Hello I’m Christian
That’s my second build for something similar to a ZenXY. I designed all parts and everithing is made from PLA.
All the system is drived by a pi zeroW, connected to 2 Nema 17 with MKS servo42 drivers. strip light ans a home sensor are completing the setting.
The system itself is not a Scara copy like Sysiphus does. In fact, the support plate is turning as the main axis and a small rotor act the magnet. that’s complex… but really simple and get the advantage to be droven by real big gears in modul 3. The first setting is still working since more than one year 12 hours a day.
The main objective was to do something able to be connected to a phone, integrated or not to the home network, with a simple interface. Looks like that
Software is python, linked to node.js for javascript. The machine prepares a bunch of file for the following day during the night and start drawing them one by one. That’s all.
in manual mode you can play one choosen file
I’m currently adding the ability to play uploaded files from sandify… A big test for me. I discovered that my samsung gave the .thr.txt extension to the files… not so easy to solve. From a normal computer, there is no issue like that it works.
I will share that build on the bambu makerlab platform and put software on some github with a complete sd card backup… that’s not easy to configure a raspbian system with library changing over the time and making some code unable to work… Learning curve for me !
cheers
Christian
first model 2 years ago
When you say the support plate rotates, so you mean that when the pattern is being drawn, the existing pattern in the sand is rotating and the ball is just moving in a line, radially? If so, are there any downsides that you’ve seen to this approach? I’d be worried about getting motion sickness watching it!
Hello Jono.
I got one of these since 1 year, it’s working full time. The relative movement is with 2->5 cm/second, it’s slow and u will don’t became epileptic. If I don’t explain the system, people don’t find that the ball is not moving around all the pattern, because she is on a half circle. I lift the rotating plate and they understand, but the pattern effect stays. The bad side of that system is that you have to fight the noise of the system supporting the plate . Not so complex to do, the table is absolutely silent, the drivers i use are overkill but far better than tcm’s . The first build I made with wood was more loud.
I will publish it, just some code to finalize… some
I don’t know if i can upload a video there
Christian
Thanks for posting here so everyone can see. Can you post your status text drawing it did? I think that will get people excited about your sandify integration.
During initialization, as the machine has no screen, and only a WIFi link , users must first get the IP of the machine. All of them are not able to find that IP from a router…
Deal is to do this using the ball itself. (ongoing, maybe time to save if i go to some DNS system,… )
This is already implemented with the initial parameters. If after powering up the system don’t recognize any wifi (its a pi zero, then without RJ45). Then the table print that pattern (from sandify). If it’s good, user can access to the same control system, and stays in ad-hoc mode. Bad part of ad-hoc is the time adjustment, because no internet no external module = last date/time known by the system when powered up. There into the settings there is a code to synchronize that… until unplug (you will never want to power off that stuff )
Thanks for posting a video of it. I was so curious as to what it would look like in action.
I see what you mean about the speed being slow enough that it’s not a problem. The pattern rotating as it’s created is a really nice effect on its own.
I upladed some other vids, with UI interaction…and some unique feature !
For the speed, it can go faster by 3x but the system must be relaxing
As I told you, without explanations, people don’t catch the limited move of the ball.
Yeah, I definitely see what you mean. That’s a really cool optical illusion, almost.
I feel like top speed might be a bit of a different thing, although I could see that being very dependent on the pattern being created. Something like a spiral or relatively ‘rotationally calm’ pattern might work well at speed. Something like a bunch of spiraling triangles might get a bit much.
Do you have any pictures of it without the top? It looks like it is a SCARA, but the shoulder joint is rotating the whole canvas and the elbow stays with the same rotation axis. Is that right? It looks like that especially in the initialization in “New sand table demo 2” about halfway through.
