LEGO RCX DOT MACHINE

 LEGO RCX DOT Drawing Machine

  LEGO RCX DOT Drawing Machine

  LEGO RCX DOT Drawing Machine

  LEGO RCX DOT Drawing Machine Drawing

LEGO RCX DOT Drawing Machine Drawing

  LEGO RCX DOT Drawing Machine Drawing

This is the 3rd base fro my Drawing Robot.  This base lifts the pen up and pushes it back down at a high speed to create dashes while it drives forward.  A motor in the center of the robot drives a gear that turns 2 gears that are connected to each side of the robot.  The gears that hold the pen are driven in opposite directions. The bottom gear on each side is the drive gear then a small gear is placed between the top and bottom gears to make them turn in unison and in the same direction.

The machine is created completely by me (Tim Morrison) without directions.

LEGO RCX 3 PEN MACHINE

 LEGO RCX DOT Machine

   LEGO RCX DOT Machine

   LEGO RCX DOT Machine

 LEGO RCX DOT Machine drawing

Here is the second base to LEGO RCX.  This base holds up to three pens.  The control is the same as the first LEGO RCX Robot.  This robot the pens are the front wheels and the robot is driven by the two rear wheels.

The machine is created completely by me (Tim Morrison) without directions.

LEGO RCX DRAWING MACHINE BASE

Here is the RCX control for the drawing machines.  I decided to make multiple bases and have the two drive motors with the RCX and sensors removable from the bases.

LEGO RCX base

 LEGO RCX TURNTABLE Machine base

 LEGO RCX 3 PEN Machine base

 LEGO RCX DOT Machine base

The machine is created completely by me (Tim Morrison) without directions.

The Pendulum Machine

Here is a sneak peak at our group drawing machine.  Our plan is to make a Pendulum powered drawing machine.  In these two videos, by Matt, you can see us testing the bearing at the top of the pendulum.

Testing the Pendulum

Testing the Pendulum 2

LEGO RCX Drawing Machine

Here is the second drawing that my LEGO RCX TURNTABLE Robot made.  I ran the robot for 15 minutes with 3 different pens for a total of 45 minutes.

LEGO RCX TURNTABLE MACHINE

 LEGO RCX TURNTABLE ROBOT

 Rear Touch Sensor

Front Touch Sensor and Pen

LEGO RCX TURNTABLE ROBOT

 This Robot Is designed to draw in a circle as it drives forward.  It is a take off of my First LEGO Machine where it was controlled by one motor.  This Robot has 3 motors and 2 touch sensors.  It is controlled by a LEGO RCX 2.0 Programmable Brick.  2 of the motors control the drive of the tracks.  The tracks are controlled independently.  The third motor controls the pen.  The touch sensors are located in the front and rear of the Robot.  The Program for this Robot is designed to drive forward until the front touch sensor hits the frame of the drawing area.  This tells the Robot to back up strait for one second.  Then the "drivers" side track stops for two seconds while the passenger side tracks continues to drive backward.  After that both tracks drive backward until the rear touch censer is activated.  That causes the Robot to drive forward for one second then the passenger side track stops for 2.5 seconds.  After that both tracks start driving forward until the front sensor is activated and the whole process starts again.  The Robot keeps driving back and forth on the paper until someone stops the program or the battery dies.  I have run it non-stop for 15 minutes.  Below is a couple of videos of the robot running.

Top View of LEGO RCX TURNTABLE ROBOT

 LEGO RCX TURNTABLE Robot on drawing showing the exterior frame that is 36" by 36"

 Full Drawing with 4 colors, Blue for a total of 22 minutes, Red for a total of 16 minutes, Green for a total of 20 minutes, and Black for a total of 13 minutes

Close up of Drawing

(Above)  LEGO RCX ROBOT running for about 2 min.

The machine is created completely by me (Tim Morrison) without directions.

Quote

Inventor: A person who makes an ingenious arrangement of wheels, levers and springs, and believes it civilization.

Ambrose Bierce

Wooden Machine 4

 Machine 4 (Without arms/paper holder)

  Machine 4 (Without arms/paper holder)

  Machine 4 (With arms/paper holder)

  Machine 4 (Without arms/paper holder)

  Machine 4 Top

  Machine 4Bottom

  Machine 4 Top

This Machine improved on Machine 3.  Instead of having a rubber band as the belt I took a bike chain off one of my old bikes.  I also took the gears off the pedals to use in my new machine.  This machine keep the chain in tension with the gear-shifter from the back of the bike.  This Machine uses all steel connections, bushings, and makeshift bearings.  The crank turns both the paper and the arms.  The problem with this machine is the smoothness of the cranking and the post that moves side to side and connects the top and bottom arms.  This is because of the distance between the two arms.  This machine ends up drawing an oval if the paper was stationary.  But because the paper turns it draws a rose like shape. 

Drawing From Machine 4

Paper Cutter

 For this machine I made a little machine that cuts paper in a circle with an knife.

The machine is created completely by me (Tim Morrison) without directions.

Wooden Machine 3

 Wooden Machine 3

 Wooden Machine 3

 Wooden Machine 3

Wooden Machine 3 Bottom

This Machine improves on both my first and second wooden Machines.  In this Machine I used mostly steel connections and bushings.  The top wheel moves both the arm and paper.  The bottom mechanism stayed mostly the same but was improved by adding threaded rod and bushings.  The side to side action was improved also with the addition of steel to the mix.  This machine drew a image that looked like a rose window.  The only problem with this design was that there was no crank to turn the wheels and the belt was made out of rubber bands and stretched to much when it turned so the paper would change speeds.

The machine is created completely by me (Tim Morrison) without directions.

Wooden Machine 2

 Wooden Machine 2

 Wooden Machine 2

 Wooden Machine 2 Bottom

This Machine was the second iteration of my first Wooden Machine.  I kept the top action basically the same.  On the bottom side of the Machine I put another wheel that held another arm that had a rod and pin in it.  The rod and pin are in a slot that moves the rod as the wheel is turned.  This causes the rod to move in a slot that was cut into the base.  The rod is connected to the top pin and causes the top pin to move side to side.  This creates an oval like shape.  In this Machine I was also experimenting with the position of the pin on the top wheel.  When in the row of hols as pictured above, the pen draws a oval (Bottom picture).  When in the holes that are perpendicular to that row, the pen draws a kidney like shape. (Top Picuture

The machine is created completely by me (Tim Morrison) without directions.

Wooden Machine 1

 Wooden Machine 1

Wooden Machine 1

This is my first wooden Machine.  The goal I had for this machine was to make an Oval.  After I made the machine I found out that it made more of a balloon like shape.  This machine works by turning a wheel.  The wheel moves an arm.  The arm has a slot in it that a stationary pin is inserted into.  The arm also holds the pencil/pen.

The machine is created completely by me (Tim Morrison) without directions.

LEGO Drawing Machine

 Side View of Drawing Machine

 Front View of Drawing Machine

Top View of Drawing Machine

This Machine was designed to draw in a circle as it moved forward.  The machine is powered by a LEGO Power Functions M-Motor.  The tracks are driven by a worm drive that is turning a 24 tooth gear.   The Motor also powers a 40 tooth gear that turns a 24 tooth gear on a arm.  This arm flips to the right when driving forward.  This turns another 24 tooth gear that turns a large pulley on the same axle.  The large pulley turns a small pulley with a belt.  This small pulley turns another 40 tooth gear on the same axle.  The 40 tooth gear then turns another 24 tooth gear, that turns a worm gear on the same axle.  The worm gear then turns a turntable that holds the pencil/pen.  When driving backward the arm flips to the left.  This causes the 24 tooth gear on the arm to spin another 24 tooth gear that is on the same axle as the small pulley and the 40 tooth gear.  This causes the worm drive to spin slower then when the machine drives forward.

When driving forward, the machine draws a series of half circles. (Pictured Below in Middle)  When driving backward the machine draws a curved line.  (Pictured Below on Bottom)  Pictured Below on top is the drawing the machine makes when it draws in both directions with out stopping.

 The machine is created completely by me (Tim Morrison) without directions.

Vertical Lines

 First attempt at creating a machine to draw a vertical line.

 Second attempt at creating a machine to draw a vertical line.  Issues of precision and weakness of materials.

Third attempt at creating a machine to draw a vertical line.  Strength of machine is improved but vertical gears pull away from tower at last gear tooth.