Drawbot ✏️🤖

Drawing robot capable of rendering SVG paths over WebSockets. Powered by a Raspberry Pi running Node.js.

Parts List

Thank you to the kind people at the Johnson County Library's Black & Veatch MakerSpace for documenting the assembly process at instructables.com.

Download and install Etcher.
Download and install latest Raspbian OS and flash it onto your SD card with Etcher.
Enable SSH by adding a blank file named ssh (no extension) to the boot directory on the Pi's SD card. (Last tested with Raspbian Stretch Lite 2018-06-27 version.)
Set up Wifi by adding a file named wpa_supplicant.conf to the same boot directory with the following contents (replace MySSID and MyPassword with your credentials):
```
ctrl_interface=DIR=/var/run/wpa_supplicant GROUP=netdev
update_config=1
	
network={ 
	ssid="MySSID" 
	psk="MyPassword" 
}
```

From a device connected to the same network as the Drawbot Pi, SSH into the Pi with ssh pi@raspberrypi.local. The default password is raspberry.

Then, on the Drawbot Pi:

Update, upgrade, and install NPM, Git. (Automatically answer "yes" to everything.):
- sudo apt-get update
- sudo apt-get upgrade
- sudo apt-get install npm
- sudo apt-get install git
Install Node.js.
- sudo npm install -g n (Install n for node.js version management. github.com/tj/n)
- sudo n stable (Install latest stable version of Node.js. Last tested with v10.8.0)
Upgrade NPM. (and remove old apt-get version).
- sudo npm install npm@latest -g
- sudo apt-get remove npm
- sudo reboot (After rebooting, you'll have to SSH into the Pi again.)
Install pigpio C library. npmjs.com/package/pigpio
- sudo apt-get install pigpio (Only if you're using Raspbian Lite.)
- npm install pigpio

On the Drawbot Pi:

On the Drawbot Pi:

On a device connected to the same local network as the Drawbot Pi:

Go to raspberrypi.local/control to access the Drawbot control interface.
Use the "bullseye" interface to manually position the gondola, or raise/lower the pen/marker.
Use the settings panel to configure the Drawbot's D, X, and Y values (see "Configuration" below).
Drag and drop an SVG file onto the control interface to send artwork to the Drawbot!

Only the first <path> element will be drawn, so if necessary, combine artwork into a single compound path.
The Drawbot will scale artwork so that 1 pixel = 1 millimeter.

Enter value for D: measure distance between string starting points (in millimeters).
Enter starting X and Y values: measure distance from left and top (respectively) of left string starting point to initial pen position (also in mm).
Note: Values will be stored in the config.json file.