Feb 1: The Idea

Hello! This is where I will post info and pictures of my Pen Plotter building experience.

My concept is based a lot off Ytai's IOIO pen plotter (See Right For Video), but will use a Raspberry Pi Model B instead of the IOIO board. This was a tough decision to make, but I decided in the end that using the Raspberry Pi would provide more support resources for programming, had a wider selection of libraries for the GPIO, and seemed easier to learn and set up.

My design consists of a smaller easel and notepad, but follows the same "V Plotter" setup. My plan is to have an Android tablet send an SVG to the Raspberry Pi via some intricate wifi broadcasting and LAN network programming. The Pi will then trace the file by telling the Stepper motors how to change the string length and the servo motor when to lift the pen off the paper (this is your real-world application for hanging-weight problems ;)).

An example of an Scalable Vector Graphic. An SVG uses path information to tell the renderer where to draw lines and fill in shapes instead of using the pixel by pixel data structure used by most other image file types. This allows an SVG to be drawn and scaled to any size without loss in quality. Open this file in a new tab, and zoom in and out to see how image quality is never lost.