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 GraviTrackafter 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.
The night before WCRG, and all through the office, not a creature was stirring...except two dozen mini-sumo robots - AAAHH! Thanks to Alberta Printed Circuits, we were able to sponsor a mini-sumo workshop to build 24 robots to compete in the next day's Western Canadian Robot Games.
At Solarbotics, we've been getting quite a few questions regarding the "real-world" performance of our solarcells. Although we do have the official Panasonic Sunceram datasheets, it is written in a quite technical manner and does not include practical design data.
This week: Blizzards. Ice. Snow drifts. Rather sunny and warm. Wait, what? Yup, we've seen it all this week folks. All that's left is for delicious pastries to start falling from the skies, and we can check off the last item on our home-made "meteorological phenomena" list. And boy, you have no idea how long […]
Hello! Today I actually have stuff to say, and this time these are the news on the Useless Box. Looks like it's time to receive thanks! Remember back in November 2012 when we decided to donate $1100 to Plan Canada from a percentage of past sales of Useless Boxes? They sent us a nice thank […]
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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.