Kurt Moore of the Los Alamos National Laboratories has been busy using BEAM technology to bring technology training to the local schools in the Jemez Valley. Here's what one class did!
Makin' (New) Connections
Dave Hrynkiw
January 19, 2012
Well, it's been a riveting week. We did all sorts of exciting things, like definitely not riding a pallet jack down a flight of stairs and off a totally awesome jump. Nope, didn't happen at all. And just like how our tech's face didn't connect with the ground after the jump he didn't take, we thought it'd be a good idea to celebrate this not-event with some new connector-type-stuff. And a motor. Because everyone loves motors.
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Mabuchi RF500TB Mabuchi Motor - $4.95 A very efficient, powerful, slow pancake motor. Mabuchi makes some of the best volume-manufactured motors in the world. They're usually a premium over "clone" motors, but for good reason. |
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2.1mm DC Power Plug Short - $1.75 This is a standard DC-style female plug, that comes as the connector itself plus a screw-on plastic casing. |
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Telecom & Ethernet 4P-4C Clear Male Plug - $0.31 USD / $0.33 CAD This is the standard connection type that's used for hooking up those wired telephone handsets that you barely see around any more. It has four pins, gold connections, and a clear housing. Exciting stuff. |
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3-Pin Jumper Wire - F/F, 35cm - $1.95 USD / $2.05 CAD Each cable is 35cm (about 13.75") long, and features a 3-pin JST Re connector at each end. They're fairly standard units, often used on 0.1" breakaway headers. |
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1-Pin Jumper Wire - F/F, 16cm, Bundle of 10 - $3.95 USD / $4.15 CAD These jumpers come in packs of 10, and measure 155mm (6.1") with a female connector at each end. They're really helpful for jumping all kinds of things, such as going from board to board or whatever else you have in mind. |
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Sharp Sensor Cable (20cm) - $1.95 USD / $2.05 CAD It can be a bit of a pain to get in there and solder up connections for a Sharp sensor, so we've brought in these 3-pin, 20cm (7.87") cables to make life easier. This makes for a convenient connection to standard 0.1" 3-pin headers, such as those used for servos. |
Look at all them connector things. The only challenge now is to find enough things for us to plug into other things. Just like how we definitely don't need to plug in the watermelon launcher to remotely fire when someone hits the doorbell. Nope, that won't freak out the delivery people at all...
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