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The Genius of the Lego Printer

Posted by timothy on from the dot-by-dot-by-dot dept.

Barence writes "If you've ever struggled to build anything more complex than a cube of Lego, this will blow your mind. It's a fully functioning Lego printer, complete with felt tip print head."

15 of 187 comments (clear)

  1. WTF by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    Stop linking to websites that link to the actual fucking article: http://www.b3ta.com/links/Lego_printer

    Also, this is just a more advanced variation of a project included with the original Lego Mindstorms kit.

    P.S.: fucking Flash used for video again. Lame.

    1. Re:WTF by Endo13 · · Score: 3, Informative

      And sometimes there's some pretty good reasons for it. Like in this particular instance the article is a great read and perfectly fine to do so anywhere you please. The forums with the original post, on the other hand, not so much.

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  2. Technically... by NonUniqueNickname · · Score: 1, Informative

    It's a plotter not a printer.

    1. Re:Technically... by clone53421 · · Score: 2, Informative

      It’s a raster-based printer, which plots (yes) dots. Devices which print by plotting dots are simply called “printers”.

      Vs. a line plotter, which is what you are typically referring to when you say “plotter”: some of which are designed exactly like this, with carriages to move the paper and pen. Rather than plotting dots, though, they draw solid lines by moving the pen and/or the paper in solid, continuous movements (only lifting the pen when necessary to break the line and begin a new line somewhere else).

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  3. It's not a printer by Dynedain · · Score: 2, Informative

    Actually, it is a pen plotter, not a printer. It's a technology that was very common in architectural and engineering offices until it rapidly died off 10 years ago for inkjets.

    I love the Lego figures going along for a ride.

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    1. Re:It's not a printer by poopdeville · · Score: 5, Informative

      No, it's not a plotter. Plotters are able to move the substrate back and forth underneath the pen. Combined with the left and right motion, a plotter can make a line in any direction on the substrate. "Plotters are restricted to line art," as your wikipedia link says. This can't even do line art. It must rasterize ("pixelize") an image before it can be printed.

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  4. Re:Better than Anything HP Puts Out by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    Somewhere, there are LaserJet IIs still printing.

    Not all HP printers are consumer grade junk.

  5. Re:I want a 3D printer by g0bshiTe · · Score: 4, Informative

    They have one, it's called RepRap.

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  6. Direct YouTube link by steveha · · Score: 4, Informative

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zX09WnGU6ZY

    steveha

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  7. Re:Better than Anything HP Puts Out by kalpol · · Score: 2, Informative

    I'm still using my 20-year-old LaserJet IIIsi.

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    12:50 - press return.
  8. Not all plotters move the paper... by Ellis+D.+Tripp · · Score: 2, Informative

    Analog plotters were at one time common items in engineering labs, as well as chemistry labs where they served as output devices for chromatographs, spectrometers, etc. HP pretty much owned the market, and they moved an overhead pen over a stationary sheet of paper, which was held down to the bed by an electrostatic charge. A typical unit shown here:

    http://www.teknetelectronics.com/Search.asp?p_ID=12956&pDo=DETAIL

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    1. Re:Not all plotters move the paper... by egcagrac0 · · Score: 2, Informative

      The main point that impresses me is that LEGO products are precision-built with such a quality

      If they weren't precision-built, they wouldn't line up when you snap the pieces together.

      Erector sets allowed slop, because of the hole-hardware clearance. That goes away in Lego.

  9. Make & program your own robots, William Clark by Mike+McTernan · · Score: 2, Informative

    There's a similar lego plotter in this book: http://www.clarkonline.org/william/mapyor/index.html

    The book describes using some large lego wheels to form a drum around which the paper was attached, and how to form a small electro magnet around a bolt through a technic lego plate to pull the pen towards the drum. The pen itself was suspended between two lego axles on a butterfly pin. The whole magnet head assembly could pinion left and right using an improvised lego rotary counter to measure progress with a similar block to rotate the drum.

    I had the Sinclair Spectrum version of the book as a child and an IO box of relays. I never made the printer, but made lots of other devices.

    There's some inside pictures of the book here: http://www.hexapodrobot.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=318

    A PDF of the book is here: http://www.worldofspectrum.org/infoseekid.cgi?id=2000479

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    -- Mike
  10. Re:Disappointment by langelgjm · · Score: 2, Informative

    Well, didn't some of the Technics kits come with different kinds of bands and wheels for them? So that's not too much of a stretch...

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  11. Re:Linux by SkunkPussy · · Score: 2, Informative

    ye i can confirm he wrote a cups driver for it on his mac (old housemate)

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