We asked Grant, our resident BEAM technician, to come up with a list of some of the tools he uses, and here we have it! This list will help those first starting out to see what they should use, and for those who've been doing it awhile we have some of our more advanced tools. […]
Painted GraviTrack
Solar botics
March 5, 2018
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
MORE POSTS
Welcome to 2004 - Our plans...
Welcome to 2004! So far; so good. We've just finished inventory, so now back to work for us! Things are on-track for the Sumovore Atmel and PIC brainboards, so stay tuned; we hope to have them available by the end of March. We're still working towards more content and features for both the Solarbotics.com and […]
Friday New Product: Grove, Kossel
Grove - Mega Shield $12.90 Grove - Mega Shield is a extension board for Arduino Mega and Google ADK. Seeed Grove - Serial Camera Kit - 22.40 - 67.20 $38.80 Grove - Serial Camera Kit includes one control board and two interchangeable lenses, one standard lens and one wide-angle lens. GrovePi+ $39.10 GrovePi+ is a […]
New Gearmotor - the GM17
Hellooooo! I love getting new gearmotors to test. I get to break them apart, poke them, submit them to torture test - it's all great fun. My latest victim of inspection is our new GM17 HE Offset gearmotor. It uses a very power efficient 300-form factor motor to drive the 228:1 gearbox. It isn't a […]
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.