The pen on the plotter is raised and lowered by pneumatic. This
way the pen can be placed tightly onto the paper. This solution
however slows downs the writing process, as raising and lowering
the pen is quit slow. The paper is firmly fixed between the wheels
making it possible to move the paper back and forth. The pen is
moved by a motor placed on a rail. With the NXT servo motors the
plotter can move very prices, and with some programming the plotter
can draw almost anything. This sample
program written in RobotC
can draw squares and dots. Below you will find building instructions
for building your own NXT plotter.
Pictures and video
Frontview
of the plotter
Topview
of the plotter
The Pen moves on a rail
This motor moves the
paper
The upper wheels fix
the paper
Two "racks"
on each side of the
plotter supports the paper
The display shows the
position
of both the pen and paper
This motor controls
the pneumatic
pump and the piston on the pen
The pen
is easily replaceable
The piston that moves
the
pen up and down
Building instructions
Below you will find building instructions for building your own
NXT plotter. Build the modules in the order as listed below starting
with the rail module. Click on the image and a pop-up window with
the instructions will appear. Alternatively you can download
the Ldraw-files.
