This so reminiscent of Japanese robotic kits. Just look at the assembly process from the beginning of the video ... damn :) My dad got me a simple clap-and-it-walks robot kit when I was 8 or 9 and I still remember the insane excitement of putting it together... It was a one-time thing, but the rush of making something physical and complex from a pile of simple parts is really something. Especially when it actually works in the end.

I mean, this sort of thing has virtually no immediate practical value, but it is such a treat for anyone who likes to tinker with things.

Does anyone remember playing with the Logo programming language in the 80's and being able to control a "turtle" robot that had a pen attached and was able to pretty much do the same?

Yes. I learned recursion from drawing "trees" with it when I was about 12...

Too bad this is not open source but CC by-nc-sa.

My thoughts exactly.

I hate when companies call it open hardware, but then turn around and say 'non-commercial use only'.

You can't commercially sell the bots, but their output is fair game. Think of it like a GPL'd compiler. This seems reasonable to me.

Except you can sell a GPL compiler.

If you get the parts cut via the linked online place ( ponoko ) it costs $48 just to get the cut parts. This obviously doesn't include the rest of the parts. Buying all the needed parts for this would cost $130 ( am including the $48 here ) each if you build them yourself. You'd have to build at least 5 to get this price. Realistically making one of these would cost around $200.

It will never be sold commercially, since the designs are CC by-nc-sa.

Unless you are hardcore about building cute expensive tech toys, best move along.

In capability it appears to basically be a "flat eggbot" and an eggbot costs $200. I bought one on sale back in '11 and have been inking a new personalized christmas ornament with it every season since then (more or less).

As a tool, its hourly cost has gotten pretty low compared to other toys. If I could find a similar recreational activity for this device, I'm just saying past experience shows that something similar ends up as a reasonable financial deal.

I agree that it may in fact be reasonable to pay $150 ( perhaps even $200 ) for such a thing. The real cost is much higher due to a need to solder components. This is an especial blocker for people with no soldering experience.

Really, the whole thing would make sense if it had a full cost breakdown to make a single one of them, getting the parts mostly from one location, rather than a random mix, many requiring a minimum purchase of X of them, instead of one.

It's a really cool project, it is just unclear exactly how much effort and money it would cost to make one of these. ( and what tools would be needed )

It would be better to build a drawbot with 3 servos and an arduino.

i have a small cnc machine. i wonder if i can adapt the model to be cut out from that.

I wonder if a 3d printer hot end could be added to this thing? It'd be the perfect (ie cost-effective) way to print small figures (eg minis for wargames)!

You may be able to attach a 3Doodler

http://the3doodler.com/

You would need to move it (or the print) on the z-axis as well. And printer heads are usually quite big and heavy, I'm not sure if they can get small enough for this.

The Piccolo seems to be a 3-axis machine, i.e. it can already do that since lifting the pen is quite essential when drawing.

However, I guess it can't control the extrusion rate dimension that a 3D printer has, so it would still fall a bit short.

Use the CNC to move the stage, not the head.

Look at the spiral it's drawing. It has way too much play, like several mm.

I know there is a huge coolness factor to this but why do I need 3-axis moving thing to do 2-axis drawings? Can't I just use software to print them out straight out of printer?

For a second there, I thought it would be about a Command and Control Bot, and was really intrigued ....