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Show HN: My Pen Plotting Journey
- berenddeperend 3y agoBeautiful work, thanks for sharing. I'd love to try it myself. Could you elaborate a bit on how you convert your P5 code to .gcode?
- nosmokewhereiam 3y agoThank you so much for sharing about the pens. Your work is incredible and the pictures really pop.
- adamfuhrer 3y agoThank you!
- chantepierre 3y agoThe first one with the overlaid halftone squares really works well with these deep black ink pens ! The dictionary of color combinations on the first picture on the page is a real treasure too. Thanks for sharing. Edit : ooh, all the images did not load at first, it's even better than I thought :o
- chomp5977 3y agoDidn't see a purchase link. Would love to buy one.
- Sosh101 3y agoLooks like that plotter is quite pricey. Can anyone recommend something cheaper to experiment with?
- metadat 3y ago$700 USD for a AxiDraw V3/A3 doesn't seem too crazy. This is precision, purpose-built equipment. Are you able to elaborate on what you were expecting or hoping for?
- operatingthetan 3y agoYeah wait till they see what CNC machines cost!
- mkl 3y agoIt's pretty crazy if it's just to generate some pictures for fun, especially when there are alternatives. I have an A3 flatbed Graphtec plotter with a precision of 0.01mm [1] that I got for something like NZD$40 (>20 years old, but perfect condition). [1] Not a typo, but I don't have a way to check it. I use it in its "low accuracy" 0.025mm mode.
- marai2 3y agoThe video of the AxiDraw is very satisfying: https://shop.evilmadscientist.com/productsmenu/890 https://shop.evilmadscientist.com/productsmenu/890
- gilleain 3y agoI bought a Vigotech VG-X4 and did get it to work.It was around 200 dollars. However there were a few issues - bit fiddly to construct (the same might be true of the axidraw i guess) and windows only. Found some software online to drive it on linux.
- mkl 3y agoFind an old flatbed HPGL-compatible one, from ~1985-2000. You may have to wait for one to show up near you, you may need a USB to serial (DB9) adapter [1], and you may have to jury-rig a pen holder if official pens are no longer available, but the cost will be a few 10s of dollars. Look for one with manuals and pens if possible. Graphtec, Roland, and HP are good brands. Plotters are really fun, and HPGL is easy to generate with code. [1] Or get a thin client with a serial port (I have an HP t630) and put Linux on it and use it as a plot server.
- edelhans 3y agoYou could also go down the DIY route and build one yourself. I did just that and am really happy with the outcome. Check out https://ben.akrin.com/plottybot https://ben.akrin.com/plottybot for a great design and instructions
- batterylow 3y agoThe one I was gifted (https://shahinrostami.com/articles/my-pen-plotter-setup/ https://shahinrostami.com/articles/my-pen-plotter-setup/) will have been more affordable https://idrawpenplotter.com https://idrawpenplotter.com
- bmordue 3y agohttps://www.brachiograph.art/ https://www.brachiograph.art/ explores the low end of cheap experimentation with pen plotting. It's a really charming project.
- matthew-wegner 3y agoA few options generally: * I got my AxiDraw as an impulse buy for a Black Friday sale. They go on sale around then * Search AliExpress for "AxiDraw". There are cheap clones for ~$130 shipped * Thingiverse/etc have some DIY plotters in various form factors: Stationary like an AxiDraw, polargraph (hanging from two points vertically), little plotter vehicles that "feed" a paper through by rolling over it... * Old 1970s/80s retail plotters (i.e. HP). These are sometimes more trouble than they're worth, both mechanically for repairs and software-wise. Serial port versions are more rare than HP-IB versions. The drawingbots Discord has good vintage info here
- Wingman4l7 3y agoAs someone who bought a ~$150 knockoff plotter, I wouldn't recommend them unless you're unsure and just dipping your toe into the hobby. The plot quality will suffer -- even small amounts of backlash or slop in the mechanism and pen carriage will result in irritating and unfixable offsets in finer detailed plots. The bigger issue is actually software support -- all the hobbyists shell out for the Axidraw, so it's the only well-supported unit on both an art-software-workflow side and plotter-driver-software side.
- kubami 3y agoI built one myself. https://framedbyher.com/the-story/ https://framedbyher.com/the-story/ I can share more in depth guide if you'd be up for that.
- thomasjb 3y agoThere's software to use pens on a 3d printer to draw on paper on the bed, and it wouldn't need to be a very high specification on to turn out acceptable results
- iambateman 3y agoThis is super cool…thanks for sharing. I own an axidraw from a very expensive failed side project and they’re a lot of fun. I need to try p5.js some time. Any tips for where to start with that?
- j0hnyl 3y agoCheck out the coding train on youtube.
- quickthrower2 3y agoUnknown pleasures!
- Caduceus1 3y agoNot entirely sure, but it looks like a laser engraver with a pen holder could do this.
- hellweaver666 3y agoPeople have attatched pens to 3d printers and done this!
- captn3m0 3y agoDoes the page work on iOS for others? I get black empty spacing after the description on both Safari and iOS.
- KolmogorovComp 3y agoCan reproduce too
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- nrabulinski 3y agoFor me it just took a long while to load but eventually the content shows up
- captn3m0 3y agoFigured out why, it loads ~80MB worth of images. https://pagespeed.web.dev/analysis/https-adamfuhrer-com-pen-plotting/fm46cubdyj?form_factor=mobile https://pagespeed.web.dev/analysis/https-adamfuhrer-com-pen-...
- adamfuhrer 3y agoThanks. Just reduced the size of the images quite a bit
- gitgud 3y agoSame, is there some kind of compression proxy we can put the site through?
- gilleain 3y agoSome of these (the wavy lines ones) remind me of Barbro Bäckström's work: https://www.artsy.net/artist/barbro-backstrom https://www.artsy.net/artist/barbro-backstrom My family has one of these on the wall (quite dusty - as it's from the 1970s :) ), and the 3D effect is great.
- thangngoc89 3y agoThe images are scretched vertically (800x4032) on Safari. It displays correctly on Chrome though. Please add width: 100% to your existing class. Full CSS after modification below: [_nghost-ecl-c2] img[_ngcontent-ecl-c2] { margin-top: 60px; width: 100%; }
- batterylow 3y agoLooks great! I was gifted a pen plotter 6 months ago and wrote a short post on my setup and workflow https://shahinrostami.com/articles/my-pen-plotter-setup/ https://shahinrostami.com/articles/my-pen-plotter-setup/
- Reventlov 3y agoSo, I understand the appeal of having something use pens to plot such things but… If I were to just use a regular printer to print those things (art, drawings, …), would the result be really different ? I have no pen plotter nor printer, so… I don't really understand what would be the main differences…
- chantepierre 3y agoA printer will usually leave a dot pattern to reproduce shapes, with a resolution fine enough that everything will be sharply defined. The blackness of a laser printer is a bit less qualitative than ink, because it's shinier from a large variety of viewing angles. Here if you zoom it a bit, you can see a very slight wobble in the pen tracks because it catches a bit of the paper's grain, and depositing ink, the paper "drinks" the ink which fattens the lines a tiny bit. This is more noticeable on the drawings with a lot of pen lifts/drops, where both the lift and the drop leave a dot a bit larger than the line between them. The one with gradients made with lines closer and closer is especially eye-catching to me because all of those imperfections adding to produce this "worn-out" look in the darkest parts of the gradients. Some paths overlap a bit and if you look very closely there are more than one nuance of black because of this - in some other places, the lift/drop are close enough that a bit of ink seems to travel by capillarity between the lift and the drop, resulting in two touching lines that were separated in the program.. The ones having a lot of circles show other imperfections, with a bit of ovalization in the circles, and the paths generated to fill the circles with black missing a few parts.. What I like a lot is that the result shows all of those little details that accumulate and produce this imperfect look, without needing to simulate it in Photoshop or another software if you were to print it with a regular printer.
- regularfry 3y agoIt's also not that uncommon for people to build intentionally bad plotters (I've done it), because the results when you stick a picture through the process have their own charm.
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- fjfaase 3y agoPeter Struycken [1] is a Dutch artist who produced a lot of works with pen plotters [2]. He is the brother of Carel Struycken [3]. He is befrended with Walter Lewin [4], who also owns a collection of his art works [5]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Struycken https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Struycken [2] http://pstruycken.nl/EnDyn.html?D,tag=P&w http://pstruycken.nl/EnDyn.html?D,tag=P&w [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carel_Struycken https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carel_Struycken [4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Lewin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Lewin [5] http://pstruycken.nl/EnDyn.html?L&l&ColWLewin http://pstruycken.nl/EnDyn.html?L&l&ColWLewin
- thatgerhard 3y agoGood job! I'm literally in the middle of building something similar with an old laser engraver.
- alex_duf 3y agoHey thanks for sharing, I really like what you do, both in gen-art and in photography. You wouldn't have an RSS feed by any chance? I'm trying to avoid social media but I'd love to continue reading about what you do.
- adamfuhrer 3y agoReally appreciate it! Unfortunately I don't at the moment. Big fan of RSS as well so I get the sentiment
- monokai_nl 3y agoFor anyone who wants to use the Axidraw without being directly attached to your laptop, I've written a bit about how to use a Raspberry PI to wirelessly plot your art: https://medium.com/p/f9e0a872138e https://medium.com/p/f9e0a872138e
- nkozyra 3y agoThat's really helpful and I've thought about doing this because I don't have a dedicated space for my axidraw and it's kind of a hassle to move around (I have the XL) I use it for art a bit, for creating really nice notebooks for organization. If you're into these things, I'll also say that the Cricut (a cutting / craft tool) also does pen plotting and while it's a much smaller space (max 12" wide, possibly infinitely long) it can be purchased for much cheaper and is a bit more versatile.
- sleepybrett 3y agoI fastened mine to board with a metal plotting surface (I picked up a cheapo 'metal whiteboard' on amazon). When I'm not using it I slide it sideways behind my desk. It's worked out well, it's a nice .. subjectively level surface. I can using my plotter on pretty much any small table at all as the board will make it bigger... This also helps so that I don't constantly have to worry about accidentally bumping the table and causing the drawing surface to move in relation to the potter or visa versa.
- oniony 3y agoGiving me Hans-Georg Rauch vibes. (http://www.hans-georg-rauch.de/espresso/federzeichnungen.html http://www.hans-georg-rauch.de/espresso/federzeichnungen.htm...)
- qwerty456127 3y agoCan you plot the picture of the phase space from The Three-Body Problem TV show which they had on the wall?
- avg_dev 3y agowow. those are beautiful. didn't expect to see that this morning!!!
- thelazyone 3y agoIf you want to try what could be the top-of-the-range of non-rotring pens, instead of the W&N you could use the Copic Multiliner. They're pretty hard to find in Europe, not sure in US. The flow and general feel is just great.
- beardicus 3y agoi collect links to plotter-related projects, code, manuals, et cetera here: https://github.com/beardicus/awesome-plotters https://github.com/beardicus/awesome-plotters in case you find this stuff as fun as i do.
- thelazyone 3y agoAgain regarding the choice of pens: How does the plotter behave with a softer tip? I'm thinking of the Tombow Fudenosuke pens - they have a wonderful soft tip, which allows for calligraphy in the hand of humans. When used by a plotter, by changing the Z depht it would be possible to have very interesting dynamic variations, wouldn't it? I can see how easy it would be to break the tip too, so better buying a bunch of those.
- adamfuhrer 3y agoThe tip of the Winsor & Newton fineliners are quite hard actually and work pretty well. Although the tip does wear out after repeated use (before the pen runs out of ink), so might not be the most ideal pen for the job. Also, the servo I use with the AxiDraw is the default one it comes with and doesn't apply any added pressure on the page.
- thelazyone 3y agoThe Copic Multiliner might be a good option then. They are just great in my opinion (But I use them for traditional illustrations), although a bit pricey.
- adamfuhrer 3y agoThanks! Will definitely look them up
- fmajid 3y agoPentel features an Axidraw in their ad for their self-feeding Orenz Nero mechanical pencil: http://pentel-orenznero.jp/ http://pentel-orenznero.jp/
- adolph 3y agoI'm impressed that it works in an Axidraw. It probably helps that many of the strokes were very short so the Orenz Nero reset itself each time the pencil was lifted. I wonder how the Axidraw maintains optimal pressure with a pencil where the lead wears down enough that the pencil needs to get closer to the paper (which is how the lead holder retract works in the Orenz Nero).
- fmajid 3y agoI only have an AxiDraw Mini, and I'm not sure if it works the same way as the full-sized machines, but the pen is raised and dropped by a servo and gravity, the machine is not applying any pressure, only the weight of the pen itself is. It's good enough with a Sharpie in my experience, and I guess the Orenz mechanism is sensitive enough as well, but I haven't tried my own Orenz Nero in it as I generally want a permanent result.
- adolph 3y ago> generally want a permanent result I've often thought Tibetian-style colored sand mandalas would be a fun way to use such devices. Of course, you'd need a lego-sorter-style device to separate the sand into different colors afterward.
- fmajid 3y agoProbably a better fit for a 3D printer with the hotend replaced with a screw pump.
- Doxin 3y ago> Of course, you'd need a lego-sorter-style device to separate the sand into different colors afterward. Well that nerd-sniped me. Maybe a very small vibratory feeder so you can handle individual sand particles? Would require the sand to be fairly homogenously sized, but that's nothing some sifting can't fix. One of those usb-microscopes for checking sand color perhaps? Then you get to the point where you want it going fast, which might be tricky...
- roland35 3y agoI built my own pen plotter - it is such an engaging piece of technology! I hope to design a super size plotter someday, just need to find the time!
- kiririn 3y agoVery impressive work, would love to see the source code!
- chankstein38 3y agoThis is really cool! I see the plotter the OP got was like $700. Is there any way this is different than a $200 3d printer from Amazon with a pen mounted where the hotend would be?
- all2 3y agoIt has a head designed for fitting writing instruments. I expected some kind of adjustable pressure mechanism, but I'm not seeing it in pictures or in the description. The closest I found was The pen holder fits a wide variety of pens, including Sharpie fine and ultra-fine point markers, most rollerball and fountain pens, small-bodied whiteboard markers, and so forth. It can even hold a fountain pen at a proper angle of 45° to the paper. You can also use implements that aren't pens, such as pencils, chalk, charcoal, brushes, and many others. However, you'll get the best results with instruments such as fountain pens and rollerball pens, which do not require the user to apply pressure. at [0]. [0] https://shop.evilmadscientist.com/productsmenu/890# https://shop.evilmadscientist.com/productsmenu/890#
- sleepybrett 3y agoThe adjustable mechanisim on the axidraw is nothing but a screw. Essentially there is a right-angled channel you press he pen into and then you tighten a set screw that pushes the pen into the corner. This design is simple to produce however it causes registration problems if you attempt a multi-pen (multicolor, say) plot, where the pens have different diameters. In the past when faced with this i've 'fattened-up' the narrower pen with tape wraps.
- girishso 3y agoIt should be no different, both use stepper motors and gcode for movement.
- yboris 3y agoA fun thing to do with pen plotters is to use a non-exact medum. Here's Lucia He - an artist working with plotters and watercolor https://twitter.com/Licia_He https://twitter.com/Licia_He e.g. https://twitter.com/ZeeZee_ETH/status/1628435706275037186 https://twitter.com/ZeeZee_ETH/status/1628435706275037186
- tarwin 3y agoThanks for sharing. When asking on Twitter how to get started the community suggested an Axidraw as well. Inspriing!