element14 Community
element14 Community
    Register Log In
  • Site
  • Search
  • Log In Register
  • Members
    Members
    • Benefits of Membership
    • Achievement Levels
    • Members Area
    • Personal Blogs
    • Feedback and Support
    • What's New on element14
  • Learn
    Learn
    • Learning Center
    • eBooks
    • STEM Academy
    • Webinars, Training and Events
    • More
  • Technologies
    Technologies
    • 3D Printing
    • FPGA
    • Industrial Automation
    • Internet of Things
    • Power & Energy
    • Sensors
    • More
  • Challenges & Projects
    Challenges & Projects
    • Design Challenges
    • element14 presents
    • Project14
    • Arduino Projects
    • Raspberry Pi Projects
    • More
  • Products
    Products
    • Arduino
    • Dev Tools
    • Manufacturers
    • Raspberry Pi
    • RoadTests & Reviews
    • Avnet Boards Community
    • More
  • Store
    Store
    • Visit Your Store
    • Choose Another Store
      • Europe
      •  Austria (German)
      •  Belgium (Dutch, French)
      •  Bulgaria (Bulgarian)
      •  Czech Republic (Czech)
      •  Denmark (Danish)
      •  Estonia (Estonian)
      •  Finland (Finnish)
      •  France (French)
      •  Germany (German)
      •  Hungary (Hungarian)
      •  Ireland
      •  Israel
      •  Italy (Italian)
      •  Latvia (Latvian)
      •  
      •  Lithuania (Lithuanian)
      •  Netherlands (Dutch)
      •  Norway (Norwegian)
      •  Poland (Polish)
      •  Portugal (Portuguese)
      •  Romania (Romanian)
      •  Russia (Russian)
      •  Slovakia (Slovak)
      •  Slovenia (Slovenian)
      •  Spain (Spanish)
      •  Sweden (Swedish)
      •  Switzerland(German, French)
      •  Turkey (Turkish)
      •  United Kingdom
      • Asia Pacific
      •  Australia
      •  China
      •  Hong Kong
      •  India
      •  Korea (Korean)
      •  Malaysia
      •  New Zealand
      •  Philippines
      •  Singapore
      •  Taiwan
      •  Thailand (Thai)
      • Americas
      •  Brazil (Portuguese)
      •  Canada
      •  Mexico (Spanish)
      •  United States
      Can't find the country/region you're looking for? Visit our export site or find a local distributor.
  • Translate
  • Profile
Sixth Sense Design Challenge
  • Challenges & Projects
  • Design Challenges
  • Sixth Sense Design Challenge
  • More
  • Cancel
Sixth Sense Design Challenge
Blog Sixth Sense GraffitiBot Printing Graffiti - Blog 19
  • Blog
  • Forum
  • Documents
  • Events
  • Mentions
  • Sub-Groups
  • Tags
  • More
  • Cancel
  • New
Blog Post Actions
  • Subscribe by email
  • More
  • Cancel
  • Share
  • Subscribe by email
  • More
  • Cancel
Group Actions
  • Group RSS
  • More
  • Cancel
Engagement
Author: dougw
Date Created: 25 Mar 2019 6:17 AM
Views: 173
Likes: 10
Comments: 8
  • graffitibot
  • doug wong
  • printing graffiti
  • sixth sense design challenge
Related
Recommended

Sixth Sense GraffitiBot Printing Graffiti - Blog 19

dougw
dougw
25 Mar 2019

Well - it is the last day of this marathon design challenge and everything pretty much needs to go flawlessly to produce actual graffiti. But of course a lot of things are not going right. All the subsystems have been tested and are working well, but the bot is just making puddles. I thought the nozzles would be problematic, but the main drive is not running properly, so put on the troubleshooting hat and dive in. It looked like the batteries were dying, so take some time and charge them up. Still no joy. Meanwhile I'm using up all my resources for printing - the "road" I am printing on is blue shop towel - it gets darker when wet. It is handy for absorbing the lakes I am creating, but there is a finite amount of towel. Once it is wet, there is no contrast until it dries out.

Next I'm wondering if the cables can handle the motor current for 10 motors. So - make up some heavy gage cables. Still no joy.

It turns out the battery I am using can only very briefly supply enough current for a full motor load - because the batteries use an internal circuit to generate 5 volts. So I dug out an old (slightly larger) battery I happened to have, and stuck it on. But this battery only had a partial charge and there was no time left to charge it.

So I have enough juice for one run (I think), I have only enough roadway (paper towel) for one run, and I have not gotten it working well enough to sort out the pixel timing or flow rates or steering stability etc. I don't even know how far it will travel, so I don't know how to set up the camera. It all comes down to one last ditch attempt to get something printed ..... no pressure ... only four months of work all riding on 10 seconds of suspense with a boatload of unknowns. Who said there was no drama in engineering?

It is too late to build the suspense any more, so here is the video of that final attempt:

You don't have permission to edit metadata of this video.
Edit media
x
Upload Preview

Here is a picture of the full print as it tailed off the road:

It looks a little cleaner immediately after printing ("E"), but the clogged pump is more apparent...you can even see where a drill bit is stuck in a nozzle...

After all the hours of meticulously designing this machine to draw graffiti, it actually works, but GraffitiBot takes a great deal of artistic license in how it presents its work.

I just stood there and looked at it for quite a while.

It was one of those moments you just have to lock in.

 

Relevant Links

Sixth Sense Design Challenge: About This Challenge

Sixth Sense Design Challenge: Technical Documents

Sixth Sense Design Challenge

 

GraffitiBot Project Blogs

Sixth Sense GraffitiBot - blog 1

Sixth Sense - Kit Unboxing and Other Parts - GraffitiBot blog 2

Sixth Sense - Sensor Circuits - GraffitiBot blog 3

Sixth Sense - Interfaces - GraffitiBot blog 4

Sixth Sense GraffitiBot - System Interconnect - blog 5

Sixth Sense GraffitiBot - Wheels & Motors - blog 6

Sixth Sense GraffitiBot - ST Sensor Tile App - blog 7

Sixth Sense - Load Cell PCB - GraffitiBot blog 8

Sixth Sense - Magnetic Angle Sensor - GraffitiBot - Blog 9

Sixth Sense - LCD Interface - GraffitiBot - blog 10

Sixth Sense - Pump Controller - GraffitiBot Blog 11

Sixth Sense Main Drive Motor - GraffitiBot - blog 12

Sixth Sense Motor Controller Mods - GraffitiBot blog 13

Sixth Sense - RTD - GraffitiBot Blog 14

Sixth Sense Mechanical Design - GraffitiBot Blog 15

Sixth Sense GraffitiBot Motor Wiring - Blog 16

Sixthe Sense GarffitiBot - First Dry Run - Blog17

Sixth Sense GraffitiBot Hydraulics - Blog 18

Sixth Sense GraffitiBot Printing Graffiti - Blog 19

Sixth Sense GraffitiBot - Summary - Blog 20

Anonymous

Top Comments

  • e14phil
    e14phil over 3 years ago +6

    Amazing Doug!

     

    This was a really hard challenge with some drastically different parts and technologies.

    Your bot is working (T&Cs apply) and produced something recognizable! Great great work!

     

    Phil

    …
  • shabaz
    shabaz over 3 years ago +6

    Hi Doug,

     

    Congrats on an awesome project! It's very cool seeing it write out text like this : )

    The possibilities are endless with such a robot.. I can think of numerous use-cases (not all sociable!)…

  • genebren
    genebren over 3 years ago +6

    That was a wild ride.  You overcame a lot of design issues and actually printed something.  I wonder if the early attempts at inkjet printing were this much fun?

     

    Well done!  Now relax for a while.

     

    Gene

  • three-phase
    three-phase over 3 years ago

    This has been a fantastic project to follow, well done for getting GraffitiBot up and functioning.

     

    Kind regards.

    • Cancel
    • Up +4 Down
    • Reply
    • More
    • Cancel
  • 14rhb
    14rhb over 3 years ago

    Hi Douglas,

     

    This was what I was waiting to see, GraffitiBot doing its thing. Great work and congratulations on finishing it.

     

    Rod

    • Cancel
    • Up +6 Down
    • Reply
    • More
    • Cancel
  • genebren
    genebren over 3 years ago

    That was a wild ride.  You overcame a lot of design issues and actually printed something.  I wonder if the early attempts at inkjet printing were this much fun?

     

    Well done!  Now relax for a while.

     

    Gene

    • Cancel
    • Up +6 Down
    • Reply
    • More
    • Cancel
  • balearicdynamics
    balearicdynamics over 3 years ago

    Don't depress, it's very promising!

     

    Enrico

    • Cancel
    • Up +5 Down
    • Reply
    • More
    • Cancel
  • shabaz
    shabaz over 3 years ago

    Hi Doug,

     

    Congrats on an awesome project! It's very cool seeing it write out text like this : )

    The possibilities are endless with such a robot.. I can think of numerous use-cases (not all sociable!) for writing messages or patterns on pavements and walls with a vertical version : )

    This is the type of project where people like Banksy should also be interested : ) - for massive artwork that's not practical by a human.

    • Cancel
    • Up +6 Down
    • Reply
    • More
    • Cancel
>
Element14

element14 is the first online community specifically for engineers. Connect with your peers and get expert answers to your questions.

  • Members
  • Learn
  • Technologies
  • Challenges & Projects
  • Products
  • Store
  • About Us
  • Feedback & Support
  • FAQs
  • Terms of Use
  • Privacy Policy
  • Legal and Copyright Notices
  • Sitemap
  • Cookies

An Avnet Company © 2022 Premier Farnell Limited. All Rights Reserved.

Premier Farnell Ltd, registered in England and Wales (no 00876412), registered office: Farnell House, Forge Lane, Leeds LS12 2NE.

ICP 备案号 10220084.

Follow element14

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • linkedin
  • YouTube