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Step 3First Painting: Using the Demos
Lay out your plastic sheeting. Tape your paper/fabric down with masking tape, on all sides. An area of around 3 by 4 feet seems like a nice amount of surface for it to paint on. Larger works, too, but much smaller than 2 by 3 and you'll paint more on your plastic than your paper. If it can come up around the edges the robot will catch it, pull it around, crumple it up and do whatever other mischievous robot things to it that it can think of, so tape it down well.
Turn on your robot. Select a program that sounds appealing - 5 is my favorite, but any that you have the equipment for are good. If you choose a cover type program be sure to put something around the perimeter of the area (like 2x4 lumber or something) because otherwise it will cover and paint your room. You can also have a lot of fun with a pong/4 square kind of deal if you have 3 friends around - have on person on each side and make them responsible for bouncing the robot on their side. You could do this on a table top and count on the cliff sensors, too.
Fill some paint into the funnel. Start small the first time, but you can put quite a bit in once you're confident. As soon as the paint it down to the bottom of the tube push the 'start button' and watch it go. Be ready to be fast if it goes off course of something. Also be sure to watch how the brush/roller/etc does, as you may need to do some adjusting there. You'll probably get the hang of it pretty quickly. If you want to take a break or want some extra time a small c-clamp screwed down onto the tubing will stop the paint. The clips used on the arms aren't strong enough to stop the paint in the tube, though.
You can pull the funnel and clean it between colors, but I usually just add one color on top of another in the funnel. It's smart to know your color wheel and choose another color to add that doesn't combine red, blue and yellow (because this will make a brown/grey awkward color) but you can get great results with different shades of blues, then adding some purple or red, etc.
Turn on your robot. Select a program that sounds appealing - 5 is my favorite, but any that you have the equipment for are good. If you choose a cover type program be sure to put something around the perimeter of the area (like 2x4 lumber or something) because otherwise it will cover and paint your room. You can also have a lot of fun with a pong/4 square kind of deal if you have 3 friends around - have on person on each side and make them responsible for bouncing the robot on their side. You could do this on a table top and count on the cliff sensors, too.
Fill some paint into the funnel. Start small the first time, but you can put quite a bit in once you're confident. As soon as the paint it down to the bottom of the tube push the 'start button' and watch it go. Be ready to be fast if it goes off course of something. Also be sure to watch how the brush/roller/etc does, as you may need to do some adjusting there. You'll probably get the hang of it pretty quickly. If you want to take a break or want some extra time a small c-clamp screwed down onto the tubing will stop the paint. The clips used on the arms aren't strong enough to stop the paint in the tube, though.
You can pull the funnel and clean it between colors, but I usually just add one color on top of another in the funnel. It's smart to know your color wheel and choose another color to add that doesn't combine red, blue and yellow (because this will make a brown/grey awkward color) but you can get great results with different shades of blues, then adding some purple or red, etc.
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Oct 2, 2008. 12:44 PMGrey_Wolfe
says:
I like the second picture here on step 3. Much less 'cluttered' than the others. Excellent use of tech, bud.
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