Plotter library

Description

A simple library that turns an Arduino and a couple of motors into a 2D plotter. The microcontroller uses two stepper motors to set the horizontal position of the end effector and uses a servo to move it closer and further away from the surface.

API reference

Plotter

• main class representing the plotter

Private attributes

StepperMotor* motorX

• stepper motor controlling movement along X axis

StepperMotor* motorY

• stepper motor controlling movement along Y axis

Servo* servo

• servo for lifting of the end effector

const uint8_t positionXaddress

• EEPROM address for storing X position of the end effector
• default value: 0

const uint8_t positionYaddress

• EEPROM address for storing Y position of the end effector
• default value: 2

uint16_t charSize

• size of the character in stepper motor moves (same for both axes)

uint8_t currentLine

• actual line where the end effector works (starts from 0)

uint8_t currentChar

• actual character (position in line) where the end effector works (starts from 0)

uint8_t maxLine

• number of lines on the page

uint8_t maxChar

• number of chars in the line

Private methods

void savePosition

• saves current EE position (in stepper motor moves from start of the page) to the EEPROM

void loadPosition

• loads saved EE position from the EEPROM (loaded values are divided by the size of the char)

void penDown

• moves EE to the surface

void penUp

• lifts EE from the surface

void moveUp

• moves EE for one stepper motor move upwards (along the Y axis)

void moveUpRight

• moves EE for one stepper motor move upwards to the right

void moveRight

• moves EE for one stepper motor move to the right (along the X axis)

void moveDownRight

• moves EE for one stepper motor move downwards to the right

void moveDown

• moves EE for one stepper motor move downwards (along the Y axis)

void moveDownLeft

• moves EE for one stepper motor move downwards to the left

void moveLeft

• moves EE for one stepper motor move to the left (along the X axis)

void moveUpLeft

• moves EE for one stepper motor move upwards to the left

void writeA

• writes letter A

void writeB

• writes letter B

void writeC

• writes letter C

void writeD

• writes letter D

void writeE

• writes letter E

void writeF

• writes letter F

void writeG

• writes letter G

void writeH

• writes letter H

void writeI

• writes letter I

void writeJ

• writes letter J

void writeK

• writes letter K

void writeL

• writes letter L

void writeM

• writes letter M

void writeN

• writes letter N

void writeO

• writes letter O

void writeP

• writes letter P

void writeQ

• writes letter Q

void writeR

• writes letter R

void writeS

• writes letter S

void writeT

• writes letter T

void writeU

• writes letter U

void writeV

• writes letter V

void writeW

• writes letter W

void writeX

• writes letter X

void writeY

• writes letter Y

void writeZ

• writes letter Z

void writeSpace

• writes space sign

void writeDot

• writes dot sign

void writeDash

• writes dash sign

void writeSlash

• writes slash sign

void writePlus

• writes plus sign

Public methods

Constructor

• initializes attributes sets maximal number of lines and chars (depends on char size)
• arguments:
  • StepperMotor* motorX - see private attributes
  • StepperMotor* motorY - see private attributes
  • Servo* servo - see private attributes
  • uint16_t charSize - see private attributes
  • bool loadPositionOnStart - indicates, if the position of the EE should be loaded from EEPROM

void setCharSize

• changes the size of the char
• arguments:
  • uint16_t newSize - new value of the charSize

void pageStart

• moves EE to the start of the page (line 0, char 0)

void newLine

• moves EE to the start of the next line

void testPlotter

• draws test picture

void write

• Writes given string. If the number of characters exceeds the line length, EE is moved to the next line. If the entire page is used, the remaining characters are discarded.
• arguments:
  • String* text - string to be written

Testing

The library was tested with Arduino Nano, two 28BYJ-48 stepper motors and SG90 servo.

Dependencies

• EEPROM
• Servo
• Stepper Motor

Contributing

Contributions are welcome!

License

The library is licensed under the MIT license.