This week, I’ve made large strides towards success. I’ve finished up the CAD design, solved my power issues with the Polulu Maestro Mini 18 servo driver, and assembled everything. Currently, the code I have is semi-working as it can draw some shapes but I haven’t fully solved the recording function for the Etch-a-sketch side of this project. I also need to re-solder the y-axis potentiometer as the values it outputs currently are jittery. It also seems that the servos aren’t moving fast enough and without enough accuracy to create the persistence of vision effect. I believe I can speed up the servos with the servo driver but I will need to look into that functionality on the datasheet. If I an unable to speed up the servos fast enough to create the persistence of vision effect, a long exposure can be taken on my phone so that we can see what was drawn with the laser.
To finish up for next week, I need to fine-tune the code to add the recording function and mount the Arduino and servo driver in the enclosure and speed up the servos.
