This week, we're kinda bored. The New Year has been ushered in, but now it's starting to feel so... old. Almost like the same 'New Year' thing happens every 12 months or something. So instead of just your normal smattering of links, this week we want to include something to make it a little bit […]
Everybody have a good 2010? Good...
Dave Hrynkiw
January 12, 2011
Let's start 2011 by promoting a worthwhile event sponsored by one of our suppliers, SparkFun. Tomorrow is their 2nd "Free Day". Last year's event pretty much crashed their servers (we sent flowers of condolence). This year, they're going about it a bit wiser, offering several ways to taking advantage of their $150,000 give-away.
We're big fans of SparkFun, so at the risk of making our January 13 quite slow, go over there and take part, especially since that there's opportunity for $30k to be raised for charity!
A Makerbot "Thing-o-Matic" 3D printermade it's way to Solarbotics just before the Holiday break. I took it home and turned it into a holiday project, and we've just about got all the bugs squished out. We have some ideas we're looking forward to turning from "bytes to bits", and will be posting them as soon as we can.
We've just received our first batch of new prototype PCBs of the year. What's on the slate? Let's see... We're enthusiastic about the Synapse RF module, with offers XBee functionality in a more powerful and easy-to-use manner, so we've built some adapter boards. There's also an surface-mount Ardweeny, and a test PCB for Jimmie P Rodgers' "LOL Shield" (Lots 'o LEDs).
Soldering new PCBs while listening to the 3D printer hum, while watching the SparkFun servers get attacked... This should be a fun week!
MORE POSTS
Vancouver Mini Maker Faire
The best part of being a company in Canada is that you don't need to leave the country to go there. That being said, we're going to show some of our fellow Canuck's some lovin' by attending the Vancouver Mini Maker Faire at the Great Northern Way Campus from June 25th-26th. We'll bring a handful […]
NAIT Robot Challenge
Solarbotics went up to Edmonton, Alberta this last weekend to help out with the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology's Sumovore Mini-Sumo workshop/Robot Challenge/Open House, and to show off our wares. Give it a visit! Yes, yes, the Sumovore will be on sale for the first time tomorrow!
Circuit: Herbie by Randy Sargent
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!
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