"i dont have the skills to draw but i do have the skills to build a robot to do it" lol

Delighted that you document those frustrating mistakes we ALL make with these kinds of projects

Ok, now you HAVE to recreate the scene from Toy Story 2 where Etch draws the map to Al's Toy Barn..... That would be AWESOME!

Cool project! Some notes from a robotics engineer: 1. You might be able to improve it if you add in some backlash compensation. When you change direction while turning a knob, the first couple degrees of motion in the new direction don't actually move the cursor. You could measure this by seeing how many steps you could rotate a knob back and forth without the cursor moving. The backlash amount in the two directions might be different. So whenever you change directions, you first need to rotate the knob by the backlash amount before continuing the path. 2. It seems like you could maybe double the resolution. it looks like the rows are a little too spaced apart to make a fully filled-in image. 3. The pathfinding for traveling back through an already drawn area is a cool idea (very computer scientist-y) but the image might be better if you only do travel along the border pixels. or, as another commenter suggested, with the "grain" if you're going through a filled region. less technical suggestions: as other people said, moving to the start position then shaking the etch a sketch to get rid of the initial line maybe another pattern to fill the regions? like crosshatching would be cool Lookin forward to see what you do next :^)

Small suggestion to avoid reddit thieves: Put your watermark on a visible place in your timelapses or "interesting parts", like NileRed and Steve Mould do, great project, looks like it was a lot of fun

Very cool! If you add a pause and shake the Etch a Sketch between after it gets from the start position to the first black pixels block you could get rid of that initial line, but at the same time it tells a bit how the thing works.

This is criminal that you dont have more views and subs, you deserve to be more recognized in the maker community. Earned my sub

LOVE. Posting it on the blog tomorrow. Also, you're WAY past 1000 subs now!!!!

I would have lost my mind if I saw this when I was a kid. Always wanted to do this, never put in the time. Thank you for bringing this to life!

two things you could do to improve this: 1: make the program minimize the number of "against the grain" moves while making moves. For example, this would be diagonal lines for the dog. to do this, you would need to first choose a grain that best suits the image (up, down, diagonal left to right, diagonal right to left) then have it minimize all travel movements that are not this grain. 2: start the etch A sketch in it's starting position to eliminate the line from the edge. You would probably need a clear function for the robot, but a tilting plate should do the trick...

Wow, that’s pretty cool, I love seeing the picture come to life slowly as the algorithm figures out how to draw it, it isn’t in order but that’s what makes it fun to watch

My career is in shambles. Awesome work haha

There's a few tricks you can do to get cleaner results (not that this is in any way bad!) such as choosing paths to move from one area of the image to another, such that those transversal paths aren't noticeable (even when taken repeatedly). Eg. rather than starting in the top left corner, you start there, relocate to a spot inside the draw area, clear the screen, and then draw; or coming up/down from the center. Or you can repeatedly pass over a region, adjusting the pointer by only a fraction of its draw width, in order to produce a full-black area, as you push the metallic dust in one direction (rather than smearing some to both sides); look up a tutorial on how to completely clear the screen. I once did a picture of a cityscape along a sloped street, so one of my transversal lines was the edge of the street. Even though it was sloped, I just had to be consistent about how I twisted the knobs. Then all the buildings were rectangular, which made those easy. From there it was just a matter of choosing how to texture each building (vertical stripes, horizontal, windows, etc)

I always feel so shitty when I cut corners but then I realize we all do it, and to be honest, you don't need it to be perfect always. Although it hurts to settle for a sub optimal solution

Congrats on reaching 1000 Subs! A bit of a silly suggestion, but I think using the Etch-A-Sketch robot as a Linux terminal would be really neat!

Congrats on 1k subs 🎉 also great project Ive always wanted to do this but ive never thought i would actually get to see it work!

Wow, really neat project. Watching that thing go is really cool

This is awesome, such a simple concept but I'm sure that software was a pain to write. Now you just gotta make it do greyscale with varying densities of cross-hatching :D

Congrats on 1k subs! And now almost 3k after this awesome project. Love the vid, definitely got my sub

I've never seen such an incredible subversion in the final 2-3 frames of a KZfaq video. I am in awe, my lad.

cool video dude! you deserve way more subs than 1000

Dude added 1.5x his subscriber count with this one lmao

I think the algorithm has picked you up buddy! I actually didnt recognize you for a while, and then remembered seeing your vertasium submission

Great video! I would love to see a tutorial or project breakdown on the software here. It could also be cool to have pullys instead of direct drive so you can mount the steppers away from the etch a sketch

just keep up you are amazing! been working in such ABSTRACT projects and the creativity is the only thing that will take you up.

I was thinking of this concept the other night. Little did i know someone was hard at work building it already! The drawing method reminds me of oscilloscope art!

It looks like you're using reprap Drv8825 style drivers. If you turn down the current (via the voltage pot on the driver) the motors will get less hot, and if you turn up the micro steps (via the config pins), the noise of the motors will go down. Alternately, you could switch to a silent step driver like the TMC2130 or TMC2209.

here before this blows up

Always so exciting to find a small channel before it blows up to millions of subs, best of luck man, you're well on your way 👍👍🤞

Congrats on 1k subs!

Very interesting! Awesome work!

This is worthy of Open Sauce

This is so cool. Lots of cool bits at play here.

ohh etch a sketch my ole friend, the original corexy :'D

Great video congrats on the 1000 subs

This video alone is worth a subscribe. You got some mad skills friend.

Damn 1000 subs and 3 weeks later you are already at 10k, keep it up man!

This is so amazing

Very cute dog. It's like the Rube Goldberg machine of printers or plotters or video screens. An excessively complicated way to achieve the same result. Especially the part where you can't lift the line off the drawing. This makes it uber complicated. But it is awesomely cool 👍

you hit 1,000 subs like 1 day ago and now you have more than twice that gotta respect the grind

amazingly creative!!!

You could make a small business out of this. People send you a drawing, do the drawing on an etch a sketch, then drill a hole and remove the silver powder and send it to them. Seems like a really simple business idea. If you decide to do it, let me know and I will be your first customer.

very cool project👍👍👍

Should pay to drive the algorithm. This should surely have a million views!

This is very clever! I'll be sure to check out some of your other videos!

Very underrated for a video and a channel with such quality...

Awesome, now you are at 4k. Looking forward to your 1mil subs vid.This is some quality, you can go all the way if you want.

This was dope dude!

Cool project!

Cool project. Steppers run hot, even when doing nothing, so I wouldn’t worry about that.

Can't wait to say "I was there when he blew up". Great content, dude! Keep it up!!!

One of the coolest things I have ever seen.

This is actually pretty cool, but simple and cheap enough that it shouldn't be out of the question to reproduce it. My daughter got pretty good at etcha-sketching, but now it's not getting much use so that might be a fun project for this summer. 😎😎

Heh I'm imagining an alternate reality where all printers are just this. "Whoa dont shake my printout bro I need that." Handouts at a meeing require a wheely bin full of etch-a-sketches

I came from the KZfaq recommended and I loved the video I'm looking forward to seeing more!

It's normal for the motors to produce a ton of hear and vibrations normally 👍

This is extremely impressive. Happy to sub to your awesome channel.

Great work man!! I'm so impressed!

Why is this channel so underrated????

Now you just need to pass the image through an art-filter to create art-style hatchings and shadings the way a human would. Also remember that you can create darker areas by zigzagging lines closer to eachother than 0.5mm too.

now you have a new sub from india , loved this project.

Awesome idea! ... now the only thing missing is some way to automatically clear/purge it and then you can build an awesome auto-updating artpiece (or the worlds worst computer display) (and regarding stepper motor noise, get some Trinamic drivers for your next project with steppers! Expensive parts, but very capable and well worth the money)

Cool project man🎉

That's super cool

Sick! I would love to hear more about the software side :)

Amazing work. I was thinking of doing this with an old 3d printer board and use cura for the software. Great work

Steppers normally run hot, but you should be able to touch them if its burning you hand you should adjust the current on the driver. Awesome project.

Cool project

This is brilliant. The next step is take a photo of it and then shake it somehow to clear it, then do multiple frames of an animation! :)

DUDE!!!!!! be proud of your amazing brain!

Almost double the subs in less than a day once you hit 1K 🎉. This was the perfect video to launch. Good thing that etch-a-sketch can self draw your 1000 subscriber plaque 😂

this is so cool man

This is awesome. Way above my skill!

This is soooo cool Like wow Good job keep it up, glad i subbed:3

Wow! That's great! Maybe modify the code a bit to allow it to draw from an SVG? That would allow more control of the texture created by the little needle thing.

really cool idea and video, thank you :)

I had one back in the day and was overjoyed if I managed a house with a roof that fitted! I`m way too old 😁

I love at 4:40 when it draws just a little bit and you can suddenly see that it's a dog

Hey. Start a live stream, take donations at say, 20 bucks for people to upload an audience maturity level image. Video SketchBot doing the work. Profit.

If you added a switch to the circuit, you could add a "pause" to shake the setup after the corner line, so only the dog is drawn.

The stepper motors kinda sound like a serious gamer trying to play fortnite or something

Great Video 👍

Very COoL. You R the "Etch A Sketch Whisperer". I would take on the mechanical challenge without thinking twice (so to speak). But the algorithms that drive that stylus would cause my brain to explode. Say what you will, to me this is pure A.A.T. (Advanced Alien Technology). And I solute you my friend! 🖖

hella impressive

Right now when the stepper changes direction, it is going at full speed and when it changes direction, it is like driving a car at highway speeds and doing a hard corner. If it slows down at the end of each straight path, it should vibrate and heat up less

so cool dude. you deseve more subs

That was quite impressive. You earnt my sub :)

Incredible

Cool vid!

Use the full 850x600 resolution of the stepper motors! The Etch-A-Sketch itself does not have a resolution limit, only the dark areas bleed a little outward because of the stylus width. You can still see white between your lines so there is not just resolution but also contrast to be gained from more pixels. Next, the line does not have to start from the top left. The stylus should first go there for position calibration, then go to the first dark pixel on the path, then pause to allow you to clear the image. Maybe there is an electrostatic or electromagnetic way to clear the image without shaking, or you can shake the entire thing with one or two off-center motors - provided the assembly will survive. Then just add a tripod-mounted phone as a camera, control it via ADB, selfie stick button or special timelapse app and play a few seconds of Bad Apple!

Showed the failures as well as the success, e.g. the full story; liked and subbed 👍

There's no way! I had this idea the other day and somebody's gone and done it!

that’s really cool

I love the border collie drawing you used

this is now the most cost effective ""e paper"' display

automate it to take requests from a vertex image library via twitch chat and then let your robot go stream on Twitch...seriously tho, as someone who owned a etch a sketch as a kid in the 70's/80's this is amazing! cheers

That’s so cool

I’ll subscribe to support your epic creations 🎉

New sub… You didn’t show up in my feed and should have. I searched etch a sketch to find you’re channel

This is really cool! If you somehow made it quieter (maybe by slowing it down?) and put the motors on the back of the etch a sketch, it could be a cool thing to hang on your wall and have constantly drawing new pictures!