s even more exciting to see more drawing robots appear in the world.  Since I released my first designs for this robot on 11/18/2013 at least eight people besides me now have really tiny drawing robots of their very own.  Since the design is moving fast and many of the parts aren’t compatible with other versions, I’ve particularly appreciated the feedback of those people who have made their own since their observations, suggestions, and comments have helped me improve the design in many different ways.

Here are six copies of version 0.18, the XY plotter on Thingiverse (plus one I sent to Stephen Laporte):

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Dan Sinker even uploaded a video of his little robot at work.

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If you’ve made one, please email me and click “Made One” over on Thingiverse.

Tiny 3-Axis CNC Drawing Robot – Software Update and Design version 0.29 postmortem

Above is a very short video showing the Tiny 3-Axis CNC, powered by an Adafruit Trinket, using all three axes.

In order to push the Tiny CNC robot design further, I had to actually wire it up and test it.  Only by actually trying to put it through its paces am I able to detect design defects for correction/improvement in the next version.  What follows are basically my notes working with the Trinket and thoughts on the design of the robot thus far.  It helps me to document such notes for future reference – so you may or may not find this stuff interesting.  🙂

  1. Adafruit Trinket
    1. While I’ve wired the Tiny CNC to an Arduino Uno and a Mintduino before, I really wanted to get it to work with my Adafruit Trinket (courtesy of Adafruit and Hackaday!).  I figured this was as goo a time as any, so I soldered the headers onto the Trinket and got started on the process of augmenting my Arduino IDE to work with it.
    2. The Adafruit Learning System website has an entire section introducing the Trinket. The process is well documented, but still a bit fiddly.  It’s not nearly as “plug and play” as working with an Arduino Uno.  However, this is a perfectly acceptable tradeoff for the size and price of the device.  If you want a “quick start” guide to getting the Trinket to work with your Windows system, this a rough outline of my process:
      1. Download the Trinket drivers.  The notes for different operating systems is helpful here.
      2. Add ATtiny85 support to your Arduino IDE.  This is for the “slow” way of augmenting your existing Arduino IDE.  I prefer doing this to having multiple versions of the Arduino IDE on my system.
      3. Rename and replace the avrdude.conf file in the “hardware\tools\avr\etc” folder.
      4. Rename and replace the avr-Id.exe file in the “hardware\tools\avr\bin” folder.
    3. In an ideal world, I’ll be able to use the Trinket to both control three servo motors and speak to the fake serial port so it I can send instructions from the computer.  However, due to the limitations1 of the Trinket, the way it handles servos and serial communications are a bit hacky.
      1. Trinket servo motor control.  Servo motor control apparently requires the microcontroller utilize an internal timer/clock.  However, since the Trinket sacrifices this for size/space reasons, a work around using an internal clock/timer has to be implemented.  The result is that you have to use a different servo motor controller library that implements the software clock/timer.  The trick is that the timer has to be refreshed every 20 ms or so to operate the servo.  Using a simplified version of the Adafruit Trinket servo motor control sketch, I was able to get the Trinket to move all three axes.
      2. Trinket serial port communication.  Again, the Trinket sacrifices serial port communications in favor of size/space requirements.2 Fortunately, there appears to be a work-around for this limitation using a “fake USB serial” connection.  I haven’t finished this process and don’t have much to say about it at the moment.
  2. Tiny CNC Arduino (not Trinket) Sketch
    1. Using Oliv4945’s Arduino Gcode interpreter for Mini-CNC as a starting point, I wrote a sketch for making the Tiny CNC respond over the USB serial connection to WSAD (forward, back, left, right) and OL (up, down) commands.  The good thing about this sketch is that you can give the ‘bot a series of commands, hit Enter, and have it carry the instructions out.
  3. Tiny CNC Trinket Sketch
    1. This sketch is a simplified version of the Adafruit Trinket servo control sketch.  The XY servos move over about 30-40 degrees while the Z axis pumps up and down.  This is what you see happening in the video above.
  4. MORE Tiny CNC Design Thoughts
    1. Overall, I’m very happy with version 0.29.  The bottom line is that it works.  As Michael Curry recently pointed out, “at this point you have something that works, so the rest is just corrections.”  If you build this version on your own, you’ll get a little robot that is a bit finicky – but will actually be a no foolin’ tiny 3-axis CNC.  It won’t be super precise or able to handle a router or mill attachment, but it also won’t cost $400 for a kit.  🙂
    2. Here’s What Worked
      1. Z axis.  My first attempt at printing a Z axis works.  The Z rack isn’t much more than a thin plank of plastic with a rack of teeth and some holes to help mount a pen or whatever to it – but, again, it works.
      2. Y rack and Y stage/motor mount.  The parts in this little robot are designed to fit/slot/snap together and lock themselves and each other into place.  I’m really really happy with how this designed worked out.  I basically entirely changed the entire method of securing the Y rack from version 0.18 to version 0.29.  In version 0.18 the Y rack slid along each side of the X motor mount.  In this version, it rides between the X and Y mounts, held in place by the Y pinion (gear), riding over the Y stage motor mount, and constrained by the X and Y motor mounts.  While not actually simple to accomplish, I feel like this was an elegant solution.  While I have some improvements planned for the next version, I don’t anticipate this changing at all.
      3. Rubber band gaskets.  The problem with using printed pinions (gears) instead of the servo horns that come with the servos is that they don’t have the itty itty splines to mesh closely with the grooves on the servo motor gear.  As a result, no matter how hard you tighten down the servo motor set screw, the gear can twist away.  My method of dealing with this was to cut a small piece out of wide rubber band to use as a “gasket” between the set screw and the gear.  As you tighten down the set screw, it puts pressure on the rubber band and gear.  When the gear moves, the rubber band gasket prevents the set screw from rotating/sliding and loosening with use.
      4. Zip tie.  The zip tie on the Z motor seems to work very well.  I used a similar system for holding the servo in my PlotterBot pen holder.  The motor is held in place securely without much room for wiggling.  Although it is definitely possible to create a printable Z motor holder that doesn’t require any zip tie, the version I designed doesn’t require any overhangs.  I’m trying to avoid overhangs and support requirements in parts (which rules out all kinds of nifty groove/slide systems) so make everything easier to print and possibly easier for injection molding.
      5. Twist tie.  While not part of the directions or other documentation so far, I found a twist tie very helpful in controlling the sevo motor wires by bundling them together.
      6. Thinning and hollowing the XY pinions.  Since the most recent published version I made these big pinions slightly thinner and hollowed them out a little.  This theoretically reduces plastic a little.  Indeed, the 3-axis version of the robot actually uses less plastic than the 2-axis version I had uploaded a few weeks earlier.
    3. Here’s What Didn’t Work/Could Be Improved
      1. Rubber band gaskets.  These gaskets provide a drastic improvement for the gear’s ability to stay properly tightened on the servo shafts.  However, they’re not ideal since the rubber band gaskets just serve to create a little extra friction/traction between the set screw and the pinion (gear).  Now I’m trying something new that seems to work even better.  My daughter has these adhesive foam stickers in the shape of letters and animals.  For shapes with cutouts (like the letter “O”) the inside of the cutout is useless to her and is either found floating around the bottom of the bag or still slightly attached.3 I’ve place one of these between each of the set screws and pinions (gears).  The benefit of these is that they actually adhere to the surface of the pinion and actively resist being turned against the pinion. Another benefit of these is that they are thicker than a rubber band, so the set screw has to sink into them – creating more surface area contact between the “gasket” and the set screw.
      2. Y rack/Z motor mount.  I found that the zip tie for the Z mount interferes slightly with the Y rack slide.  I’ll need to raise the Z motor mount slightly to compensate.  Plus, I only just now realized there’s a slight overhang in this part I would like to eliminate.
      3. Z pinion.  The Z pinion includes a little flange to keep the Z rack in place.  The flange is a little too large and needs to be reduced slightly for easier operation.
      4. Z rack.  The Z rack isn’t much of anything, as mentioned above.  It’s just a rack with a plank with holes in it. It could be better refined to work as a pen holder without a lot of design work.  I just banged this one out so that I could have an actual no foolin’ 3 axis CNC to work with.  I have some ideas on how to make a simple pen holder.  Ideally, I would have two separate Z racks for this robot – one for holding a pen and another for use as an actual 3 axis CNC.
      5. Carriage tipping.  When the XYZ carriage has the Y rack extended as far out a possible, the weight of the extended Y rack with the Z motor and pen are more than enough to cause the entire XYZ carriage to tip out of the X rack.  This could be fixed by just creating a little guide, applying a piece of wire, or any number of minor hacks.  However, I’d like to have this issue resolved as part of the design of the robot.  Thus, I’m thinking of inverting the entire X rack to cause the X pinion to lock the X gear in place against the X motor mount.  The problem with this method is that it will basically require redesigning the X and Y pinions again.
    4. Anticipated Hardware Changes.  If I implement the improvements and changes I’m contemplating, this would mean redesigning the X rack (to invert it), X and Y pinions (to work with newly inverted X rack), Z pinion (to reduce the flange size), Z rack (to include a better pen holder). Y rack/Z motor mount (so the Z motor zip tie doesn’t hit the X motor mount), possibly Y motor mounts (to thicken the base slightly), and possibly the X motor mount to reduce plastic usage (since it wouldn’t have to be as big any more).  And… that’s a change to all 8 pieces.  :/
    5. Anticipated Software Changes.  Trinket space permitting, I would like to incorporate a small Gcode interpreter and fake USB serial connection.  I don’t know if this is possible, but I’d like to do this.  Also, my daughter specifically requested a 6-button interface to operate the robot.  I don’t know how to do this yet – but I’m willing to learn.  🙂  With three pins on the Trinket used for the three motors, there are only two pins left for buttons.  I’m pretty sure there’s no way to hook up a set of 5+ buttons to a Trinket and still have it operate all three motors.
    6. Fanciful Potential Changes.
      1. Keypad.  If this robot were to be powered by an Arduino Uno, you could probably incorporate this awesome 10-digit keypad from Adafruit to control the robot.  I think that would be a fun and accessible way for a kid to interact with this robot.
      2. Robotic Gripper.  With a fourth servo, a small robotic gripper hand could be attached to the Z axis – allowing this robot to do all kinds of interesting things.  It could be used to play chess, sort marbles, flip switches, or pick peas out of your dinner.
  1. And, again, these are perfectly acceptable tradeoffs given the size and price! []
  2. And, again, this is totally worth it []
  3. Much like a hanging chad []

How to Build a Tiny 3-Axis CNC Drawing Robot

Assembled Tiny 3-Axis CNC Drawing Robot

Assembled Tiny 3-Axis CNC Drawing Robot

FYI, if you like drawing robots and want to stay updated, please consider joining my newsletter.  Just stuff about drawing robots, no spam.

The Tiny 3-Axis CNC robot is a cheap, easy to build, extremely minimalistic but very capable little robot.1 This is the assembly guide for the version 0.29 robot available for download from Thingiverse.  The above picture shows the fully assembled robot.  If you have ever put together a lego set or built anything from Ikea, you should be able to build the entire robot in less than 5 minutes.  I’ve uploaded step-by-step photographs with each “step” organized into a short slide show of pictures.

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Here’s everything you need to build your robot.

Stuff You Need

Tools

  • One small precision screwdriver
  • Scissors and/or wire cutters

Parts

There are eight plastic parts, one rubber band, one zip tie, and three micro servo motors.  Once the robot is assembled, you’ll need to wire it up to the microcontroller of your choice.  I’ll link to the wiring tutorial at the end of this post.

Assembly

Step 0:  Print the plastic parts

All 8 plastic parts

All 8 plastic parts

Although you can fit all 8 parts onto the build platform for a MakerBot Replicator 1, you’re probably better off only about half the files at a time.  I would suggest printing the five short pieces at once and the three tall pieces together.  All the parts together are about 30 grams of plastic and took my printer about 2.5 hours total.  I should point out that I incorporated thin little discs onto the corners of the larger STL files.  These are only to help the parts adhere to the build platform and fight warping.  You should be able to easily peel them off the pieces without any tools.

Step 1:  Build the Z axis

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  • Gather the parts for the Z axis.  You will need three plastic parts (the printed Z pinion (gear), Z rack, and Z motor mount/Y axis), the zip tie, and a rubber band.
  • Use the scissors (or wire cutters) to cut a 5-10mm long piece out of the wide rubber band.  This piece of rubber band will work as a “gasket” to keep the Z pinion tightly secured to the Z motor shaft.
  • Push the screw through the rubber band gasket.  Place the Z motor into the motor mount.
  • Insert the screw (with gasket) into larger side of the Z pinion.  Insert the zip tie into the hole in the Z motor mount and secure the motor in place as show.  Try to zip tie your motor in a similar way – if you do it differently the zip tie can hit other moving parts.2
  • Cut off the excess zip tie with your wire cutters3
  • Place the Z rack as shown and secure the Z pinion in place using the precision screwdriver.  Rotate the pinion back and forth to make sure the Z pinion is placed well on the Z rack.
  • All done!

Step 2:  Build the Y axis

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  • Gather the parts for the Y axis.  You will need two plastic parts (the printed Y pinion and Y motor mount) and another rubber band gasket.
  • Insert motor into motor mount and set screw into the gasket
  • Secure the Y pinion onto the Y motor using the set screw and you’re done!

Step 3:  Build the X axis

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  • Gather the parts for the X axis.  You will need three plastic parts (the printed X pinion, the X motor mount, and the big X rack) and another rubber band gasket.
  • Insert motor into motor mount and create another screw-gasket-pinion combo
  • Secure X pinion to the X motor using the set screw
  • Looking at parts from top, rotate the X pinion counterclockwise until it stops and place it on the X rack as shown.  Roll it back and forth to make sure it stops at either end.  If it stops in the middle, just pluck it out and move it to where it needs to be.

Step 4:  Put it all together!

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  • Gather the Y and Z axes.  The Z axis is basically the same part as the Y rack.4
  • Looking at parts from top, rotate the Y pinion clockwise until it stops. Insert the long flat “fin” on the Y axis through the thin slot in the Z axis.  The Y pinion teeth should mesh well with the Y rack.5 Make sure the Z axis is as close to the Y axis as possible.  Roll Z axis back and forth to make sure it stops at either end.  If it stops in the middle, just reposition the Z axis to where it needs to be.
  • Gather the X axis.
  • Route the X motor wires through the hole in the Y axis “fin.”6
  • Pressure fit the YZ axis assembly onto the X axis.  Make sure the Y axis isn’t too tight on the X pinion.

Step 5:  Add something to the Z axis

Pen secured to Z axis with rubber band

Pen secured to Z axis with rubber band

This Tiny 3-Axis CNC is designed to be a platform for you to turn into anything you want.  Personally, I think it would be most fun as a tiny drawing robot.  If that’s your interest too, you could use a rubber band or zip ties to secure a pen to the Z rack.  However, there’s no reason you couldn’t use it to perform any number of tasks.  A fully functional Z axis allows the little robot to actually apply pressure to the drawing surface – making crayon drawings feasible, painting with brushes, some kind of automatic pin-pricking machine, or a gentle tickling robot.  By adding a fourth servo motor you could add a robotic gripper, automated syringe/plunger/eyedropper, or something else so entirely amazing that no one has thought of it yet.

Step 6:  Wire the robot to a brain

If you want to use an Arduino, I’ve already written a guide on how to run your DIY drawing robot to a variety of Arduino boards.  However, there’s no reason you couldn’t run this robot from any other kind of microcontroller or computer provided you figure out a way to operate servos with those devices.

Step 7:  Program your Tiny CNC drawing robot

Okay, confession time.  I don’t have any software to offer you … yet.  As I write this post, my first Tiny CNC design isn’t even 30 days old and is being improved upon and changed quickly.  Fortunately, at least two other fine persons have already contributed to this area.

Stephen Laporte has written some software to run an XY version of this robot.  Additionally, Thingiverse citizen Oliv4945 has created a Gcode interpreter just for the XY version of the Tiny CNC.

Room for Improvement

Even though this design is only a day old as I write this post, I’ve already got lots of ideas on improving it:

  • Pen Holder.  I want a better Z rack that is specifically designed to work as a pen holder.  I will always offer a non-pen-holder version so people can use this robot as a 3-axis CNC to do their7 bidding.
  • More Secure Drawing.  A redesign of the X pinion and X rack.  Right now the entire XYZ carriage can pop out of the X rack if the robot meets too much resistance.8  I have an idea to fix this problem completely.  If it works, the robot could be bolted mounted vertically or upside down and still work just fine.
  • Reducing plastic.  Interestingly, I reduced the amount of plastic in the design from version 0.18 to version 0.29 even though I added an entire additional axis.  The plastic could be reduced by thinning some parts and adding holes to other parts as The NewHobbyist did.  The interesting thing about “holes to reduce plastic” is that the actual “savings” may be illusory.  With 3D printed plastic parts adding holes to a design can significantly increase the amount of plastic used – when you’re printing at less than 100% infill. As a thought experiment, think of two plastic cubes with a 1mm thick wall around all surfaces.  One plastic cube has no holes and is printed at 10% infill.  The second plastic cube is also printed at 10% infill – but because it is riddled with holes that require a 1mm wall around every hole, there  is basically no space for the 10% infill.  The “holes to reduce plastic” trick only works on 3D printed parts that are thin pieces.  When it comes to parts that are injection molded, it’s my understanding that additional “holes” all the way through a part adds to the design complexity and can increase tooling costs.  That said, it would actually result in a reduction of plastic in a design.
  • Electronics.  For a variety of reasons, there isn’t one particular electronics/microcontroller solution that strikes me as the “best.”  ((That said, the Adafruit Trinket is ALMOST perfect for this job!))  For this reason I’ve considered possibly designing a tiny Arduino board with three or four servo pin-outs specifically for this robot.
  • Software.  I have some ideas on this and a heck of a headstart from Stephen and Oliv4945.  🙂
  • AFRON UAER Challenge.  If you haven’t heard about it, African Robotics Network (AFRON) has a new Ultra Affordable Educational Robot (UAER) design challenge this year.  They’ve also extended the submission time for the 2013 challenge to January 15, 2014.  With some creative sourcing and scrounging, I think I could bring the “cost” of this robot down to $10-$20.  This is a somewhat artificial goal since the “cost” as far as the UAER does not include shipping, taxes, tools, packaging, computing, and is based on the proportional cost of bulk-pricing.  I think I could enter this robot into the hardware, software, and community challenges.  I don’t have enough experience designing educational curriculum to outline the 20+ hours worth of material necessary to enter the curriculum category of the challenge.

If you’ve enjoyed this post, perhaps you’d consider donating a +1 to my WyoLum Innovation Grant challenge entry.  🙂

  1. Smaller than a paperback novel!!! []
  2. It won’t damage anything, but it will be a nuisance! []
  3. This is where they really come in handy []
  4. I know, the teeth are a dead giveaway []
  5. AKA Z axis []
  6. I really need to think up a better name for that design feature []
  7. Very tiny []
  8. RESISTANCE!!! IS!!! USELESS! []

Tiny CNC Software Update

Stephen's version 0.18 robot drawing away!

Stephen’s version 0.18 robot drawing away!

I want to start this post with a shout out to Stephen Laporte.  I met Stephen at the Bay Area 2013 Maker Faire when he came over from the Wikipedia booth to see if I could draw a giant Wikipedia logo for their booth with my large PlotterBot.  Stephen was also the winning bidder for the version 0.18 parts I listed for sale on eBay a few weeks ago.  I shipped out the parts as soon as the auction ended and he got them the Friday after Thanksgiving.

Now, here’s the cool part…  While I’ve been busy hammering away at the design aspects of this tiny robot, Stephen put together some software to get it drawing something more than grids!  He has graciously shared his Arduino and Python code on Github for everyone to use.  With just a few lines of code, you could easily add in support for the brand-spanking-new third axis.

Tiny CNC – now a 3 Axis CNC!

Tiny CNC - Now with 50% more axes!

Tiny CNC – Now with 50% more axes!

With some helpful feedback from several readers, I’ve been working on improving the design for the Tiny CNC.  Last night I was able to print the latest version and assemble the robot.

Here’s a quick tour of the new features:

  • Z-Axis / Pen Lift.  This is by far the most requested feature – and the aspect of this robot I was most anxious to complete.  In order work within my design ideals (low part counts, easy printing, etc) I had to make a concession.  To fit the Z axis between the X and Y motors, I had to reduce the size of the Z axis gear. The result is that the Z axis can only lift by about 15mm.  Thus, the robot has a maximum operational area of 76mm x 76 mm x 15 mm.1 While the Z axis lift isn’t anything spectacular, it is sufficient to have an actual drawing robot.
  • Low Part Count.  The new design consists of 7 unique printed plastic parts, one of which needs to be printed twice, for a total of 8 parts.  Designing for a low part count meant that I had to design some fairly (for me) complex parts.
  • Easy Printing. I designed all seven parts to be printed easily without support.  While there have been vast improvements in 3D printing support structure technology in just the last year, you won’t need any of that.  These parts should be easy to print with just about any machine.
  • Snap-Fit Design (mostly).  I personally enjoy printed parts that just fit together without the need for additional tools and materials.  While there’s more work to be done on the design to make sure the parts have a better fit, this iteration just needs to be snap fit together.  As you build the robot several of the pieces help keep earlier pieces in place.  The only part that doesn’t snap-fit in place is the Z axis motor – which requires a single zip tie.
  • Mounting Holes.  This version includes a much requested feature – mounting holes.  The entire plastic frame is extremely lightweight and the motors can easily make the entire robot hop around.  The mounting holes will allow the robot to be bolted or screwed directly to a surface.

To Do List:

  • Herringbone Rack and Pinions.  It’s still possible to include these – and I’ve even already written the code to incorporate them.  However, I’m going to hold off integrating this feature until I can actually draw something.
  • Improved Y Rack.  The Y rack I am using had one end that lifted off the build platform slightly and is consequently curved.  A better version of this part would be wider to eliminate some wobble.
  • Balance Y Rack.  As mentioned earlier, the entire robot is very light.  As the Y axis is fully extended, the Z axis motor can cause the entire robot to tip over or the X stage to pop off the X rack.  If there was a weight of some sort at the other end of the Y rack, this may not be such a problem.
  • Better Z Axis Holder.  Right now the Z axis rack is basically a rack with a plank with holes in it.  While it’s not really pretty, it can get the job done.  I would like to design and incorporate something that’s a lot more aesthetically pleasing and functional.

Now that I have a robot again, I’m looking forward to trying to draw something with it!

In the meantime, if you’d like to build your own, download the parts from Thingiverse!

  1. This is about 3″ x 3″ x 0.5″, for you imperialists out there []