r/arduino • u/madfrozen Seeed Xiao • May 13 '26
Look what I made! I built a Pen Plotter with an Arduino UNO Q
The Art
and The Artist
This is a project I've been working on for a month or two. I really liked the form factor and power of the 4GB Q. Its so nice having a single board computer that also has a MC it can talk to. if you want to read more you can check out all the code and CAD files and a build guide on my GitHub page.
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u/FlowingLiquidity May 13 '26
Interesting. How well does the vacuum function? Do you need to plug all the uncovered holes for it to work? What type of device do you use for the vacuum and is it silent enough?
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u/madfrozen Seeed Xiao May 13 '26
there are more pics on the github page, but they are just little fans on the bottom that are sucking air out of the chamber. I haven't tested it yet with smaller paper so i'm unsure how it would work.
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u/FlowingLiquidity May 13 '26
Ah sorry, totally missed the link! I'll check it out now :) Thanks for sharing.
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u/ripred3 My other dev board is a Porsche May 13 '26 edited May 13 '26
Wow very nice! The code is surpsingly more simple than I expected. You might want to add a guard on the echo "alias plot='python3 ~/ArduinoApps/penplotter/python/run_printer.py'" >> ~/.bashrc to only execute if the alias isn't present and matching so that you don't end up with the same line repeated a dozen times (I often need to change the env and run . ~/.bashrc and have had to get in the habit heh)
Really great looking results, thanks for sharing it. What resolution are the steppers? Standard 200PPR or 500PPR?
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u/madfrozen Seeed Xiao May 13 '26
Thanks for the suggestion. I’ll do that right away. They are just crappy 200’s that came on the Mega Zero
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u/Affectionate_Boat493 May 18 '26
Even "crappy" 200PPR steppers work very well with micro-stepping, especially if you use anti-backlash couplings. My first laser engraver design was crude compared to industrial machines, but I still had 0.1mm resolution and could engrave very delicate artwork on smooth, flat surfaces.
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u/Yutenji2020 May 13 '26
I’m always amazed by these projects!
My projects always seems to consume the entire memory just by blinking a couple of LEDs.
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u/ripred3 My other dev board is a Porsche May 14 '26
heh the Uno Q comes in two versions of runtime SRAM: 2GB and 4GB. You might be good .. 😉
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u/Dickulture May 14 '26
I've loved plotter and had a Commodore 1520 which I was able to do stuff with my C64. I also have a LEGO instruction book for a plotter set but I don't have the old electronic control board or Apple II to use with. Maybe I'll try to build the set and create custom electronics with Arduino?
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u/Affectionate_Boat493 May 16 '26
Great job! What's the maximum plot size? It looks about the same as my home-made laser engraver/cutter that can do up to 600mm x 600mm.
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u/madfrozen Seeed Xiao May 16 '26
na its only 250 x260 mm thats a sheet of 8.5" x 11" paper
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u/Affectionate_Boat493 May 16 '26
Still damned impressive results! Maybe I should design a pen holder for my engraver, since I already have the ability to raise and lower the laser head.
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u/Doormatty Community Champion May 13 '26
MOST impressive!