What's better than an Etch-a-Sketch? A giant Etch-a-Sketch! What's better than a giant Etch-a-Sketch? One controlled by a Raspberry Pi that does the work for you, like this awesome project created by a maker known as BenB116.
BenB116 custom-designed the housing from scratch so it could support all the necessary components. Stepper motors control 3D-printed knobs that operate the drawing function on the display. Don't worry, artists: you can also manually operate the knobs to draw freely.
The Raspberry Pi inside runs a Python-based webserver to interface with all of the sensors and stepper motors. The screen is a TV, which displays a browser window with the drawing application.
BenB116'sproject also required the development of a custom PCB. This made it easier to assemble all of the components within the parameters of the case configuration. You can explore the full build process on Imgur.
(Image credit: BenB116)
Users can download all of the files necessary, including the 3D-printed components and PCB files, to recreate this project from home via Github.
Ash Hill is a contributing writer for Tom's Hardware with a wealth of experience in the hobby electronics, 3D printing and PCs. She manages the Pi projects of the month and much of our daily Raspberry Pi reporting while also finding the best coupons and deals on all tech.
