It has been almost two months since my last post because I was super busy with my new passion, generative art (For now, you can see my work on my Instagram profile. Expect new posts about my process and tools in the near future.) .
I also got my hands on the brilliant little machine by Evil Mad Scientist, AxiDraw plotter, and it is the best purchase I made in a long time. I love everything about it - how it is engineered, images I can produce using it and their support.
Then I saw this video and was blown away by the idea of recording a plotter from this perspective. When I asked the author how he does it, he pointed me to the tutorial he selflessly created. To film these wonderful videos, he made a mount for Raspberry Pi camera he can put directly on the plotter.
I had a Raspberry lying somewhere in the flat, so I immediately ordered a camera and a 3d printed mount. Because of the COVID situation and the curfew it took a week for these to arrive, making me impatient.
It didn't take me long to assemble this, but I did break one (Luckily I ordered two.) 3d printed mount when I was drilling holes in it. I didn't have any M2 screws, so improvised with the plastic spacers and connected everything together using thin steel wire. It is not the prettiest thing I've built, but it is functional!
Here you can see how much I missed when I was drilling the holes:
Camera has a fixed focal length, and to get a sharp close up video, I had to adjust it by unscrewing the lens a little bit. My local Raspberry Pi supplier added this tiny tool with the camera, and it made adjusting super easy.
Shorty after I was able to record the first video using the little contraption I created:
Mesmerizing isn't it? I love the reflection on the pen.
More images to show how it looks mounted on the plotter:
This was a fun little project, and I hope you like the video. I can't wait to record longer ones. And of course, big thanks to @dutchplottr who came up with the idea. Make sure you check his work as well!