Building an Arduino Powered Drawing Machine...Art that Creates Art

Art that creates art. Inspired by an artist named James Nolan Gandy, I set out on this creative adventure to learn and understand more about how this type of drawing machine works. Also known as a harmonograph, these machines create epic and mesmerizing (and trippy) drawings. Combining my engineering skills, I designed, 3d printed, and built my own harmonograph. The machine was built with customizable parameters for endless opportunities. The motors actuating each arm and turn table are fully controllable using an arduino microcontroller. I also built a bluetooth app to make changing the parameters easy and accessible so I could focus on the art.
Once the machine was built, all that was required was a good selection of sharpies and some 7”x7” paper.
The result was two-fold. I ended up with LOTS of amazing drawings as well as a better understanding of how each component affects the drawings. Tweaking the software and code can lead to endless combinations creating forever unique designs.

[@Mathoose]

All of those are so unique wow

[@jamesfrankel7827]

So cool, very powerful and great and creative art-art!🎉

[@elspanishimo]

5 axis control for 2D drawings! Love it, such a cool machine.

[@Engineezy]

Basically a sales summit model right 😂

[@elspanishimo]

@@Engineezy Exactly! More motors more better!

[@emilianstoimenov737]

You should build a Lorenz attractor drawing arm. Would be even more mind blowing.

[@robynvogler7198]

This is "sick"! I love it and would definitely buy your art💕

[@Engineezy]

Thanks :) :)

[@VanessaRaquelRaponi]

You are soooo talented!!!! This is epic

[@Engineezy]

Thanks Vanessa!!

[@bigsteve6729]

Great project, there was a toy in the UK called spirograph that was a manual version of this with little gears that meshed with offset holes in them to put your pencil and revolve them around each other to draw crazy patterns. I have that same little box of silicone wire with the little cardboard holder it's great! 😁 I get baked and buy loads of shit on Amazon too

[@Engineezy]

I loved those toys as a kid! Some of the best purchased are made in a heightened state of mind 😎

[@bigsteve6729]

@@Engineezy hahaha I am totally relating with that right now 😎👉👉

[@Photodeus]

Turntable and the arm doesn't need to rotate and move in one direction continuously. For even more intense patterns, feed the motors varying speeds with sine, sawtooth and square waves etc.

[@rvisani]

Really really good! Have you thought of packaging this as a kit? I think it would be great as a STEAM project for school groups.

[@Engineezy]

Thats a great idea Roberto! Definitely something to consider. Thanks for watching 👊

[@flighttrain71]

My teacher gave us the task to build something similar...

[@ricardoyimnai.Mr.pips1111]

Great art pls i will like to know how to build this system

[@rahulkrishna7041]

What software do you use

[@mybrainlikesthings]

Did this require any levelling? I saw the hot glueing, the arms, and a turnable, all of which I think could have made the marker draw unevenly. Just wondering if there was an engineering trick that removed those factors. Thanks for the videos. I have been enjoying your channel. You do things with such ease and panache. Also thinking that Wintergatan could use your knowledge.

[@Engineezy]

Appreciate it! No leveling required, the marker is on a lever so it basically self levels. Everything is flat enough that it works!

[@Dglinski2]

Dude! great job! I've been inspired by Gandy to build one of these myself. any chance you would share your .stl files?

[@Engineezy]

Thanks David! They didn’t really make it to the ‘Ready to Print’ phase but send me an email and I’ll be happy to share- [e-mail]

[@MarkLutze]

WHAT? So awesome! J Just watching this video as I was cleaning and assembling your F*** It machine. So I would be interested in building my own. Would you consider posting the .STL on your site? If not how about links to the parts you used. It looks like there are a lot of options for motors on Amazon. Anyway thanks for the great content.

[@Engineezy]

Thanks Mark! I appreciate the feedback- still trying to figure out the best way to package things like this to share as downloads. I will let you know if I come up with anything good!

[@MarkLutze]

@@Engineezy -- I am looking forward to it! Thanks

[@BroughtToYouByDDean]

​@@Engineezyany updates? Lol

[@ja1212az]

. Great job, your designs would improve with the use of finer colors, and would be more complex if the movement was changeable. . The rotation of the platform could have programmed acceleration as well as the length of the clamps could be variable in time.

[@Engineezy]

All very great suggestions! Thanks for watching Jose :)

[@ja1212az]

@@Engineezy Thanks for the good words. Greetings from Spain 🇪🇸🍋

[@AndreasWacker]

A simple spirograph toy creates many such patterns since 1965. I find the machine to be very interesting, when it creates patterns like at kzbin.info/www/bejne/qajLi4ebZdZkp7s Things like that have NOT been around before. Certainly worth exploring some more. Build and video are nice regardless of most pattern being just digital spirographs. Worth doing.

[@Engineezy]

Yeah there’s definitely a lot more that can be done with this! Thanks for watching

[@malvoliosf]

Spirograph: kzbin.info/www/bejne/g32QqJd7btxlpbc

[@3xperiences]

Were you drunk Or exhausted?