NXT 8094 Plotter Options

[Krystman]

Recently, I found my old 8094 Technic Control Center in the attic.. kinda the precursor to the Mindstorms. The coolest model from the set was the plotter.



And then suddenly, it came to me:

Gentlemen, we can rebuild him. We have the technology. Better than he was before. Better…stronger…faster.




Check out the heartbreaking video.

But jokes aside: although not very precise, it is a very quick and simple way to build a Lego plotter. I have uploaded the building instructions on flickr. You can also download the font files and everything on my mini website (http://kisd.de/~krystian/nxt/) or directly here.

[Allan Veale]

That's a great idea and it seems to work quite well and fast. The conversion's done quite well.

[Krystman]

Well it works alright but there is one small thing I'm not quite satisfied with: the motor that controls the height of the pen is so far out over the paper. This puts a lot of stress on the rest of the machine. As you move the pen further out, the thing bends under its own weight. I've put the NXT brick on the other side to counter-balance the motor but that's just a minor improvement and the weight of the whole system is increased even further. Additionally, in the beginning, I wanted to implement a pen mechanism which uses the touch sensor to check if the pen touched the paper (like here).
I've realized that implementing this mechanism and putting the pen motor in a reasonable position would require major rebuilding of the model which would defeat the purpose of the exercise.

[synapticbackfire]

You could use a adaptor cable and run the old RIS style motor, theirfoe reducing the weight at the end of the "Boom"(for lack of a better term).

Great job, and glad to see ya again.