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Build Your Own Electric Etch-A-Sketch

Posted by michael on from the reboot-by-shaking dept.

mhaisley writes "Ok, case mods are cool, monitor mods are nifty... but an Electric Etch-a-Sketch beats either. Students at Cornell University built an electronically controlled etch-a-sketch, controllable by a PC mouse. This was part of a group of class final projects featured by their instructor."

13 of 104 comments (clear)

  1. Reminds me of those EtchASketch tech support calls by AliasTheRoot · · Score: 4, Funny

    User: My Etch A Sketch has crashed what should I do?
    Support: Shake it.

  2. Has been done before by GarbanzoBean · · Score: 5, Funny

    It is called photoshop.

  3. wow... by nuggetman · · Score: 5, Funny

    maybe now i could actually draw a circle on the freaking thing

    i always saw kids in the commercials w/ these elaborate trucks drawn, i couldn't even make a damn circle

    not that im bitter...

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    ...and that's all there is to it.
    1. Re:wow... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

      "i couldn't even make a damn circle"

      It's quite easy. You simply rotate the knobs either clockwise or counter-clockwise depending on whether the sine wave sample is above the x axis or below it and at a speed indicated by the value of the y axis. Obviously, the x axis represents time.

      The only tricky part is remembering that the left and right knobs aren't ever at the same point in the sine wave so you have to remember that your left hand and right hand might be moving in different directions and at different speeds. At first I founnd that it helped to use a precalculated lookup table but now I can just do the trig calculations on the fly.

      Hope that helps!

  4. Fractals are where its at... by frostbane · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I think they should just drop the mouse, hook it up to a computer and draw fractals. That would be a really cool project and it would make some pretty cool results.

  5. Wouldn't it be cool by LeahofRivendell · · Score: 5, Interesting

    If you could use the expandable shapes like the circles and rectangles and stuff in most paint programs and the machine would just make it?

    --
    I are winner
  6. The cheapest item on the BOM would be ... by syrinje · · Score: 3, Interesting

    ...the Etch-a-Sketch itself (yeah, yeah, I know they got it for free but you could source one for a dollar). I am impressed with this project as a teaching aid. Combines a whole lot slew of concepts in one fun project! So what if it isnt practical - technlogia gratia artis.

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    See that long UID - that's what you get for lurking too long
  7. Forget the etch a sketch. STM project by mpn14tech · · Score: 5, Interesting

    A class a few years earlier built an scanning tunneling microscope. http://instruct1.cit.cornell.edu/courses/ee476/Fin alProjects/s2002/sm242/index.htm

  8. It's missing a way to erase it... by seanadams.com · · Score: 3, Informative

    I built one of these years ago... the thing mine had that theirs is missing is some way to flip it over to erase it.

    I used a big servo (made for a remote controlled boat) to flip it over. Also a solenoid to lock the screen in the vertical position so that the servo/solenoid only need to be energized while the screen is being shaken.

  9. the art of motion control by xbryanx · · Score: 3, Informative

    I think the most interesting thing here is the wide range of projects of their class page and how they have come up with inventive ways of using microcontrollers (sure some of them aren't new but that doesn't mean they aren't cool work for a class of students).

    But if you think this is cool then you should check out the work of Bruce Shapiro. He's got a stepper motor controlled Etch a Sketch, but that's only the begining. How about a home built two axis plasma cutter, or a an old dental mill that turns 2d pictures into 3d sculptures.

    --
    Sin lies only in hurting other people unnecessarily. All other sins are invented nonsense. - Robert A. Heinlein
  10. And yet... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    ... articles about nifty microcontroller projects like the laser-based Iridium flare tracker get rejected. Go figure.

  11. A bit underwhelming.... by Ellis+D.+Tripp · · Score: 3, Informative

    Is that all there is to it? A mouse moving the stylus of an etch-a-sketch? Now if it incorporated a "drag and drop" or "selective erase" feature, it might be interesting. As it is, this would make a neat high school science fair project, but a final project for an EE degree?

    Why was a microcontroller even NEEDED here? Rewiring the mouse to provide the raw X and Y encoder wheel pulses, and applying them right to the stepper drivers would give substantially the same results without the MCU and all the programming. If the stepper drivers need step and direction signals rather than quadrature pulse trains, run the encoder signals through one of the LSI/CSI encoder interface chips to get whatever you want without writing code or burning it onto a chip. A programmable solution for something this simple seems like complexity for complexity's sake...

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  12. Re:The original plotter by Animats · · Score: 3, Informative
    No, the first computer controlled plotter was made from an analog X/Y pen recorder. The analog computer for the Nike missile launch system had one, as did the Atlas missile guidance computer.

    There was the Iconarama, which was an Etch-A-Sketch like device attached to a projector. This was the first large-screen computer controlled display, and was used by NORAD in the 1950s. The device scratched transparent areas onto a slide, projecting icons (usually aircraft tracks) on a screen. When the screen became too cluttered, a slide changer loaded a new blank slide. Two complete systems aimed at the same screen were used, to avoid a blank period during slide change and redraw and to provide redundancy.

    The Iconarama was one of a long series of early military attempts to build large-screen displays. There were wall-sized plotters. CRT/film/photo processor/projector combinations. The Eidophor oil-film projector.

    Eidophor technology first appeared in 1943, and there are still a few units in use. No other technology until DLP could reach the 4000 lumen light level of an Eidophor unit.