PlotBot

What is this

A whiteboard drawing bot project. We didn't design the thing, but we built a couple of robots. Along the way, we made modifications and learned a lot.

Among things we learned is that it's a perfect project to get start with robotics.

Here's where it comes from:

https://hackaday.com/2025/09/02/this-plotter-knows-no-boundaries/

https://www.niklasroy.com/robotfactory/

The above link actually contains everything needed to get the bot going. Below are adjustments for parts we had.

Our modifications

Endstops

The microswitches come in different shapes and forms. We added extra prongs to the bumper ring to engage with wider range of microswitches.

Roller ball

We used a larger furniture ball, which in turn means we had to make room in the parts in two lowest layer and make the wheels larger.

Wheels

The wheels were too small, possibly because our roller ball was bigger. They were also rubbing against layers 1 and 2, and appeared to be made for 5mm shaft in the stepper (our had 6mm). This has, of course, thrown off the geometry. a little.

We also had different size tyres.