Here's our late and lame Friday post. It features one very lonely, depressed, and forgotten product from a week ago. But it blinks, so it can't be that sad, right? 5V RGB LED LPD8806 Stripxels (32 per meter) $35.00 These are very similar to the WS2801 RGB Stripxel, but feature the LPD8806 controller IC instead. […]
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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New Gearmotors!
We're very excited to announce these new "baby" versions of the popular GM2 and GM3 gearmotors. These junior versions offer a 120:1 gear reduction ratio, built-in safety clutch, and 146rpm with 20in*oz torque at 5V drawing onlyh 90mA (620mA at stall). Take a look at them in the motors section of our website! The new […]
Wednesday Cool Links: The Best of April ...
Hmmm, April first has come and gone, and we've missed a chance to pretend we are now switching to selling electric squids powered by rabid honey badgers on brooms. To compensate for that disappointment here's an overview of the best April first stories. Underwater Basketweaving This is a new course where students explore the ancient […]
New Treads...nummy!
We've got an inventory in of treads, cogs, and idlers that mate up with our GM2/3/8/9 gear motors! You wanna build a photovore or Herbie with attitude? Get at it! You may want to pay special attention to the GMTPkg tread deal. It includes a pair of GM2/3/8/0 style gear motors, so you're ready to […]
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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.