I recently acquired a Parallax Scribbler 2 (S2) for the robotic magic book I am developing. I fancy it as a blend between an Astromech droid and a familiar spirit. The Scribbler is so named because it can draw lines while it moves about on a flat surface, if supplied with a Sharpie fine point or marking pen of similar size. I intend to program it to draw sigils and do a variety of other esoteric activities. I expect to share some projects here as I work on the book.

I chose the S2 because it is affordable and comes out of the box with many common sensors and effectors to demonstrate applications in ritual magic, making it accessible to novice robomancers while being extensible enough to appeal to adepts. The robot’s features include:

• Parallax Propeller multicore microcontroller (P8X32A-Q44)
• light sensors (cf. W. Grey Walter’s Machina Speculatrix)
• infrared object detection and line following (can be programmed to respond to the Kymera Magic Wand)
• 3 bi-color LEDs (for communicating the 8 Colors of Magic or trigrams of the I Ching, among other data)
• 2 DC-motor-powered wheels with encoder feedback for precise movement
• microphone for receiving audio input (tones of astrological correspondence played on the Master Key?)
• speaker for sending audio output (*beep boop chirp warble* “That’s right, R2; we’re going to the Dagobah system.”)
• hacker port with 6 digital I/O and 2 analog inputs, for additional sensors/effectors
• visual programming (you know how much I love it) or Spin code
• open design! (To Know. To Dare. To Will. To Keep Silent Make Open-Source.)

The lovely Jessica Uelmen demonstrating some differences between the S2 and the original Scribbler: