A team of students from the German Saarland University in Saarbrücken, has created a unique handheld printer using an Arduino Mega 2560 called the Print-A-Sketch. The small handheld printer is capable of printing conductive ink images and will automatically correct any user errors during the print process, as well as providing a wide-ranging drawing tools to create any designs you like.
Built using the Arduino Mega 2560 development board the small handheld printer uses a conductive ink reservoir and can deposit custom shapes or continue a printing line that has been previously drawn. Check out the video below to learn more about the handheld printer designed to sketch and print circuits.
Arduino handheld printer
“Print-A-Sketch, an open-source printer prototype for sketching circuits and sensors. Print-A-Sketch combines desirable properties from free-hand sketching and functional electronic printing. Manual human control of large strokes is augmented with computer control of fine detail. Shared control of Print-A-Sketch supports sketching interactive interfaces on everyday objects – including many objects with materials or sizes which otherwise are difficult to print on. “
We present an overview of challenges involved in such a system and show how these can be addressed using context-aware, dynamic printing. Continuous sensing ensures quality prints by adjusting inking-rate to hand movement and material properties.
Continuous sensing also enables the print to adapt to previously printed traces to support incremental and iterative sketching. Results show good conductivity on many materials and high spatial precision, supporting on-the-fly creation of functional interfaces.”
For more details on the Arduino-based handheld printer created by the team jump over to the official Arduino blog by following the link below.
Source: Print-A-Sketch DIY handheld conductive ink printer
