ok, not a Zen XY. But a neat “sand table” anyway.
And, Zach wins bonus points with me for mentioning sandify.
The mechanics are pretty cool too. I like that they don’t have anything electronic moving around.
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This is me! Sandify is the best - I wouldn’t have been able to build this without it. It helped a lot with getting the mechanics and script running properly as well as with some of the demo patterns.
The “resolution” of this system isn’t particularly high so I can’t make very intricate patterns, but I’m working on a higher resolution system and looking forward to tackling more challenging geometry.
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I designed a more straightforward system earlier that didn’t have any moving electronics either. I had to write a script to compensate for rho displacement that occurred because of a shared axis between theta and rho. I can probably dig that script up if people are interested.
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Very nice, I wouldn’t have thought it by myself, sand table + fish !
You can also increase the pattern details by using a smaller diameter ball 
what kind of control board di you use ?
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I’m curious about the resolution limit as well. Is it a backlash issue?
The resolution issue is mostly due to the wet sand flowing, so a smaller ball might not help me much here. When the ball deflects the sand on a typical Sisyphus table, the sand does a pretty good job of staying put. In the case of Sisyphish, some of the sand flows back down into the channel.
Oh, you should try baking soda 
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Missed your question about the control board. It’s an Einsy Rambo running on an octopi server. I used it because I had it and because it supports StallGuard.
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I do like my shrimp 
I actually iterated through a bunch of different particulate types. The really small ones like clay sort of work, but they get stirred up way too easily. The larger particulate doesn’t resolve patterns at all. I found this fancy sand which works the best.
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Did you folks see this:
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I haven’t thank you for pointing that out. It looks like an extrusion based build, with dual X motors and a single Y.
I am not sure I like the idea of using a rectangular machine and a circular table. Especially if you build the table. But it is not my machine or table, so more power to them.
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I dug up the script and made it public here if people are interested. (I am not a software engineer, and I don’t pretend to be one on the internet.)
That is kinda funky to call it a zen table. They most definitely know about the zenXY since they use my ramps picture (twice), https://docs.v1engineering.com/electronics/ramps/#drivers (recognized my old desk under it and the way I positioned those wires).
It could certainly be simpler, but it looks robust enough. Nice work.