☐
1
. WaterColorBot Chassis (upper deck),
pre-fi tted with controller board, motors,
winches, shafts, carriage, and stowage straps
☐
2
. Spoilboard (the lower deck that holds
paper, paints and water dishes), pre-fi tted with
a binder clip to hold paper
☐
3
. Power Supply (9V, universal input)
☐
4
. USB cable (“A to mini-B” type)
☐
5
. Paint set with brush
☐
6
. Petri dishes, plastic (3)
☐
7
. Beaker, plastic, 50 mL
☐
8
. Water dropper, plastic
☐
9
. Hex L-wrench, 3/32”
☐
10
. Binder clip and screw (extra)
☐
11
. Watercolor paper, 9×12”
(5 sheets)
☐
12
. Sandpaper square (in envelope)
Not otherwise required, but if you
happen to fi nd an unexpected rough
edge on one of the wooden parts,
this could be helpful.
Introduction:
The History of the WaterColorBot
What’s in this guide?
The
WaterColorBot
is a friendly art robot that moves a paintbrush to paint
your digital artwork onto paper, using a set of watercolors. It was originally
designed as a collaboration between “Super-Awesome” Sylvia Todd and Evil
Mad Scientist Laboratories.
This guide is here to help walk you through the fi rst steps with your new WaterColorBot:
Here are the parts that come with WaterColorBot 2.0:
• Making sure that you’ve got everything
• WaterColorBot anatomy and principles
• Basics of using the WaterColorBot
• Basic maintenance and troubleshooting
• Additional tips, tricks, and resources for WaterColorBot.
Sylvia Todd, star of Sylvia’s Super-Awesome Maker Show (available online at
sylviashow.com), came up with the idea for the WaterColorBot because she
wanted to create an art robot and enter it in the RoboGames competition.
We had met Sylvia at Maker Faire in the previous few years, and she knew us
from our EggBot and other kits and projects. She approached us at Evil Mad
Scientist Laboratories about collaborating on the project, and we loved it.
Together we designed and built our fi rst prototype in February 2013, and had
a nicely-working robot about a month later. As we realized that this project
had a lot of appeal beyond just a one-off project, we started developing it
into a kit. Sylvia exhibited her prototype at RoboGames (and won a Silver
medal), and we brought the WaterColorBot to Maker Faire, where thousands
of people got to play with it. Sylvia was also invited to the White House Sci-
ence Fair in April 2013, where she got to demonstrate the WaterColorBot for
President Obama.
We launched the WaterColorBot on Kickstarter in July 2013, and the rest is
(modern, recent) history. In November 2014, we released version 2.0 of the
WaterColorBot, incorporating the lessons that we learned in the fi rst year of
making and using WaterColorBot. Version 2.0 features a refi ned chassis, and
an all-new carriage for improved precision when plotting with pens.
Sylvia with Lenore Edman and
Windell Oskay, co-founders of
Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories
Part 1:
Checking out your WaterColorBot
1.1 Kit Contents
1
. Chassis
2
. Spoilboard
4
. USB cable
5
. Paints
6
. Petri Dishes
8
. Dropper
9
. L-wrench
10
. Clip and screw
11
. Watercolor paper
12
. Sandpaper
7
. Beaker
3
. Power supply
