Summary of Polar Plotter on Arduino and MakerBeams
This article details a DIY polar plotter featuring a rotating, extendable arm built for challenge and portability. The system uses an Arduino UNO Rev3 as the controller, driven by two powerful stepper motors with gear heads, managed by Big Easy Drivers. A separate Java Maven project generates font data for the Arduino. The structure relies on Maker Beams, offering high-resolution movement (3200 steps/rev) suitable for drawing tasks.
Parts used in the Polar Plotter:
- Arduino UNO Rev3
- Heavyweight stepper motors (2 units)
- Big Easy Drivers (2 units)
- Maker Beams
- Gear rack
- Java Maven project (font-path-generator)
The project
A polar plotter is a plotter with a rotating, extendable arm. Its characteristics differ greatly from those of a traditional plotter, which in most areas have a superior design. You could say the polar plotter is more portable or something, but mainly I made this one because it was more of a challenge.
The code
The code of this project is divided into two parts. One is the Arduino project that controls the plotter. The other is a java project used for generating font-data in a format readable by the Arduino program.
The Arduino project plotter_polar can be opened directly in the Arduino IDE.
The java project font-path-generator is a Maven project. To compile and run, do
$ cd font-path-generator
$ mvn install
$ java -jar target/font-path-generator-1.0-SNAPSHOT.jarThe program produces output of font data that can be copy/pasted into the Arduino program. See the javadoc for FontPathGenerator for more info.
You can also import and run the project in Eclipse.
The gear
The brain of the plotter is an Arduino UNO Rev3.
The muscles come from two heavyweight stepper motors from All Electronics.
These are quite quite heavy and powerful and come with a firmly mounted gear head. That’s great when driving a gear rack
But not as great when you need to mount stuff to it. Here’s how I did:
The motors require quite a lot of power. This is provided by two Big Easy Drivers.
The normal Easy Driver does not do the job for these motors. I tried.
The motors themselves have a resolution of 200 steps per revolution and the Big Easy Drivers provide 16 substeps per step, giving a total of 3200 steps per revolution. (That’s pretty good resolution.)
The backbone of the plotter uses the awesome Maker Beams.
stepper motors 2
For more detail: Polar Plotter on Arduino and MakerBeams
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What is the primary purpose of this polar plotter project?
The author built it mainly because it was more of a challenge. -
How many parts make up the code for this project?
The code is divided into two parts: an Arduino project and a Java project. -
What command is used to compile the Java font generator?
You must run mvn install inside the font-path-generator directory. -
Why were Big Easy Drivers chosen over normal Easy Drivers?
The normal Easy Driver does not provide enough power for these heavy motors. -
What is the total resolution per revolution provided by the drivers?
The setup provides a total of 3200 steps per revolution. -
What material forms the backbone of the plotter?
The backbone uses Maker Beams. -
Can the Java project be run in Eclipse?
Yes, you can import and run the project in Eclipse.
