I made this drawing machine as an extension of a simple rack-and-gear prototype I made to practice
designing and piecing together gears from Illustrator files. I ended up laser cutting a small pen holder and attaching the prototype
to a DC motor to get the device shown below, and then decided to turn it into a drawing machine that operates by using a photoresistor.
All components in this drawing machine were laser cut from Illustrator files I created. The circular turntable holds
the drawing surface in place, the arm at then end of the rack holds a drawing instrument, and the acrylic box
encases the electronics. I chose to make the electronics box out of acrylic since I designed the circuitry such that
the drawing arm is contolled by a photoresistor.
When light shines on the photorsistor, the motot is activated, thus
turning the gear to move the pen at the end of the arm. In this way, the undulating circular patterns shown below are created.
