Has anyone made a robot using the inner workings of an old dot matrix printer? What I am interested in, is the use of the controller card and stepp motors. I want to use the premade circuit board and modify it to control multiple step motors. After that... not sure what kind of project to take on.
I would like to use the print driver that came with the printer and program using VB 5 or 6
Glen
I haven`t personally, but surely the print head can be made to move any direction you like by simply sending the partly dismembered printer the usual ESCxx (Hex) commands? Some of our Amiga computer hackers a few years ago actually made the A500`s Floppy Drives "Sing"...
----------------------------------------------------------------------- Ashley Clarke
The same thing has been done with a Commodore 64 disk drive. Bicycle built for 2 I believe.
You could use the paper feed motor to drive a wheel or wheels and use the printer form feed command to move the robot. Some printers allow you to set the paper length, so you could get finer resolution with something the size of a 3x5 card. The disadvangae, is you would need two identical printers if you want to use differential steering. They might start to get pretty big and heavy.
It's not old equipment, but in some countries cheap battery drills are available. These have high torque and operate off 3.6 to 7.2 V and are available for around $10 to $20. Add a motor controller and bolt them to the chassis with a U-clamp and off the robot goes.
Sig: Work saves us from three great evils: boredom, vice and need. -Voltaire, philosopher (1694-1778)
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