Adjustable Spirograph

[Blakbird]

I found this Technic Spirograph on YouTube and was really impressed. There is a thread about it on TechLug (formerly SeTechnic). The designer, PG52 posted an LDD file at Dropbox but it is no longer there. Does anyone know if the file is still available somewhere? Anio? I'd love to build it. Such a unique creation.

[Doc_Brown]

OMG that is cool! I really want to build one.

I hope someone does have the LDD file.

[JM1971]

I sent him a message though his youtube account, lets hope he replies.

[skriblez]

That was very cool and different :)

[Anio]

Does anyone know if the file is still available somewhere? Anio?

I PMed him on TechLUG, with a link to that thread. :)

[legolijntje]

If anyone can re-upload the LDD file, I would love to make an LDraw file of it (and let Blakbird render the thing )

[JM1971]

He sent me a dropbox link.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/row65pcd9t3jh41/Spirographe%204-2.lxf?n=111959995

[Marcel1980]

i think you can reverse engineer the machine. Loads of good pictures on the french forum

[Doc_Brown]

He sent me a dropbox link.

https://www.dropbox....lxf?n=111959995

Sweet! thanks for that. I will give this a go after exams. :D

[PG52]

Hi Eurobricks !

I saw JM1971's and Anio's messages, and I just registered.

Thanks Blakbird for posting my spirograph ! I'm glad you like it ! Thanks, too, to JM for posting the new link, and sorry, I unintentionally deleted the previous one...

I'm working on the fifth version, which is able to make this kind of drawings :

But it's hard to make it reliable and to suppress all the vibrations of the pen. So I'm working on the version 5.2 now :)

Edited October 26, 2013 by PG52

[Doc_Brown]

Hi Eurobricks !

I saw JM1971's and Anio's messages, and I just registered.

Thanks Blakbird for posting my spirograph ! I'm glad you like it ! Thanks, too, to JM for posting the new link, and sorry, I unintentionally deleted the previous one...

I'm working on the fifth version, which is able to make this kind of drawings :

But it's hard to make it reliable and to suppress all the vibrations of the pen. So I'm working on the version 5.2 now :)

HI and warm welcome to Eurobricks!

I have been extremely impressed with your work. Just fantastic!

I sure hope you succeed in making a newer version.

Good luck.

[Meatman]

This is pretty amazing.

[Rishab N]

Wow this is really amazing. i'd love to build one. Also welcome to Eurobricks!

[DrJB]

Amazing what one can do in 'polar' coordinates .... Felicitations pour cette merveille!

[legolijntje]

This is a wip of the LDraw file. I know you can export LDD to LDraw, but it can (and it does) contain missing and misplaced parts, this is way better.

I'm looking forward to V5! Maybe it would be worth to make instructions for V5?

[Blakbird]

This is a wip of the LDraw file. I know you can export LDD to LDraw, but it can (and it does) contain missing and misplaced parts, this is way better.

Thank you for the effort in converting the file. It should be reasonably easy to build from LDraw. I am surprised to see the L motor since I wouldn't think that much power would be required.

Thanks Blakbird for posting my spirograph ! I'm glad you like it ! Thanks, too, to JM for posting the new link, and sorry, I unintentionally deleted the previous one...

Welcome to Eurobricks! Wonderful creation you have there and I look forward to building it.

[JM1971]

Looking forward to the new version, like some people have said this so different to most lego creations and the results are fantastic.

[PG52]

Thanks to all for your warm welcome !

When i've finished the V5 I'll probably make instructions (but pictures instructions, I don't master SR3D or LDraw at all).

About the L motor, I put it because it is easier to fix than a M motor, I think that the power of a M would have been enough...

The MOC is quite fast, though.

[legolijntje]

[...]

When i've finished the V5 I'll probably make instructions (but pictures instructions, I don't master SR3D or LDraw at all).

[...]

Well, if you could send some pictures or maybe an LDD file, I could try to make some LDraw based instructions

[DrJB]

I'm curious, Do you do some sort of mathematical modeling before coming up with 'optimum' kinematics or is it just trial and error (+ intuition of course).

[PG52]

@ legolijntje :

I'll make a LDD file for the 5th, so I'll send you the link. But I also wanted to make another instructions than LDD's ones, which aren't practical at all... (When I reproduce a MOC with LDD, I never use the instructions mode, always reproduce it directly)

The LDraw render is impressive, much better than LDD's ones ! Looks really good :)

@ DrJB :

I tried to imagine the kinematics and to calculate them approximately before building, but on paper, without any software. The best drawings are obtained by caculating the best "base drawing" (typically one cycle - it can be more), but I can't do that for drawings which are very complicated so it's trial, errors, and a bit intuition in that case :)

For the fifth version, I can easily know how the drawing will be before making it when it is the same type than the two ones I showed above ; the machine is also able to make the same kinds of drawings than the 4th, which are still quite complicated to calculate, though.

I'm already thinking to the 6th version ; I'll perhaps be obliged to make an algorith to determine the type of drawing before, because the possibilities will be really very numerous...

Edited October 27, 2013 by PG52

[JM1971]

I used to have spirograph as a child :D

Found a app on sourceforge that might be usefull ... http://sourceforge.net/projects/spirograph/

[Balrog]

This is a pretty nice MOC. Hope I find the time to build that myself :)

[legolijntje]

I've finished the LDraw model (well, I think I didn't forgot any parts...). Some points to note:

• I couldn't get the arms in place This is fixed. Thanks to Philo!
  
• Rubber bands to hold the pencil and to hold the paper aren't included
  
• The rubber parts in the paper holder and the little wheels are colored "rubber" for better rendering. However, on Bricklink this should of course be normal black.
  
• This isn't an instruction! It's just a model, it doesn't include any steps.
  

Here's a quick image:

You can download the SR3D file here. It also contains seperate groups for the chassis, the board and the arms.

I can't build it myself at the moment, since I have some other things to do, but I definitely look forward to (hopefully) build V5 (or V5.2)

[allanp]

I could watch that work all day long! fantastic!