Masking Tape Plotter

[@scotrick3072]

This's so great! And I love the little tape cutter at the end!

[@matthiasmartin1975]

Thanks! I realized that those paper guillotine cutters are just scissors with the handle on the other side. So I made one in the size I needed.

[@Manawyrm]

I love the "dialog" based user interface, that's both adorable and really clever. Just generally well done!

[@matthiasmartin1975]

Thanks! It's "ncurses" based, to be exact. I think "dialog" is the most primitive of interfaces used by the dpkg system when no others (like curses) are available. And yes, i agree, these ancient toolkits have a lot of charm. Maybe I should make a version using the X-Athena widget set ;-). I chose ncurses because i wanted to be done with it fast and didn't want to wait every time for X to have started up, when i only need to enter a string of characters.

[@matthiasmartin1975]

Hey, i was wrong - that _is_ called dialog. Silly me - dialog is a CLI interface to the ncurses library.

[@Manawyrm]

​@@matthiasmartin1975 :)

[@DavidLindes]

@@Manawyrm thank you for making me aware of "dialog"... it may get used in future shell scripts. :)

[@Henry-sv3wv]

and for GUI (gtk) scripts you can use: Zenity

[@mariodistefano2973]

Fantastic & really nice idea! DYMO now has a *real problem on field* competitor, for it's products than have been always very costly, but nowadays are become a nightmare.

[@davidmizak4642]

This is really interesting material. I appreciate the effort you put into providing it. Many thanks!

[@m.c.dizzle346]

Love it! What you've made is incredible!

[@christiancortez4136]

That's amazing and I didn't know I needed it until I watched 😳

[@AM-jw1lo]

very nice work. gives me a whole new outlook on old dvd drives.

[@ironsm4sh]

This reminds me of a school project I did. Good job!.

[@Taygetea]

this is fantastic

[@GoingtoHecq]

This is a great label maker.

[@alexchiosso221]

Hi , just an amazing object and an outstanding project. Thank you so much. :-)

[@MichaelRuppe]

This is such a charming project. Well done!

[@cyberlaurent2101]

You're a genious !

[@Ed19601]

Looks great. I take it it needs to be recalibrate when the roll gets smaller.

[@matthiasmartin1975]

In theory, yes.

[@Ed19601]

@@matthiasmartin1975 regardless, a great built

[@G5Ckxew]

I have a friendly suggestion for a future upgrade. Sharpie offers a marker with a retractable ink cartridge to prevent it from drying out. While you could introduce another stepper motor dedicated to retracting the marker, I don't think it's necessary. If you made a small modification to your mechanical design, you could integrate a G-Code path that moves the marker into a parking spot where you have a fixed position bump-stop to retract the ink.

[@zlatanista]

Great! I want one!

[@pravardhanus]

Will be very useful if it can print small letters for labelling on wires for probing or other purposes.

[@88Timur88Bahmudov88]

Usually i just write small letters on a masking tape myself with gel ink pen or a thin marker

[@LightSoySauce]

very cool, nice work

[@Tony770jr]

Nice work!

[@viniciusmus]

Awesome! Great work!

[@PCBWay]

This is really something 👍👍

[@autokit2278]

Nice project 👍👍

[@SantaDragon]

Awesome 👍🏻

[@AliMShipleSYR]

I came across by luck, I don't know really if Google is listening to me while I think of new project 😂😂😂 May I suggest one thing? You for sure know how old hdd works, is it possible for ya to spin the tape and using the pin to dip or dot the tape from side to side, you will have very fast tapping, it would be fantastic to see it works 🤔

[@motorbikesjp7961]

What a great job, you did!

[@battery_wattage]

I expected something that would lay out the tape on a surface but this is also impressive.

[@JonnyLOFI]

I love this!

[@Gambiarte]

You can make shorter servo movements, this can make your device faster.

[@m1geo]

Love this! 😍

[@t1d100]

Very kewl!

[@powertomato]

Are you compensating for the roll having an ever so slightly smaller diameter as the tape is used up?

[@jefftruck]

Where can I buy one? This is positively sweet! The power to the makers!

[@altitude1039]

Brilliant! :)

[@EasyOne]

nice

[@CarstenBe]

That's really cool 🙂

[@stewanish]

Hi buddy, are you able to share the up and down mechanics of your pen holder? Thinking hard how to apply it on my laser engraver as solenoid get hot after sometime and burns. Appreciates any leads? Thanks

[@johnhansen4794]

So cool.

[@yog-f21]

Mantab kang itu beli modulenya di mana kang,,?

[@jmr]

The earlier version has kind of a soothing rhythm to it. Like it's doing a little dance. 😂 Very good work!

[@matthiasmartin1975]

Thanks! Yes, at the time the gcode was generated differently (by bCNC), so that explains the different rhythm.

[@d1ddle]

So... What's a stencil for??

[@Смертьвбахилах]

Angled for Thickness 👍

[@LuismiRey82]

Excelente! 👍

[@wickedprotos1937]

Genius!

[@MePeterNicholls]

Does the rotation / draw account for the smaller radius as tape gets used?

[@matthiasmartin1975]

Nope. That's one flaw I chose to ignore.

[@MePeterNicholls]

@@matthiasmartin1975 narrower text is no bad

[@lightdark00]

Earlier version is way faster. Why'd you slow it down by picking up the marker more?

[@RogerTannous]

What is this screen ? Can you please post a link to its product page ?

[@matthiasmartin1975]

www.hardkernel.com/shop/c1-3-2inch-tfttouchscreen-shield/ Due to the oft cited chip shortage I am using what's in my big drawer of IoT parts. These and the odroid c1 that drives it are leftover from a by now very old project of a former employer.

[@lambsauce5445]

to be able to write to any length, maybe try to already pull the tape out in a length, d'you know what I mean? I think that this is would turn out intresting as a kit if you could make it write at a perpetual length of tape (limited by the physical length of tape on the reel). If I've made you confused, I'm sorry ;(

[@matthiasmartin1975]

I get what you mean - but I think the NEMA17 with full microstepping would not have the strength needed if the tape was constantly pulled on. But It might be worth a try. OTOH, 300mm wide labels are pretty wide.

[@hermannpaschulke1583]

Cool!

[@hieuvu6543]

can you guide me?

[@ariffirmansyah3049]

replace the Boardmarker with cutter

[@hunterrrwlodarczyk476]

Tutorial please

[@armandocarrion3808]

tutorial please

[@IanMott]

Can i get one pls?

[@robingdwl]

Super cool, is this Project open-source?

[@matthiasmartin1975]

Of course, would you like to build one too? You can find everything on hackaday.io/project/185279-masking-tape-plotter.

[@HorstDieterification]

Noice project! How do you find the start of the tape, though?

[@matthiasmartin1975]

After cutting I leave one corner of the end of the tape unattached to the lower layers, you know, semi-flapping-in-the-wind, so to speak. I was thinking of ways to automate the finding of the start of the tape, but it's probably not worth the hassle, but sure would be a worthy challenge.

[@Dormikon01]

Just an idea: if you "force" the user to cut a piece of tape BEFORE printing (any length), you'll know the distance between the cut and the pen. Since both the blade and the pen are in a fixed relation to reach other AND the lifted tape forms a straight line when it is cut (at least when the roll is a little bit tensioned), that should give a useful approximation. You could even decide if you want to roll back the tape for X steps in order to reduce the blank space. Or am I missing something? :-) And btw, awesome project - klasse Idee und toll umgesetzt, Respekt!

[@inse001]

Nice! But why has the 'old' version been faster?

[@matthiasmartin1975]

It was tuned to the 19mm tapes, which are much lower mass than the 38mm ones. Then I added the larger font size for the larger spools and i got ringing and overshoots. So i just reduced the overall speed. I can add spool-mass dependent speeds back in later.

[@carlosrvillegaschazaro1092]

G-code seems to be optimized in old version

[@williamhuang5329]

Hanzhen harmonic drive gear , strain wave reducer, robot gear joint, over 30 years experience

[@Super73VW]

I'm getting some Willy Wonka vibes from the sounds... reminds me of the everlasting gobstopper machine.

[@eVITORIOe]

Make it write cursive !

[@KORUPTable]

Hate hackaday's politics but this is awesome work! they should have linked the video.

[@swampsynth]

shut up

[@lonsbury]

what politics do they have?

[@matthiasmartin1975]

@@lonsbury Haha, let's say chairman Mao would not object to their politics.

[@moth.monster]

Or just... write by hand i guess

[@matthiasmartin1975]

Yeah, it's a crutch for people with bad handwriting.

[@rrspille]

Fascinating but I don't think, that it will last long because of the fragile mechanical parts made of plastic