I'm building a pen plotter machine that is purpose built for multi-color artwork.

So far I have a duet mainboard wired up to motors and a commercial gantry set (openbuilds). I've figured out how to wire up a servo control board to a GPIO pin, and the gcode necessary run the servo up and down.

I'm designing and 3d printing parts for the pen gantry, I have a nice rail / slider setup using linear bearings. I'm almost done working out how the pen holder fits into my gantry setup but I'm struggling a little bit getting this past the finish line.

I already figured out how to generate custom GCODE that takes into account the needs of having no z axis. I need to make a simple web interface that lets me interact with the duet over USB, and this will be running off a raspi. This will allow me more GPIO and flexibility vs just wiring buttons straight to the duet.

I already have some code and logic to generate trace data from bitmap images, I just need to figure out a way to automate it so that the output still looks nice.

Once all that works... if I glue it together I will be able to push button and @robotdrawsyou (https://www.instagram.com/robotdrawsyou)

The goal is to create technology that is indistinguishable from magic. People without the technical understanding of what's going on will just see it as tech junk, but my hope is that by breaking down all the individual parts it will allow people to learn about CNC machines, vector vs raster and what it means for something to actually be a robot.

I still have zero idea how to make money with this. Career is struggling really badly but I am hopeful that what I am working on will allow me to display competency and skill to an employer. That's the fantasy at least.