Mechanical Dry Erase Board

Step 5 Building the Z component.

Onto the Pen component (the 6 inch rod) you are going to mount the servo motor. The motor is to be mounted so that the body is parallel with the rods body, and so that the shaft is facing the rod.

You will need to take the twistable pen apart (linked to on the materials page) and replace its ink with the ink from a dry erase marker. You can also saw off the bottom of the pen if you find that easier. Use an ink color that matches the color of one of the 6 markers provided. Place the dry erase marker ink in, shake, and wait for the ink to absorb into the twistable markers tip.

Once you have built your marker, your going to want to make a ring out of the roller chain, and slide it down the shaft of the marker, the exact distance will change as this distance depends on how close you want the marker to the board.

Place one of the gears onto the servo motor, and fasten it with some putty epoxy (putty epoxy is not great for torque, but it worked okay).

Look to diagram for mounting instructions, also watch the video to see how the motor should be mounted.

To raise the motor up, I bought these flexible metal things, not sure what you call them. I wrapped them around the rod and it held the servo motors in place.