Solarbotics recently sent a representative to the Robot Society of America's Robot Expo in San Francisco. Wanna see some pics? Check them out here at http://www.solarbotics.net/gallery/SanFranciscoRSA.
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 temperature changes with frequent (very) cold weather heating and cooling cycles, adding to a situation ripe for a malfunction, which happened to one of our staff when he couldn't warm up his tush one cold Canadian morning...
Dragging it into the lab, we peeled back the covers to discover the usual and not-so-usual suspects.
The old wires had a PVC jacket that had dried out and cracked.
The wires would then flex at these cracks and break:
We replaced those wires with our GroovyNoodle silicone wire, which is able to resist flexing and temperature fluctuations very well.
Here's a picture of the sketchy activation switch we found inside the bottom part of the seat. It's designed to close when under "bum load", and directly pass power to the heating coils. We're not experts at auto-grade accessory manufacturing, but we were surprised that it wasn't a logic "bum-detected" switch that triggered a suitable relay or FET elsewhere. And the lack of a thermal reset fuse surprised us.
All broken wires replaced! Almost all the PVC jacket wire had cracked and disintegrated, so we replaced it with our better-quality GroovyNoodle silicone wire. This wire is extremely flexible, high strand count, and a temperature-ignoring silicon jacket. Perfect for inside this car seat heater.
All necessary repairs and upgrades were done just in time for the next stretch of (very much) cold Canadian winter.
Solarbotics recently sent a representative to the Robot Society of America's Robot Expo in San Francisco. Wanna see some pics? Check them out here at http://www.solarbotics.net/gallery/SanFranciscoRSA.
So when we created the Arc Reactor project to show off at the Calgary Comic & Entertainment Expo, we also quickly put together our version of NeoPixel Goggles. We now carry the goggles and NeoPixels that fit them, as well as two other sizes of these amazing addressable RGB LED rings.
Since we've been slacking for awhile on our Project Monday, I thought I'd share a project I've been working on the past couple of weeks. Being the office code monkey, I spend a lot of time in front of a keyboard. This has led to a fair amount of discomfort and sparked a quest for […]
Touch Board 128.83 CAD / 99.95 USD 128.83Design with paintable sensors. Turn touch into sound and make any surface interactive. Electric Paint 50ml Jar 39.50 CAD / 30.45 USD Create circuits on paper with this versatile conductive electric paint! Touch Board Starter Kit 187.65 CAD / 145.50 USD Draw, paint, and create. Three projects to get […]
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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.