Marble Catapult, New Product

Dave Hrynkiw
June 25, 2011

Check. This. Out.

Don from Ontario sent this video our way, of a marble catapult machine he made that uses the GM18 30:1 Mini Metal Gearmotor. He goes into great detail on the mechanics and engineering, and the action starts around the 3:37 mark. We can't believe how intricate the design is, and can't even fathom the insane amount of tuning needed to get this working just right. The video pretty much shows off everything there is to say, but we're absolutely blown away. Further proof that we have some pretty awesome customers. If anyone else is working on a project they'd like to let us know about, give us a shout - we'd love to see it.

In other news, are you reading this newspost? We're going to guess 'yes'. Now the tricky part, are you reading this from Vancouver or the BC lower mainland? If the answer to that is yes... GO TO THE MINI MAKER FAIRE ALREADY! Some of us may still be in Calgary holding down the fort, but most of the staff are at the Faire as we speak, running a FREE ARDX workshop. Drop in, say hello, learn some Arduino... There'll be tonnes of other neat stuff going on all weekend too, so you don't got no excuse.

Now, the thing about being a busy company is that things get... Busy. Some people get busy buyin' new stuff, which keeps us on our toes. The problem is when the yokels like me who write these news posts get busy themselves with other stuff, and don't do their newspostin'. As a result... We've brought in oodles of new products and items over the last several months, and none of them have made it to the front page. Just so that we don't overload your brain with sheer amounts of awesome, we'll be breaking down the list into smaller chunks over the next couple weeks.  It'll go a lil' somethin' like this:

Medium Servo  Robotic ClawPower Shield Driver Kit
DSO NanoRover 5 Robot PlatformLCD Smartie Kit

  • SparkFun
    • Heaterizer XL-3000 Heat Gun - Shoot heatwaves by using pure MAGIC (aka electricity)
    • DSO Nano v2 - The newest version, equipped with a 320x240 color display, microSD card capability, USB connection, and rechargeable LiPo battery
    • Rover 5 Robot Platform - Uses 4 independent motors, each with an optical quadrature encoder and gearbox.
    • LCD Smartie Kit 20X4 White on Blue - This module can display all kinds of stats, data, text, and characters directly from your PC and the Internet.
    • DeadOn RTC DS3234 Breakout - A low-cost, extremely accurate SPI bus real-time clock with an integrated temperature-compensated crystal oscillator and crystal.
    • Medium Servo - A simple, low-cost, high quality servo for all your mechatronic needs.
    • Robotic Claw - Great for all your gripping needs. They are made from metal and are pretty heavy-duty.
    • Serial Embedded LCD Backpack - A serial enabled LCD backpack that allows you to control a parallel based LCD over a single-wire serial interface.
    • Power Driver Shield Kit - This shield allows you to use a computer power supply (or other power source) to use your Arduino to switch high current.

One last tidbit: We apologize to all of our customers who have been affected by the current postal strike. Hopefully it will be drawing to an end soon, and all of the back orders and shipments stuck in transit can get moving. The problem is completely out of control, but we know how much it sucks when the stuff you want/need isn't going anywhere. Although we hope that the Canada Post workers will find a swift resolution with their employers, this is just a reminder that shipping via Purolator/UPS is the best way to go until the strike ends.That's it everyone, have a good weekend!

MORE POSTS

January 8, 2016
Vintage AMPEX VR1200B 2" Quadruplex VTR ...

I occupy a studio space in a building that is a former movie shooting facility turned into an artist hovel. The building itself is wonderfully old but the hallways are also full of ancient audio and video equipment from the movie days. One of the things that got the attention of our RnD and tech […]

October 7, 2005
Mmmmmm...Turkey....(insert drool here).

Monday October 10th is Canadian Thanksgiving and Solarbotics will be closed so all our employees can spend the day with their families. We will be open on Tuesday October 11th at 9:00am MST and all will be business as usual again. Happy Thanksgiving folks!

December 18, 2006
Herbie Reviewed

Here's a link from Gareth Branwyn at Streettech for his review of our new Herbie the Mousebot Kit!

December 15, 2014
Monday New Product: Sound, Powerboost an...

The alien flying badgers invaded the office, so the Friday product release was postponed. It is Monday, and the badgers are tamed and put to work to bring you more product than ever: A4988 Stepper Motor Driver Carrier, Black $7.49 It's an upgraded version of the standard A4988 stepper driver module from Pololu. Adafruit Audio […]

1 4 5 6 7 8 253
Solarbotics Ltd Logo
Solarbotics has been operating for more than 25 years, bringing electronics know-how and supplies to both the electronics professional and hobbyist. We'll be happy to help you too!

Solarbotics, Ltd. is not responsible for misprints or errors on product prices or information. For more information, please see our Terms and Conditions.

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.