Technical - Davenport Sans Robotic Type

This robotic typeface has two plugs and a power switch. The first plug is for wall power (desktop computer AC cable) and the second plug is for a household PC keyboard. The machine functions independently, without being hooked up to a laptop or desktop computer.



Six trimmed calipers attached to six hobby servo motors spin to the angle specified by the PIC chip. I employed a PIC16F876 chip for the main decisions [clocked at 20 Mz], a PAK VIa AT keyboard input coprocessor [also 20 Mz], and a Parallax BS2 stamp acting as a liaison between the PAK and the PIC. The servos are driven by a seperate ACDC converter than the logic. The BS2 transmits 8 bits in parallel to the PIC's PortC, which is then mapped to rotational values stored in the chip's memory. The rotational values are constantly pulsed out to the servo motors, causing them to always update to the position dictated by the most recently pressed keyboard key.


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