Small machines, built on the bench.
3D printing, electronics and common parts, turned into things that move, light up and draw. Every build is documented in the notebook.
Machines
All machines →
Pen Plotter A
WorkingTwo steppers and a geared pen lift that draw on a 76 mm post-it pad, printed on a Bambu P1S and driven by an ESP32.
Asteroid Test
WorkingA tiny Spacecavator-style digger on a Nextion screen: steer through rock and collect gems with a joystick, zoom with a knob.
SEAF Helmet Light
WorkingAn IR-remote RGB lamp for a Helldivers helmet: a 9 V battery, an ESP32 and a transistor-switched LED.
Servo Tester
WorkingFind a hobby servo's real end points and centre: a PCA9685 driver, three knobs and a display, all run by an ESP32.
Stepper Test
WorkingA 28BYJ-48 stepper driven through the PCA9685 and a ULN2003: milestone one of the pen plotter.
Bench
Every machine here starts in Bench, our own workbench app. One project file gives you the breadboard, schematic, perfboard, 3D model and the firmware sketch, with a live circuit solver and one-click flashing to a real ESP32.
From the notebook
All entries →Round circles: taking up the backlash
Result. Small circles used to come out as rounded squares. The plotter now takes up the play in its gears every time an axis reverses. After three test drawings, X 0.9 mm, Y 0.8 mm makes the circles round. The values…
A cat face, start to finish
Result. The plotter drew a cat-face emoji from an SVG: 451 mm of line, with round eyes, a clean nose and whiskers. Then it moved the pen out of the way and lifted it so the sheet came straight out. Its screen…
A geared pen lift, and a proper plotter screen
Result. The pen plotter is working extremely well. It took three pen-lift designs to get there. The one that works lifts the pen with a rack and pinion like the X and Y axes, and lets the pen rest on the paper by its…
