Last summer during a Solarbotics Robotics for Educators session, one of the teachers noted something about many of the mainstream robotics and electronics learning platforms commonly used in classrooms. He said that those platforms suffered from the Black Box Effect. This effect was where the “black boxes,” the controllers, were plugged into the computer and […]
Ardweeny Non-Clock, New (Mainly Battery)...
Dave Hrynkiw
March 23, 2012
It's that time of the week where we point to a pile of new things and exclaim "LOOKIT THAT!", before bouncing away on pogo sticks. We're kidding, of course. If we actually did that it'd be plain ol' absurd. First things first - a neat-o community project needs to come before that sweet, sweet pogo stick action.
Over at Instructables, TheRafMan has put together a neat walk through on how to make a Roll-A-Way-Rover. It's based on one of those alarm clocks with wheels that tries to drive away before you greet it in the morning with the customary (and groggy) smash aimed right at the snooze button. Instead, though, this user has de-clocked the clock, taking out the clock components and swapping it out for an array of other bits. With an Ardweeny for a heart/brain (that he has also modified), it has been re-engineered to be controllable by either a computer (via serial port) or Wii Nunchuck (via Nunchucky). Check out some video:
Overall it's a pretty elegant little hack, managing to squeeze some impressive functionality into a pretty tight form factor.
...so this is would now be the point where we say "LOOKIT THAT!" So, uh, yeah. LOOKIT THAT!
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Arduino Ethernet Shield $45.95 USD / $48.25 CAD Intertoobs. Intarwebs. Series of tubes. Whatever. Connect your Arduino / Freeduino SB to your LAN, WAN, or whole darn Internet! |
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Adafruit USB/DC Lithium Polymer Batter Charger 5-12V - 3.7/4.2V Cell $17.95 Need a USB/DC method to charge your Lithium Polymer battery? This Adafruit charger is a tidy solution! |
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Low Sensitivity Unipolar Magnetic Hall Effect Switch $2.00 Hall effect sensors are sensitive to magnetic fields. In this case, the Melexis US5881LUA (flat TO-92 package) features a low sensitivity, unipolar design, meaning that it won't be affected by earth's magnetic field, and only responds to a change in one polarity. This particular model responds only to a South-pole magnetic field. |
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Polymer Lithium Ion Battery - 1500mAh 11.1v $12.95 This high discharge LiPo is a great way to power any R/C, robotic, or portable project. This is an excellent choice for anything that requires a small battery with a lot of punch. |
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Polymer Lithium Ion Battery - 2200mAh 7.4v $15.95 This high discharge LiPo is a great way to power any R/C, robotic, or portable project. This is an excellent choice for anything that requires a small battery with a lot of punch. |
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SparkFun PWM Shield $19.95 This is the Arduino shield version of our TLC5940 Breakout. The PWM Shield will allow you to generate up to 16 PWM signals from your Arduino by utilizing the power of the TLC5940 IC. |
Neato-o project from the community? Check. Cool new product stuff? Check. I believe there's only one thing left to do. COME FRIENDS, WE SHALL GO IN SEARCH OF THE WEEKEND. LET US MOUNT OUR POGO STICKS AND RIDE OFF INTO SUNSET!
/boing, boing, boing!
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