We're proud to announce that we just got our shipment of 'Junkbots, Bugbots, and Bots on Wheels' tonight! The first 100 books will come signed by Dave Hrynkiw, and come with a free GM2 or GM3 gearmotor!
We always enjoy seeing our products being modified, revamped and DIY-ed, as well as the results of these transformations.
Our customer Vera Kark provided us with some thoughtful feedback on adding mechanical tweaks to improve our Solar GraviTrack build and documentation. She also painted the brown MDF of the machine. She used tempera paint on the wood components still in panelized form, and the GraviTrack's performance seemed to be unaffected.
The GraviTrack looks great in vibrant jewel tone colours, however, we do not recommend applying paint to the hand mechanism itself. You can paint the base and the rails, avoiding the hand mechanism completely. The moisture and the thickness of the paint might affect the precise tolerances of the moving parts, and will interfere with its proper functioning. Another relatively safe option might be felt tip marker since the moisture from alcohol evaporates quickly.
Photos & video by Vera Kark
P.S. Also, a particularly bad idea is painting your GraviTrack after the assembly is completed. Even though we were using a very watered down acrylic paint, the mechanism seized up the moment the paint became sticky. Don't be like us. Take care of your GraviTrack.
A portrait of a sad stuck GraviTrack
We're proud to announce that we just got our shipment of 'Junkbots, Bugbots, and Bots on Wheels' tonight! The first 100 books will come signed by Dave Hrynkiw, and come with a free GM2 or GM3 gearmotor!
Last summer during a Solarbotics Robotics for Educators session, one of the teachers noted something about many of the mainstream robotics and electronics learning platforms commonly used in classrooms. He said that those platforms suffered from the Black Box Effect. This effect was where the “black boxes,” the controllers, were plugged into the computer and […]
Did you miss the award-winning documentary "Robots Rising" the first time? A very good documentary on the present state of robotics, including a few clips of our own Mr. Tilden. Worth investigating (Airing April 11 to 19). Read More...
Cool! We've found some SC3782 (37x82 mm) solar cells! Since Panasonic ain't making these anymore, and there aren't many of these left, you'll only find them here at Solarbotics until they're all sold out. Get'em while they're hot!
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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.