What's the biggest event for Solarbotics in the spring? Calgary Comic Expo on April 27-30! This year we are going to be there as part of the DIY Island (booth 110) at BMO Centre, Calgary Stampede Park. DIY Island is a booth space shared between Solarbotics, Repair Oasis, Protospace and MakerFaire Calgary. Solarbotics will be […]
3D Printed Treetop Star
Solar botics
December 9, 2014
Initially inspired by the Moravian Star on Instructables and the fact that we now carry all kinds of 3D printing filament, we decided to make one of our own glowy holiday star. We have used this thing as source files to create a similar treetop decoration of our own.
After some trial and error (due to the Slicer not cooperating)...
...we printed a whole forest of perfect wintery spiky star-ends.
And, well, we just had to have someone live there for a bit. In this case, a snowman:
Our addressable 5mm LEDs were well suited to light this contraption. We drilled a hole in the bottom of each spike..
..to fit the LED's domed part:
And then wired everything up. It wasn't pretty but the WS2812 LED that we used made it much easier than a conventional RGB LED: rather than 3 separate channels, the WS2812 LED only has a data in and data out. Chain them all together and they work like a charm!
And here's the final product, ready to light up our office with wonderful glowing lights!
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Heated Car Seat Teardown and Repair
Here's a little makeover of an inexpensive aftermarket car seat heating pad that stopped working. Designed to activate and warm up when sat upon, the electronics face a fair amount of abuse: since the seat is a soft frame, the wires inside constantly move and flex with the body. They are also subject to harsh […]
WCRG Finished!
Thanks to all that came out to the robotgames last weekend, and our Solarbotics / APCircuits Mini-sumo workshop on Friday night! We kicked...erm...said good-bye to the last participants at about 2 in the morning! Fun was had by all! Expect pictures soon... Regards, Dave
New Product: SeeedStudio
Seeed One Wire Temperature Sensor $7.97 For simple and easy temperature measurement using the 1-wire protocol with a prepared DS18B20 sensor. Adjustable IR Reflection Sensor (3-80cm) $9.32 This panel/plate mount IR reflection sensor has a 3-80cm threshold detection range. Grove - High Temperature Sensor $12.02 This isn't a plain outdoor thermometer - it has a […]
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Warning: This product contains chemicals known to the State of California to cause cancer and birth defects or other reproductive harm.
Please visit www.P65Warnings.ca.gov for more information. This item was manufactured prior to August 31, 2018.