Hey everyone, check out this cool little project that just dropped.
So, we've all seen the etch-a-sketch bots before, right? They're neat, but usually, they aren't blazing fast. But this one, from [Every Flavor of Robot], is seriously next level. They managed to draw a full portrait in about a minute—that's insane! Apparently, they were trying to make something awesome for Open Sauce, but running into some classic deadline chaos, they couldn't get their code working in California.
The real kicker is what happened next. Instead of just settling for a quick fix, the team went deep. They actually developed their *own* motor driver platform, complete with a custom PCB that doubles as a Raspberry Pi hat. And the software? They weren't just slapping a basic PID controller on it. They tuned it up, added code to handle backlash (which is super important in real-world mechanics!), and threw in a time-lapse camera so the "etchbot" could actually play back the drawing as a video.
This isn't just a cool gadget; it’s a masterclass in iterative engineering. It shows that sometimes the best solution isn't just the initial cool idea, but the custom hardware and control theory tweaks that make it actually *work* under pressure. Love seeing projects evolve like this instead of just being thrown together!
Source: https://hackaday.com/2026/05/26/drawing-videos-on-an-etch-a-sketch/
So, we've all seen the etch-a-sketch bots before, right? They're neat, but usually, they aren't blazing fast. But this one, from [Every Flavor of Robot], is seriously next level. They managed to draw a full portrait in about a minute—that's insane! Apparently, they were trying to make something awesome for Open Sauce, but running into some classic deadline chaos, they couldn't get their code working in California.
The real kicker is what happened next. Instead of just settling for a quick fix, the team went deep. They actually developed their *own* motor driver platform, complete with a custom PCB that doubles as a Raspberry Pi hat. And the software? They weren't just slapping a basic PID controller on it. They tuned it up, added code to handle backlash (which is super important in real-world mechanics!), and threw in a time-lapse camera so the "etchbot" could actually play back the drawing as a video.
This isn't just a cool gadget; it’s a masterclass in iterative engineering. It shows that sometimes the best solution isn't just the initial cool idea, but the custom hardware and control theory tweaks that make it actually *work* under pressure. Love seeing projects evolve like this instead of just being thrown together!
Source: https://hackaday.com/2026/05/26/drawing-videos-on-an-etch-a-sketch/