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

October 12, 2012
New Product: Arduino WiFi Shield and Dis...

The lonely product in the long-time-ago previous product post has filed a complaint to the INPDL (International New Product Defendant League) against having to represent the Friday Product Post by itself for an entire month. We therefore had to comply by bringing in some new stock to switch out. So here's an Arduino WiFi Shield […]

February 20, 2010
More Temperate Sensors

Alrighty folks, here you have it. We've just doubled the amount of items in our temperature sensor category by adding the following: Temperature Probe Phidgets Precision Temperature Sensor Sensirion Temp/Humidity Sensor Thermocouple Kit DS2760 DS18B20+ Temperature Sensor TMP36 Temperature Sensor And that pretty much rounds out all the temperature sensors we have planned to make […]

June 20, 2013
Delayed Express Shipments

Weather. It's a thing. And sometimes, it's a pretty intense thing too. Such as right now in our fair city of Calgary, where some neighbourhoods have been declared to be in a state of emergency due to recent thunder and rain storms. We're hoping that things will clear up in a few days, but in […]

October 17, 2008
Austin Maker Faire 2008

It's that wonderful time of year when you can see your breath in the air while you wait at the bus stop. Frost decorates the blades of grass, motorists spend five minutes scraping ice off the windshield  before departing and there are hints of snow when you look up at the hills. So what's a […]

1 14 15 16 17 18 253
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.

cart