Gakken is back with a large mechanical hand! The Gakken Auto-Writing Machine is the new monthly kit from the folks over at Gakken. It’s a hand that, when you stick a pen into its holder, will write either the Japanese character for ‘A’, a peace sign, or the name ‘Tosa.’
The auto-writer works by having three plates that rotate and are caught by two sliders that then pull the spring-loaded hand to draw the desired shape. It’s a really cool design and a lot of fun to get working.
There’s no pen included but we bought a caligraphy pen from a local stationery store and it worked great. It also requires 1x AA battery that’s also not included.
While what it can write is pretty limited, there’s also an online app where you can design your own plates. It lets you make the circles in PDF form so you can laser/hand cut them. We tried it and didn’t get the best results for detailed drawings, but it’s a fun challenge if you’re up to it – just make sure your cardboard/acrylic’s the right thickness and your design’s not too complicated!
Like many of our Gakken kits, the instructions are all in Japanese but there are pictures on how to assemble it and we didn’t have too much trouble putting it together.
Adafruit publishes a wide range of writing and video content, including interviews and reporting on the maker market and the wider technology world. Our standards page is intended as a guide to best practices that Adafruit uses, as well as an outline of the ethical standards Adafruit aspires to. While Adafruit is not an independent journalistic institution, Adafruit strives to be a fair, informative, and positive voice within the community – check it out here: adafruit.com/editorialstandards
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.
Have an amazing project to share? The Electronics Show and Tell is every Wednesday at 7pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat – we’ll post the link there.