Printer

114 Responses
      1. the NeXT desingner
        Reply

        Can you make a program that makes the Printer show images on the NXT for a person to choose an image using the left,right and enter buttons and print the chosen image?

      2. Chika
        Reply

        HELP!!!!! i have downloaded the glove pie sciprt from megauploads and now i dont know what to do! i cant open the file. please could you tell me exactly what to do(as if i were a dummy) after you download it! PLEASE!!

      1. the NeXT desingner
        Reply

        Truth is I’m not that good when it comes to making LONG,BIG and complicated programs and besides I still haven’t received the Inventors Guide from the mail but I’l give it a try (as soon as I receive the Guide of course)even though I’m going to fail LOTS and LOTS of times I might get it right somehow and maybe in your free time you can try it too right?

        1. Laurens
          Reply

          The end of the chapter suggests some fun experiments to do with the printer. Perhaps you want to try those once you finish building and programming the robot. It’s far less complicated than drawing an image file, but still requires some thinking.

          1. the NeXT desinger

            Really? maybe I can make one of the experiments but again my book is still not here and I don’t know why anyway can you mention what is one about please?

  7. NXT
    Reply

    Does the printer actually read vector graphics from a PC or the internal memory or are the instructions to print a specific image given in the program?

  8. the NeXT designer
    Reply

    Hey Lauren what decimal or number would you recommend to type in the LowerPen’s MyBlock first Motor block’s duration setting? I’m using a Sharpie fine tip pen. My Printer’s problem is that sometimes it presses too hard sometimes and sometimes it doesn’t write even though I don’t modify the program one of the problems always appears and the motor block’s duration setting is at 0.62 seconds.Can you help me? 🙂

  9. kim
    Reply

    can you please tell me the programming for making a circle with the printer? i have the set and both of your book. i have finished the green book though, and now i’m finishing the blue book. my father is trying to get my school to open a robot society using nxt 2.0 so i’m trying to help him persuade my headteacher so that she would open the society. i’m trying to persuade her by printing the school logo but my school logo is made out of many circles so i’m trying to find a way to make one but i can’t so i really need your help. by the way i think you could remember me, i had talked to you many times using e-mail, but i lost track of you because my e-mail account had an error and all my contact and messages are deleted. i’m not sure did i use my name as “kim” or “thun”

    1. Laurens
      Reply

      Kim,

      Take a look at parametric functions.

      One way to plot circles is x = cos t and y = sin t, where t is the time and x and y are the motor positions.

      This printer is not perfect for circles, though, but you can tr — some have successfully done it (see video in recent blog post).

  10. the NeXT designer
    Reply

    “Why Spanish?” you ask? Well I read your “About Me” article and I read that you speak every language Google Translate offers and thought you could speak Spanish, also I asked because it’s my first language but I prefer English instead.
    Anyway thanks for the advice it realy helped. 🙂

    1. the NeXT designer
      Reply

      P.S. Sorry I took so long to reply my(my parents actually) internet device and conection with the family laptop was (and still is) down and had to use my mom’s cellphone to reply. Sorry about that. 🙁

  11. Nxt 2.0
    Reply

    Can you help me ???
    The printer cannot print anything : at the beginning of the program it try to catch the paper but if the touch sensor isn’t pressed it cannot continue. Anf after the motor B is blocked ! Help !!!!!!!

    1. Josh
      Reply

      You may have left the wait block on the default “wait for touch” instead of “wait for white” by selecting your color sensor, also remember to check the ports you have assigned to that action. As far as motor B, it might be mechanical so check your gears and wires. If you don’t hear a humming noise it’s probably not the motor and actually your programming. Make sure you don’t confuse your horizontal and vertical motors and especially not your pen motor as it has only so far to move. I haven’t checked on mine but if motor B is the pen motor try changing the direction. If it requires that direction to move than you may have forgotten to tell it to reset after the program is done, or just have it going the same direction for down and up. Otherwise good luck!

      Awesome design by the way Laurens. I have been trying a great long while to figure out how to create a drawing robot with reasonable accuracy using three motors and preferably just the parts that come with the set. Seeing your book made it possible even if the idea is not my own. I too am trying to get it to do circles around yours now, quite literally. It does however require a tangent function that I coordinated with two sin/cos blocks that you can get free from hitechnic.com. The major problem is the coefficient of static friction which makes any slow speed inaccurate for curves. It draws rather rounded squares than circles. Unfortunately I am in college and lack the time to work on projects like I used to. Anyhow, amazing work! so jealous!

      1. BManCan
        Reply

        My program is in NXT-G and is based upon your original MyBlocks. I had to customize one of the blocks to be able to draw the “V” in EV3, because the x and y dimensions were not equal. I will package up and send you a copy of my program this evening.
        Looking forward to the upcoming EV3 release.

        1. Sergey
          Reply

          Dave–Thank you for a great tutorial! I have not been trgouhh it in detail, but what I have read impresses me very much.Your efforts to extend, explain and make NXT more accessible are just great!Keep up the great work!Andy

  20. Steve-Dutch
    Reply

    Hi laurens.
    Ich habe das NXT-G über das i-Pad gekauft. Mit der kindle-app.
    Aber das i-Pad zeigt keine seitenzahlen an.:-(
    deshalb kann ich mir das programm nicht downloaden, weil ich die wörter für den download nicht weiß.

    Pleas can you write the words in the blog?
    I only can speak a little bite english.
    Please set the two words in the blog. I’ve bought the NXT-G ower the kindle-app. but there aren’t sitenumbers. 🙁
    please help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  21. Sergej Stoetzer
    Reply

    Hi Laurens,
    I have covered some of your cool robots in my robotic courses – especially the grabber and the printer are really great!
    We have programmed the printer to output pixel images of people – first by dabbing every pixel, which looks remarkably in the end (“art”), even though the code is rather stupid. Next generation of code only lifts/releases the pen when necessary, resulting in lines by which the image is drawn.
    Then one pupil had the idea to let the printer print an image of itself – a nice idea of recursion as art (or the other way round…).
    You can check a short video and some stills in our blog:

    http://fhgrobotics.wordpress.com/2013/03/03/selbstbildnis-2-0/

    Thanks for the cool developments, keep it up;-)
    Sergej | FHG robotics

  23. Nicholas Young
    Reply

    I gave built the printer and it has drawn the logo successfully! I am not a good programmer so can you make more programs for different pictures?

    1. Laurens
      Reply

      Well, I’ve made using the printer easy for you by making all these My Blocks. By using those, you can easily draw any line pattern you want.

      For example – Make a program that draws the outline of a house. Use your imagination 🙂

  28. gerald
    Reply

    I think you should make a program for the printer so the printer could write words so on the NXT display you use the arrows to select the letters of the word you want to type and then you press the enter button and the printer writes the word

  32. Dani Eli
    Reply

    I bought the Kindle version of the book. i want to download the program but it’s impossible to answer the questions
    You can send me the answers?
    thanks a lot

  34. bastelhugi
    Reply

    Hi Laurens

    great job you did with the books, we (my son and i) own both, and we had a fine time building and programming all the different things!
    But now we tried the printer (plotter) and we have a problem with the programming. when it comes to building the myblocks with the variables as input, the final myblocks do not accept numbers as input for the movements. it only accepts yes/no. where is our error?
    furthermore, we have the german edition of the book, and it only has 152 pages, so its impossible to answer the download question.
    we gladly would apreciate any advice from you or any other user! thanks alot!
    -bastelhugi

    1. Laurens
      Reply

      Hi Bastelhugi,

      You can find the full programs at roboter.laurensvalk.com

      A yes/no option indicates that there was a green logic data wire when you made the My Block, rather than a yellow number wire.

      Laurens

      1. bastelhugi
        Reply

        Hi Laurens

        thank you very much for your fast and precise answer! The constant-block was of the wrong type, that was the problem.
        And the downloads are working, too!

        bastelhugi

    1. Emi
      Reply

      I see the Brick inside (I think), but does the car rllaey work? How is it controlled? I don’t see any sensors, so unless Bluetooth is used to control it, I’m just curious how well it works. Great design, by the way.Jim

      1. Jermal
        Reply

        Still promised… it’s not been fototgren, by LEGO or the MDP. LEGO wanted to get the profiles out first, and they’ve only so much manpower to do so many tasks.– Brian Davis

  43. Billy P.
    Reply

    Hey! I was wondering if I could find a download link to the myblocks…I stink at programming and thought I could have a copy of those.

    Thanks!

    1. Laurens
      Reply

      You can download the ready made programs using the menu at the top of this blog.

      You can also create the programs using the instructions in the book — it’s a much better way to learn 🙂

      1. Billy P.
        Reply

        Thanks So Much =D.

        Also, The paper gets jammed and doesn’t move back and fourth properly. Is there any way I could make something to make it move more freely?

        Thanks!

  44. A Person
    Reply

    Hey, I built the model and Apprently the Paper doesn’t touch the rubber wheel that is supposed to move the paper back and forth. Can you please give me a fix. I remade it and still doesn’t work. thanks!

  45. charlie B.
    Reply

    I’ve bought the book but in kindle form which doesn’t have page numbers and it looks like the pages I see are half pages or even quarter pages so I can’t get the info for the challenge codes on your website which would let me download the program.
    Can you help me?

  46. Kirill
    Reply

    HELP! I’m sorry if there’s a free manual for the assembly of the robot? I am Russian, do not know much English. very few such sites in Russian without the books I did not get to build this robot?

    1. Salem
      Reply

      Plano has a new rack system. The laergst of these hold 3 or 4 series 3700 trays (with lids) with ample storage on top for the NXT brick, wheels, and other large components. See it or look for it at a sporting goods store. Menards (a chain of home centers in the midwest) also carries these rack systems in bright yellow.

  53. Arnav
    Reply

    it is too hard for me to program the printer so can you please keep a download for the program online and send me the link

  58. Joran
    Reply

    Hi,

    I made your printer, but i made an own program. But every time it writes a letter, after each letter something weird comes on my screen. it seems like it is calculating the letter, but if i run the logo program nothing happens on the screen. Can you please help?

  60. Simon Boden
    Reply

    Hey,bei mir scannt der Farbsensor aus irgendeinen Grund nicht oder verzögert sich sehr stark.
    Ich bitte um Hilfe!

    Danke.

  62. Roshni
    Reply

    This printer program comes to be 475kb. But the nxt machine can hold only 118 kb. How can make the program size smaller?

  63. Wanetta Smola
    Reply

    Hello everyone 🙂 I’m rather new to 3d printing and I have quite a few questions on the topic, so I hope you won’t get mad at me for asking here at least a few of them. I think even before I’ll get seriously into designing and sculpting I should focus on the software I’m going to use, and that’s what I would like to ask you about. Mainly, should I look for the most crudest software I can find or would it be better to look for something more complex? I’m worried that I’ll get some unwanted quirks while working on less complex software. Currently I am trying out some online software called SelfCAD (I didn’t have to download anything). I’ve read some good opinions about it, but maybe you could share yours as well? The second question is about the program as well: should I look for software that would allow me design and slice it in it, or should I use a different program for each? The one I’m suing allows me to do both i it. Will it even make a difference? Weirdly, I couldn’t find the answer to that, as it seems like most sites want to focus on the very basics (like what is 3d printing and so on), and while the answers to those questions are fine, it seems like no one wants to go into the details (it looks like some of them even plagiarise each other! I swear I’ve read the same answers to the same questions on at least 3 different websites) but I’m getting off-topic… The last question is about 3d pens. Would it be possible to somehow convert whatever I draw with a 3d pen to a 3d model in a software? For example, if I’ll draw a cat with 3d pen, would it be possible to get its design in a software? I’m not sure how that could even work, but the very idea sounds interesting to me. Anyway, I think I’ll stop here just in case no one will answer me and all of this writing will go to waste. I’m sorry that I’m using your content to ask questions, but I hope you’ll understand and help a beginner like me. Anyway, thank you for posting. I did learn something from this and that’s always appreciated. Thank you, and I hope to hear back from you very soon 🙂

  64. Kaila Steel
    Reply

    Hi everyone! I’m rather new to 3d printing and I have quite a few questions on the subject, so I hope you will not get mad at me for asking here at least one of them. I think even before I’ll get seriously into modelling I should focus on the software I’m going to use, and that’s what I’d like to ask you about. Mainly, should I look for the most simple and crudest CAD I can find or would it be better to look for something more complex? I’m worried that I’ll get some unwanted habits while working on simpler software. Right now I’m using some online software called SelfCAD (the reason is that I didn’t have to download anything for this to work). I’ve read some good opinions about it, but maybe you could share yours as well? Second question is about the program as well: should I look for program that would let me design and slice it in it, or should I use a different program for each? The one I’m suing allows me to do both i it. Will it even make a difference? Surprisingly, I couldn’t find the answer to that, as it seems like most blogs and sites want to focus on the very basics (like what is 3d printing and so on), and while the answers to those questions are fine, it seems like no one wants to go into the details (it looks like some of them even plagiarise each other! I swear I’ve read the same answers to the same questions on at least 3 different websites) but I’m getting off-topic… The last question is about 3d pens. Would it be possible to somehow convert whatever I draw with a 3d pen to a 3d model in a software? For example, if I’ll draw a cat with 3d pen, would it be possible to get its design in a software? I’m not sure how that could even work, but the very idea sounds appealing to me. Anyway, I think I’ll stop here just in case no one will answer me and all of this writing will go to waste. I apologise that I’m using your content to ask questions, but I hope you’ll understand and assist a beginner like me. Anyway, thank you for posting. I did learn something from this and that’s always appreciated. Thank you, and I hope to hear back from you very soon 🙂

Leave a Reply

Discover LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3

EV3 Discovery

Discover the many features of the EV3 set, and learn to build and program your own robots! Learn more

Start Building Robots

ev3set

Website Maintenance

Robotsquare is currently being updated, which means that it may look a little different (and not very polished) for a while. All the content and pages should still be there, though. It should be back and fully operational soon. Thanks for your patience!