Hi everyone!

I was absolutely blown away by the artwork people create with pen plotters, and I knew I had to build one myself. I have a huge pile of pictures I'd love to see drawn with markers and highlighters, and honestly — it just looks like so much fun.

The hardware is inspired by professional machines like the AxiDraw, as well as countless awesome DIY builds from other makers. That said, the entire 3D model and every part choice is my own work. I've never built anything like this before and I'm not 100% sure everything will go according to plan — but I'm determined to see this project through to the end!

So, the hardware will consist of:

  • 2× NEMA17 stepper motors
  • V-slot profile V2040
  • MGN12 linear rail
  • 2× MGN12B carriages
  • 2× LM6UU (6×12×19 mm) linear bearings
  • 2× 6 mm cylindrical guide shafts
  • 2 toothed pulleys + 5 smooth idlers
  • 4 V-slot wheels
  • ESP32 microcontroller
  • DRV8825 stepper drivers
  • ...and other bits and pieces (to be updated later — the schematic + PCB aren't finished yet)

The software side is a combo of:

  • FluidNC as the ESP32 firmware to drive the steppers.
  • Inkscape for preprocessing the images.
  • vpype + the vpype-gcode plugin to prepare the G-code files. (I found the command-line workflow a bit too tedious for everyday use, so I wrote a little Python script with a CustomTkinter GUI and wrapped it into an .exe — now routine conversions are just a couple of sliders and a button click.)
  • File transfer from PC to plotter will work either over Wi-Fi or physically via microSD.

For now, the main goal of this project is learning + the pure joy of having a robot draw anime pictures for me :) That said, I'm already thinking about a swappable tool head so I could mount a 3–5 W laser like the LT-40W-F23 for engraving various materials.

At the moment I'm saving up for all the parts (I'm not exactly rich ;) ) and getting started on the PCB layout. The project is being developed fully open-source — once it's done, the complete set of drawings, BOM and software will be published on GitHub. The link will appear in the final version of this article.

Thanks so much for reading! If anything in this project caught your eye, please let me know — I'd be thrilled to get any feedback or advice from people who've done something similar. Peace! ✌️