Servo Drawing Machine

This tutorial will walk you through how to design, create, and use a customizable drawing machine of your own making! The drawing machine uses a servo motor and Arduino Uno, but is accessible to folks who have not used either before.

Arduino Uno

Servo Motor (I used this one)

3 Long Jumper Wires (these can be made using wire and 6 jumper pins)

USB cable for Arduino

Museum Board (cardboard, wood, or wood works as well)

Drawing Utensil of your choice (This brush pen works great, but feel free to get creative)

Bamboo Skewers

Glue

This step will walk you through how to wire your drawing machine.

To begin, connect your three long jumper wires (the ones I used are approximately three feet long and made from wire soldered to jumper pins at either end) to each of the three colored wires from the servo motor.

The colored wires on the servo are as follows: brown (ground), red (power), and orange (which will connect to digital Pin9 on the Arduino, and will be used to control the servo).

Using the other end of the long jumper wires, connect the brown wire to the GND, red to the 5V, and orange to the pin labeled ~9 on the Arduino. Refer to the diagram for a visual reference.

I used my laptop as my power source as it was most convenient and portable, but an in-socket power brick with a long cord will work as well.

This step will show you how to upload, alter, and customize your servo's motion.

Download the upload the code attached below to your Arduino. This how-to page from the Arduino website will walk you through exactly how to do this if you're new to Arduino.

This sample sketch will rotate your servo between 0* 145* which will move your drawing machine along your paper (the friction of your drawing tool marking the page will move the body of the drawing machine along).

The delays between each angle will also change how your machine draws. Longer delays will allow the servo to reach the programmed angle, but shortening the delays can cause the servo to cut its movements short before reaching the next angle which can create an interesting twitching effect which can result in some lovely marks.

Feel free to change and add to this sketch to suit the needs of your own drawing machine.

This step will walk you how to build the housing for your drawing machine.

The housing for your drawing machine can be customized and altered to create different drawing marks/outcomes. For the purposes of this how-to I've attached a pattern for the drawing machine that I made, but feel free to get create.

1. Print or transfer the pattern onto the material of your choice. Cardboard, museum board, foam, or another sturdy paper works well as the machine moves best with a lighter weight body.
2. note: servo motors come in different sizes and this pattern was made to fit the servo linked in the materials list at the top of this page. You may need to scale your pattern differently to account for the size of the servo you are using.
3. Use a blade to cut out the pattern, and score the dashed lines for folding.
4. Place your servo on the base of your pattern, and fold the two sides around the servo to secure it.
5. note: my servo had a small plastic lip which I had to place some extra museum board below to secure in place. If you prefer, you can simply glue or tape your servo within the housing to secure it.
6. Once folded, glue or tape the overlapping tabs at the top of the housing together.
7. Cut your bamboo skewers so that you have two short sticks between 3"-4" in length. Glue or tape these skewers to the "head" of your machine where you placed your servo. These will act as the legs of your machine. Feel free to adjust the placement of your machine's legs to accommodate your drawing utensil. For mine I left about 1.5" - I would recommend this height to begin, but you can always adjust or add *more* legs to your machine.
8. note: you could use pencils or pens ~as~ the legs for your drawing machine
9. Glue or tape your selected drawing utensil to the detachable servo motor attachment. You might want to experiment with different heights/placements for your machine as different heights creates very different outcomes for your drawing.

Your drawing machine is complete, now it's time to draw.

While not necessary, I recommend building an enclosure for your drawing machine to work in. I made mine using cardboard to form walls around my paper. This allows our drawing machine to roam and bounce off the walls without having to be monitored so closely (at times you may want to lift and reposition your machine if it becomes stuck in a corner or runs off the page).