Welcome to the Polar Printing Press project website!
This website follows the story of our team as we built a machine that draws images.
Initial Project Proposal
Input Image
Printed Image
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We plan to create a polar printing press: machine that spirals out an arm and attached marker to draw a 2D image.
Our minimum viable product is one black marker attached to one arm. The MVP should take a black and white image as an input and draw by spiraling the marker outward from the center. Our dream printing press will create tri-color drawings, a neat (online) GUI for uploading images to the machine, and communicate wirelessly with any computer. |
Project Summary
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The Machine:
Our objective was to build a machine that actuated a marker in order to draw any image fed into the system. Our current project state is a machine that uses a single marker actuated by a solenoid on a gantry that is spun by a high accuracy stepper motor. A platter under the gantry spins the paper. When the solenoid actuates it brings down the pen onto the moving paper. The Process: An image is fed and saved to the directory on the computer and the Python script is run. Once the arduino has recived command from Python over a serial connection, the machine begins spinning and drawing. The machine is capable of converting any image to black and white and drawing it. |
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Project Cost
| Stepper motor | $14.99 |
| Lead screw | $6.12 |
| Solenoid | $9.72 |
| Limit switches (2) | $2.63 |
| 12V 2A power supply | $6.69 |
| 12V 8A power supply | $19.95 |
| IR sensor | $0.50 |
| MDF | $24.95 |
Estimated costs of parts obtained for free:
| Stepper motor driver | $2.33 |
| Drag chain | $15.00 |
| Miscellaneous wood | $10.00 |
| Metal bar | $17.76 |
| Metal plates | $12.00 |
| Lazy susan bearing | $13.83 |
| Arduino uno | $20.00 |
| Protoboard | $5.90 |
| Solderless breadboard | $2.97 |
| 12V 2A DC motor | $48.00 |
Total estimated project cost = $233.34