A CNC Dock for the Etch A Sketch
Engineer Nikodem Bartnik built the "CNC A Sketch," a robotic dock using a Raspberry Pi Pico to turn images into perfect Etch A Sketch art.
Nikodem Bartnik loves doodling on an Etch A Sketch, but he is a terrible artist. Fortunately, he is a very good engineer, so he decided to build a mechatronic solution to this problem. The result is the CNC A Sketch, and, as you can probably guess, it is an Etch A Sketch that is controlled by a CNC machine to create perfect drawings.
After testing out a few design ideas in which the hardware was mounted directly to the Etch A Sketch, Bartnik settled on a better solution: a docking station. Mounting the frame and electronics to the Etch A Sketch itself proved to be too heavy — especially when it came time to clear the screen by shaking it. The docking station concept allows the toy to slip in and out as needed without adding any bulk to it.
To get the CNC A Sketch working, Bartnik created a homemade circuit board that is populated with a Raspberry Pi Pico development board and a pair of stepper motor drivers. Each driver is connected to a NEMA 17 stepper motor, which turns one of the Etch A Sketch’s knobs via gears. If you don’t want to make a custom circuit board, you could also use a breadboard, or go with an Arduino and a GRBL shield.
Next, Bartnik got to work on the software. He developed an application that converts images into vectors. The vectors are then turned into G-code, which is transferred to the Pico. The Pico then parses the G-code and turns it into appropriate stepper motor movements.
Bartnik may still not be much of an artist, but you’d never guess it after seeing his Etch A Sketch doodles.