
Ryan Fillman's
"Marker Board Plus"
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Marker Board Plus
The Marker Board
Plus+ is a type of erasable plotter which can write, draw, and
erase. It works with two stepper motors that control the x-axis
and the y-axis movements and two solenoids that control the z-axis
movement of the marker and the eraser. These motors and solenoids
are interfaced to the computer so that a program, using Pascal, can
control the movements. The program itself consists of three
separate parts.
The main section of the
program is devoted to the ability to type the user’s sentence on the
white marker board. In this section, the user types a sentence
and then has the option of cursive or print. The program then
controls the robot and performs the specified task.
The second section of the
program consisis of predefined artwork and drawings that the user can
choose. Currently, these drawings will consist of The Simpsons
and a number of drawings to represent programs that have been created
in the past and ones that will be created before the end of the year.
The third section of the
program consists of predefined mazes which will give the user a third
thing to do with the plotter. Once the maze is drawn out, the
user will be able to interact with the computer and control which way
to move next. There is no backtracking, so if the user follows
the wrong path, they have to start back at the beginning.
Materials/Objectives
The physical
aspect of the project was created with old printer mechanisms and
stepper motors extracted from unwanted printers. The rest of the
project was built from scratch with the use of wood and metals keeping
in mind that aesthetics is the key. The construction time period
was about sixty hours split over five months. This included
removing the mechanisms from the printers all the way to the beginning
of the bread boarding. The current objectives of the project are
to complete the software aspect of the project and finalize the program
flawlessly with repeatability and accuracy.