Week 10. Oct 22.27 2018 - michelle-qin/Portfolio GitHub Wiki

Started new project assignment - learning about EggBot’s AxiDraw. It’s like a 3D printer, but utilizing an actual pen (rather than ink or plastic) to produce a more handmade look. It produces fantastic results and looks pretty simple to operate (the actual board has just an x & y axis and the pen can go up or down)*. I’m in the process of research and learning more about it so when it arrives we can start working on it!

*This is a more sophisticated way to describe it: “The serial protocol specifies the fundamental primitives of how the machine operates— for example moving from position (a1,b1) to position (a2,b2) in duration Δt, with the pen-lift servo motor at position z.“

The end-goal for this project is for the user to control the pen with a joystick or by drawing something on a tablet and having the pen produce it.

Useful features to take note of: -Doesn’t require internet access while preparing files or using AxiDraw -AxiDraw is controlled through a set of extensions to InkScape - you import or make a drawing in Inkscape, and use the extensions to plot your text or artwork. -Can use different materials other than paper (e.g. fabric, t-shirt)

Useful manual: https://cdn.evilmadscientist.com/wiki/axidraw/software/AxiDraw_V37r1.pdf

This is a potentially useful link for Direct Capture. In direct capture, you use your computer to record each stroke as it is written, and then save the resulting set of paths as a vector artwork file (sounds like the latter half of the end-goal): https://wiki.evilmadscientist.com/Capturing_Handwriting OR: “You can scan handwritten text, trace it with a bitmap tracing tool, and plot it. This is straightforward, and your AxiDraw will be more than happy to comply.”

The EiBot Board arrived in the mail. Currently setting it up