This high-speed Arduino pen plotter creates drawings in mere minutes

Pen plotting tasks are in all places these days, with the overwhelming majority utilizing a few stepper motors for transferring the writing utensil and a servo to boost or decrease it. However they’re fairly gradual because of the lack of inflexible meeting and since the servo motor takes round a second to maneuver the pen. This drawback is what drove YouTuber IV Tasks to create a really novel design that swaps out the servo for an additional stepper motor and drastically will increase drawing pace.

Identical to most different pen plotters, the X-axis is pushed by a NEMA17 stepper motor with a timing belt connected to the central pen carriage. Nonetheless, the Y-axis takes a distinct strategy by counting on a pair of rollers which can be lined in 120-grit sanding bands, which assist to seize the paper securely and transfer it each time the stepper motor rotates the drive wheel. This helps to reduce slipping in comparison with rubber rollers and is way sooner than a belt-driven design.

Maybe essentially the most attention-grabbing facet of this plotter is the shortage of a servo motor for lifting the pen throughout journey actions. On the prime sits yet one more NEMA17 stepper that spins upwards or downwards to carry a paddle which, in flip, raises the pen off the paper. Controlling the three motors is an Arduino Uno operating the GRBL firmware that receives G-code and transforms it into bodily actions.

You possibly can watch IV Tasks’ video to beneath see the design in additional element.