The holidays always remind us of our favorite toys from when we were kids. Johnny Astro, an Erector set, and — of course — a Spirograph. [CraftDiaries] has an Arduino machine that isn’t rather a Spirograph, but it sure reminds us of one. The Arduino drives two stepper motors that connect to a pen that can create some interesting patterns.
The build utilizes a few parts that were laser cut, but they don’t look like they’d be hard to fabricate utilizing conventional implies or even 3D printing. The author even mentions you could make them out of cardboard or foamboard if you desired to.
The electronics are simple with two stepper drivers. We couldn’t help but believe that a few of the old 3D printer motherboards we have laying around here could handle this extremely easily. However, in this project, the CPU is an ordinary UNO with a CNC shield to drive the motors.
Of course, the genuine technique is the software. Apparently, the different patterns come from the connection between the delay between steps of the best motor and that of the left motor. There’s got to be some math behind that, but the patterns are certainly pretty.
If you choose something that looks more like an actual Spirograph, get a bag of Lego. Or try the Art-O-Matic.
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