Question from a noob

Hi, I'm not sure which group to post this in but maybe somebody here
has an idea to guide me in the right direction. *crosses fingers*

My question is actually about a flatbed pen plotter. I have this idea
where I'd like to setup a plotter(preferrably cheap i.e. used) that
will respond to user input and plot Sierpinski's Triangle (or a similar
fractal construct) such that one point is plotted each time a button is
pressed. My plan is to set this up in the math and science building of
the small university I'm attending and let it run for a couple weeks so
that people can see the progress of a fractal appearing from random
input.

Unfortunately I know very very little about plotters and electrical
engineering in general.

How doable is this for an undergrad math major who dabbles in
computers? Am I in way over my head on this one?

Any advice/suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

Hi
Nomatter what plotter you find you will need to hook it up to a program
that maneage a postprocesser ------- it is much easier if you found a
PostScript printer as that will work instantly with recursive functions
.. PostScript maneage this and from 4 lines of code it will produce
mountains of fractals but, you need to make sure that the printer you
find realy carry a Postscript evaluator.

 

Most pen plotters are HPGL compatable [Hewlett Packard Graphics
Language]. You may find info about it on the net, but most of the
older plotter manuals had info about the language. It will also have
info about the serial (RS232) connection from the computer to the
plotter.

I've seen plenty of small format (letter and tabloid) flat-bed pen
plotters on E-bay, but not larger ones. You may have to build your
own. but, there are plenty of hobbiest web sites. Try www.cnczone.com

Joe Dunfee

 

Hi
Even better if the pen plotter you find have a paralell port ;
You can then send functions directly to the plotter.
You can write "move 0.0 and the pen will instantly move to that point,
if you remembered the "pen down" line you even have a line drawn , just
remember the Pu. command , anyway this way you can in say AutoCAD,
write instructions to the plotters paralell port by "writing" to an
open file , Lpt1 and 2 is that , for the system the paralell port is
just as to be treaded as a file.
Then you can write your recursive function and point the results to the
plotter directly.