Remember the Spirograph toy from long ago? Turns out that the simple toy is governed by math. It’s always math. The equations aren’t that important here but you can search for hypotrochoid and epitrochoid and see the proof. I’m interested in the spontaneous discovery of childhood and certainly like the simplicity. Sometimes we use technology to do things that work just fine in the old ways. As if a plastic toy from the sixties is an old way, but you get my point.
Circle of Complication addresses that and makes some interesting remnants as well. A microcontroller is used to control two servo motors. One servo motor is used to propel the arm around the center, creating arcs. The other servo is used to wave back and forth to give some visual interest to the arcs. This isn’t the final design, this is kind of a very nice prototype to iron out some design issues. The final piece will be larger about 5 feet by 5 feet drawing on 4 foot by 4 foot paper. It will use a linear actuator to move the pens back and forth and may have more than one pen depending on how I design it.
Of course there’s always the woodworking. Here’s the base which is fun because it comes apart and packs flat.
Circle of Complication base
This all assembles with the drawing platform on it to look something like….
Circle of Complication assembly
A close up shot of the drawing arm while it’s drawing.
Circle of Complication Drawing arm
A short video of circle drawing arcs. That’s my studio assistant Baloo making sure it’s working.