Solarbotics Blog Posts & News
Circuit: Lightstorm
Dave Hrynkiw
July 12, 2007
Some of you may have found the LightStorm Pummers that Mark Tilden has made using some neat looking plastics. We've built our own variation of the circuit, which is a dark-activated, quad-bicore pseudo-random chaos generated, dual pummer circuit.
Circuit: Herbie by Randy Sargent
Dave Hrynkiw
July 12, 2007
Although not a true BEAM robot, this simple schematic by Randy Sargent is small, simple, slick, and effective. My own version uses a pair of pager motors and three cells from a 9V rechargeable battery. Hard to get any simpler than this device!
BEP Application: Servocore Walker
Dave Hrynkiw
July 12, 2007
The following instructions detail how to build a Servocore walker. A Servocore walker differs from a regular walker by utilizing the internal electronics in unmodified servos, which give position feedback from the motor in the servo. This position feedback allows for very long stride lengths without the use of mechanical stops or springs.
BEP Application: Wilf Rigter Solar Power...
Dave Hrynkiw
July 12, 2007
The following instructions detail how to build a Solar Power Smart Head version 3. The Head will seek light and when it finds the brightest source it will go into a low current standby mode. This version also comes with an low power FLED circuit to indicate when the head is active.
BEP Application: Turbot
Dave Hrynkiw
July 12, 2007
The Turbot is a member of the Scophthalmidae family of flatfish and is almost completely circular. Turbot is often found partially buried in the seabed in sand, gravel, rocks and sediment. Its fat content varies, but it usually contains roughly 1 gram of omega-3 fatty acids per 100g fillet. Barring advances in genetic engineering, we will not be building that kind of Turbot. However, this kind of Turbot can be built with a soldering iron.
BEP Application: Pummer
Dave Hrynkiw
July 12, 2007
The following instructions detail how to build a simple pummer using a BC2 (Bicore) BEP (Bicore Experimenter PCB). A pummer is a solar powered self activating LED flasher. The difference between a pummer and a BLFNAR (blinky light for no apparent reason) is that a pummer has a soft turn off, which means that it turns on fast, but slowly fades away.
BEP Application: Bare Bones PhotoVore
Solar botics
July 11, 2007
We like to have some play time at Solarbotics, and the "Bare Bones Photovore" is the results of one of these play sessions. It's a very simple (amongst the simplest, we'll hazard to say) light-seeking solar-powered robot, and find it easy to build using the Bicore Experimenter's PCB.
"We are go-ing on a sum-mer holiday...
Dave Hrynkiw
July 2, 2007
Hi all. Solarbotics & HVWTech will be closed for July 2, in lieu of our Canadian July 1st holiday. See you Tuesday!
Cold, hard, steel... mounts!
Dave Hrynkiw
June 29, 2007
Need another way to mount your GM2/3/8/9 gear motors? Their built-in holes are nice, but sometimes, you have to really clamp it down in a different way. Welcome the GMB28 (for GM2/GM8) and GMB39 (for GM3/GM9)! We now have our own custom-made laser-cut steel mounts that clamp and bolt your motor down securely and easily!
New GMPW Wheels!
Dave Hrynkiw
June 21, 2007
No more rubber band tires for us! We've invested in getting our very own wheels made for us, with molded-on thermoplastic rubber wheels! These wheels are slightly larger in diameter than the old style, measuring 69.2mm (2.72") diameter and 7.65mm (0.30") wide. Ah, but how good are they? They're definitely better than the old style! […]
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