Aaaand this is a quick note to remind everyone that the Solar Marble Machine is now fully available for purchase from our website. Enjoy!
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!
Aaaand this is a quick note to remind everyone that the Solar Marble Machine is now fully available for purchase from our website. Enjoy!
Seeed Grove - RTC $6.90 The RTC module is a member of Twig. It is based on the clock chip DS1307 which supports the I2C protocol. It uses a Lithium cell battery (CR1225). The clock/calendar provides seconds, minutes, hours, day, date, month and year information. Nidec SMD Vibra motor 1.3V DC, 105mA, 9500rpm $3.00 Surface-mount […]
Hello Everyone! Solarbotics will be closed on Monday, February 18, 2019, for Family Day. Some of you may have noticed that when trying to complete your order, our website is not allowing you to get passed the billing/shipping information input. Fear not! We have located the issue and working diligently to fix it but in […]
Liquid Metal to Make Stretchable Electronics The elastic tech has huge potential for wearable tech, mobile devices, and even electronic "smart clothing." New Material Inspired by Geometric Patterns Inspired by the intricate geometries and repetitive patterns found in Islamic art, researchers at McGill University developed a material with new properties. (Via ZME Science) Kinematic Petals […]
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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.