DnD Map Plotter - Part 2 - Plotter Hardware

HARDWARE

Here is the first image I created. What else would I have drawn?

All the 3D objects can be found here:
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:648119

Many thanks to the corexy.com website for the inspiration to design this plotter.

In the first image below, notice one of the string travels all the way through to the corner idler pulleys? Need to keep that in mind in my 3-D parts.

Image Credit: corexy.com

Notice the 45 degree offset of these two pulleys in the picture below... I will need to use the diameter of the idler pulleys as a parameter when spacing the two holes.  OH NO! will I actually have to multiply a parameter by the square root of 2!  Yay, I'm using one of the 3 things I remember from my college degree.

Image Credit: corexy.com

China builds world's first 3D printed villa and tallest 3D printed apartment building

If you follow 3D printing then you already know that companies are desperately trying to print in concrete paste. We have seen demonstrations of concrete walls and a child's playhouse but who pushed this technology the furthest, WinSun. 

"Shanghai WinSun Decoration Design Engineering Co, made a new announcement that will take 3D printed buildings to a whole new level: they have built the highest 3D printed building, a 5-storey residential house and the world's first 3D printed villa. The villa measures 1,100 square meters and even comes complete with internal and external decorations."

Click here for the exclusive by 3ders.org

Preview the Villa and the Apartment building, and a video showing how walls are constructed below.

Football Field Illusion - GO BRONCOS!

It's Friday before the big playoff games. I dug this video up to get you pumped up!

DnD Map Plotter - Part 1 - Introduction

After 3 years of playing Dungeons and Dragons, Savage Worlds, Star Wars, Traveler, Dungeon Crawl Classic, etc. it is time that I became the Game Master for the Dungeon and Dragons 5th Edition campaign, "Hoards of the Dragon Queen".

Becoming a Game Master is new to me so I am learning that I have to read, read, and then review what I read. After reading, next is getting the miniatures and drawing some maps! Well, I can't just draw maps with my fingers, can I?

Time to make a plotter to draw these maps for me. The approach will be to design a rigid plotter following the CoreXY design. The link shows a great write up but below is the primary mechanics behind the design.

My approach will be to use: 

• Ridged Aluminum and metal yard sticks for the basic structure.
• Many 3-D printed parts
• 2 stepper motors (these are very affordable 28BYJ-48 from Amazon)
• 1 Arduino
• 1 PC/ Laptop
• 1 Servo (to lift the pen) 

Here are some demonstrations of the CoreXY movements:

Go to Part 2 - Hardware