Technology Index Closes...

Last summer during a Solarbotics Robotics for Educators session, one of the teachers noted something about many of the mainstream robotics and electronics learning platforms commonly used in classrooms. He said that those platforms suffered from the Black Box Effect. This effect was where the “black boxes,” the controllers, were plugged into the computer and […]

Wheee! It's finally outta my hair - the Sumovore PIC Brainboard now available to all you microcontroller fans that insist on programmable robots. Complete with a 5 pin and RJ11-6 port, you can use practically all PIC programming tools and hardware (or build your own programming cable as detailled in the instruction) to put your […]

Here's a little makeover of an inexpensive aftermarket heated car seat heating pad that stopped working. Designed to activate and warm up when sat upon, the electronics face a fair amount of abuse: since the seat is a soft frame, the wires inside constantly move and flex with the body. They are also subject to […]

We've been trying to Make Something Useless Useful since 2012. In order to do that we've been donating a percentage of past sales of the Useless Box to Plan Canada. In year 2013 $5,000 went to Plan Canada' Gift of Hope School Construction in Honduras.