Solarbotics at Calgary Comic Expo 2013

Solar botics
April 30, 2013

Whelp, many moons have passed since we posted last time (er, maybe that's a slight exaggeration), and many a thing have happened. We went to Las Vegas to the Magento conference, lasered some ukuleles, but mostly were in a mad rush preparing for the Calgary Comic & Entertainment Expo 2013. We teamed up with a wonderful costume designer and artist Angela Dale to produce wearable pieces that merge electronics and costume design.

Here's the first example - joint effort of Graeme Janzen, Angela Dale and Solarbotics. Custom Fosshape molded helmet is fitted perfectly to the wearer, and 3 layers of lasercut acrylic are edge-lit with 24 high-power white LEDs:
  
Our Voltron Helmet is based on the Black Lion toy design from Defender of the Universe, a popular cartoon in the mid eighties. Voltron consisted of 5 robot lions that joined together to form a Giant Robot that protected the galaxy from evil doers. The Black Lion in particular is special because it formed the head and torso of the combined Robot Voltron. Since the head had two different modes: Robot and Lion, it was intriguing to try to emulate the two modes as best as we could.

We used an Ardweeny, Multipack, TTLy FTDI, 2 Star Controllers, and 2 HXT900 servos to animate our replica and make it come alive with a few electronic bits. Special thanks to Angela Dale and Robyn Ayles (props designer and full-time faculty at the Mount Royal theater program) for their assistance!

This Chameleon Cocktail Ensemble was created by Angela and her assistants as a part of MakeFashion project. It uses 20 meter of addressable LED strips (add 5 meters in the headdress) powered by 3.7V LiPoly batteries, and ArduinoPro Mini to control the lighting sequences.

 
We also hosted the Arduino workshop at the Expo, with a slight costuming application bend and many blinky lights...
  
..and did lots of people watching.

Check out our Flickr photostream for details on more projects and photos!

MORE POSTS

February 13, 2003
K SMD Motor Driver

Got a new kit for you - the K SMD L293D Motor Driver. No, no, the SMD isn't "surface mount" - it's the Secret Motor Driver! This L293D-based motor driver fits secretly inside most standard servo cases like the Futaba S3003/S148, and our own GM4 gear motors. It replaces the low-voltage original electronics with LED-indicated, […]

March 4, 2003
BEP Application #4 - The BBPV

We've churned out another Bicore Experimenter's PCB project: The "Bare Bones PhotoVore". This is an elegant little circuit, which offers the functionality of a basic photovore (with tactiles) all on a very simple circuit. Ours is solar-powered by a Miller Solarengine, but if you wanted to build one with a battery, your parts count would […]

December 10, 2002
Book special continues...

Well, the first 100 copies of "Junkbots" have officially been sold. But since I can't get enough of signing the inside cover of every book in the office, we're going to have to extend the offer until the ink in my pen runs out. So the Junkbots book/motor deal will last for until at least […]

February 16, 2001
More Biobot info, and Mark Tilden Lectur...

Mark Tilden just sent us this link - there are more BioBots! The "B.I.O. Bots" were a hit at this years New York Toy Fair and it looks like we might be seeing more of these robots in the future! USA Today carried some pictures of the new BEAM ideology based robots, along with some […]

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.

cart