Hack A Sketch – Hackster.io

On this planet of graphical shows, there are many choices which might be a lot better than an Etch A Sketch. In actual fact, the Etch A Sketch is fairly terrible. The decision is horrible, pictures have to be composed in a single cross with out lifting the stylus, and there are solely two colours. There isn’t a comparability with the typical pc monitor, not to mention an 8K ultra-high definition TV.

However but there’s something mesmerizing about drawing a posh picture on an Etch A Sketch by rigorously turning every knob in simply the suitable manner, and not using a single error, to supply a Mona Lisa or Starry Evening. That feeling merely can’t be reproduced by opening a picture file in your pc.

The YouTubers at Each Taste of Robotic could not have the talents to manually draw a masterpiece with an Etch A Sketch, however they’re fairly good with robotics. And since they had been searching for one thing that they might current at Open Sauce 2024, they got here up with the thought of constructing an Etch A Sketch robotic that may draw portraits. In spite of everything, who amongst us can say that they don’t wish to see their very own smiling face plastered on the display of an Etch A Sketch?

With solely two weeks to finish the construct, the crew had their work lower out for them. They began by constructing the fundamental setup — a 3D-printed body to suit the Etch A Sketch into, together with mounts to connect the motors that may be wanted to show the knobs to make the drawing. The motors had magnets glued to their backs in order that their exact positions might be learn by encoders, enabling precision management.

Early checks didn’t go as anticipated. Even drawing straight strains proved to be an issue. After assessing the scenario, Each Taste of Robotic determined to develop a feedforward controller that predicts precisely what it must do earlier than doing it. As soon as this controller was calibrated, it was performing a lot better and fundamental shapes might be drawn with a excessive stage of accuracy.

To attract extra complicated shapes, a extra superior management mechanism was wanted. The crew settled on utilizing G-code, which is similar factor that guides, for instance, 3D printers. In direction of the objective of drawing portraits, a pipeline was developed to transform pictures to SVGs, then to G-code that controls the motors.

This was all set to maneuver at prime pace, which labored nicely for some time — till it broke the Etch A Sketch. After tearing down the damaged Etch A Sketch, it was discovered that the stylus is moved by rails by way of skinny strings hooked up to the knobs, and considered one of these strings snapped. A brand new Etch A Sketch was inserted into the robotic, then gears had been fitted onto the knobs to sluggish the drawing right down to take pressure off of the strings.

However you do not need this transferring too sluggish. I imply, how lengthy do you wish to wait to see your portrait earlier than you surrender and stroll away? So to hurry issues up, the G-code was optimized. Initially, an image resulted in about 50,000 strains of G-code being produced, however Each Taste of Robotic wished to cut back that to about 1,000 strains. This was completed by “cartoonifying” the picture first. That drastically diminished the complexity of the picture and made edge detection a lot much less noisy and sophisticated. Accordingly, the sketched pictures had been clear and sooner to supply.

Lastly, the crew optimized their drawing algorithm with some methods that cope with the outdated Touring Salesman downside, then ran a bunch of checks. After that, the robotic Etch A Sketch was prepared for presentation at Open Sauce.

Watching the completed product work is a factor of magnificence. Stick round till the top of the video for a slew of demonstrations that you’ll not wish to miss.