I think it would be cool to make a robot that consumes a digital image and outputs a watercolor painting, and this project was the first step along that path. At its core, it’s a liquid handling robot that is a lot like those that are commonly used for biotechnology applications. The “canvas” here is a standard medical grade 384 well microplate. Instead of dispensing useful biological or chemical agents into the wells, my robot dispenses water mixed with a bit of CMYK printer dye and surfactant (more on that later). My script takes an image, and the robot re-creates that image by mixing dyes in a microwell plate.
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Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.
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