If you came to the BEAM/WCRG Millennium Games in Calgary last summer, you may have seen Jeff de Boer's lecture on the aesthetic component of robotics. Jeff is a local Calgary artist (recently inducted to the Royal Canadian Order - a huge honor, considering his age), and was interviewed on CBC radio Monday with Shelaugh […]
Supernova of Electronics
Dave Hrynkiw
October 14, 2011
Here at Solarbotics, we like to celebrate things. And today we're remembering a supernova that took place in the Ophiuchus constellation and was observed by German astronomer Johannes Kepler back in 1604. That poor star, it was taken before its time. So to commemorate the memory of that star, (aptly named SN 1604, but we call him Steve), we're showing off some of the latest and greatest from the office:
 |
 |
| The Roving Networks' RN-XV Wi-Fi Module is a super-cool wifi module that fits in a standard XBee footprint, so it's compatible with a large range of accessories. The RN-XV gets you a Wi-Fi connection to your project and rocks a 32 bit processor, crypto accelerator, power management unit, and a fistfull of other handy features. | Well, the masses have spoken, and it looks like everyone loves the new Useless Box with hinges. Everyone, that is, except for those who's stuck with the last version. Well, we're proud to give you a hand (or hinge, rather) getting your Useless Box up to date with an upgrade kit. We'll set you up with the panels, mounting screws and (of course) hinges to do the conversion. It'll make your box more fancily useless than ever. |
 |
EFX-Tek Clearance Sale
If, for halloween, you want to turn your house into a dazzling display of light of animatronics that would keep even the grim reaper from stopping by for candy, you'll be glad for our new clearance items. EFX-Tek's lineup includes boards and accessories for building and controlling props. The following items are 10-20% off: |
In other news, this past week Dave, our El Presidente, wondered what would happen if he were to take Herbie the Mousebot and the new Brutusbot, and mash 'em together into some sorta unholy abomination. Well, he decided to find out and ended up with Herbert - a modern day, robot-mouse-meets-tank-platform Frankenstein. It's a surprisingly simple hack, just involving removing the motors from Herbie and wiring in the motors from the Brutusbot in their place. All of the sudden you have a light-seeking, obstacle-avoiding contraption that looks like... A tank with a mouse on top. You can get the instructions from the Brutusbot's resource section.
...and with that, we must part for another week. Our (peculiar) ode to that long-lost star in the Ophiuchus constellation has drawn to an end, so we'll let you go out and enjoy the fall weather. So long Steve. You'll be missed.
MORE POSTS
New Stuff!
We've been busy little elves at Solarbotics. New to our product listing is a fair number of parts and ICs that have been requested of us. Like what? Wellll...: You always need new chips. Especially when somebody on the BEAM list has made something cool: LM324 Op-amp (happy now, Bruce?) LM393 Dual comparator LM386 Audio […]
Frogbots! Solar-powered, at that!
I missed the full segment of this story last weeks on "Discovery Channel's @discovery.ca" program, but fortunately, the've put the segment online at their website. I seems that JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratories - NASA essentially) is working on a solar-powered, single-footed robot frog. This seems like a GREAT idea for extra-terrestrial planet-surface locomotion. Check out […]
RoboSapien Movie
Hi all. Yesterday's solar race cars were very cool. Lots of neat tech, and a neck'n'neck race to the finish too! I took the extra effort to see some of the cars out at highway speed, then saw them again in-town. These things move! Anyways, enough about that. I got an email from John Hopkins, […]
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.