Initial work towards the creation of a CNC modification of a classic Etch-A-Sketch toy.
The stepper motors used for this project were super cheap, just 12 quid on amazon for 5 small 5v stepper motors which each came with their own control board allowing me to control them over PWM from a Raspberry Pi Model 3.
I created 3D printed parts for mounting the stepper motors to the Etch-A-Sketch and used a laser cutter to create gears out of 6mm birch plywood.
Being cheap and low powered the device suffers from being quite slow which is an issue for the Etch-A-Sketch. Slow movement tends to cause material build up on the drawing cursor making the drawn line become increasingly wide as drawing progresses.
With some software tweaking I think some of these issues can be alleviated which should allow for the project to be demonstrated at department open days for prospective students considering studying at Swansea.