Drawing Automaton

The "Drawing Automaton" is a drawing machine that is powered by magnets. Inside there is a plastic cylinder that spins as you turn the handle. Around the cylinder are small magnets placed in random spots. The wires holding the pen are held together by springs which are pulled by fishing line. The line also has magnets attached. As you turn the handle, the magnets from the line attach themselves to the cylinder, and the tension causes the springs to expand, making the pen move. I challenged myself to create a hand turning machine that can draw in every direction. Though the drawings are random, I still consider this project a great success.

The Audio Portrait Artist

This is "The Audio Portrait Artist"(TAPA). It is made from recycled DC motors, cigar boxes, pieces from a broken multimeter, roof shingles, wine corks, and old radio knobs. TAPA works similar to a CNC machine, but instead of cutting things, it draws . There are four microphones which are each individually filtered to sense a certain range of sound. Starting from very low deep sounds to high pitches, TAPA draws in a specific direction based on the pitch it hears. There are four control knobs on top to control the sensitivity of each mic. Each microphone is individually amplified using LM386N IC chips, and a ULN2003A IC chip bring both DC motors together. There are two relays that control the direction for both motors. The analog gauge is wired together with the circuit to show the intensity of sound it receives.

The Lie Detector

The Lie Detector is made with two recycled DC motors from old printers. The circuit is made up of a triple 5 timer and two transistors for the hand sensor. The buzzer goes off when it gets a strong enough signal coming from the sensor. The more your hand sweats, the stronger the pen moves and buzzer sounds. I love this project because I'm finally branching away from microcontrollers.

Introducing Oscar with an A

This is a drawing machine made from recycled objects. The heart of "Oscar with an A" is an Arduino microcontroller. The machine senses sound and translates it into drawing.