The Solarbotics GraviTrack Marble Machin...

Today we are going to be taking a look at one of our favorite go-to materials for easy molding and quick repair, Caprolactone Thermoplastic! This plastic, more commonly known as ShapeLock, Friendly Plastic, Instamorph or Polymorph, is a biodegradable polyester with a low melting point. When solid, it has physical properties of a very tough, […]

Well, the last batch of Escap gearmotors went very fast. Let's hope this batch lasts a bit longer! Unlike the last set, this set has a higher reduction ratio of 663:1 instead of 362:1. This means it starts turning 0.46V (!) drawing only 3.3mA (!!) It's a 3V rated motor, but our tests show that […]

Unlike Sparkfun, who actually manage to find fake Atmel ICs, we just get strange batches. The Atmel ATMega328 is the power behind the Arduino/Freeduino/*duino, and we have to set up a programming system to burn the venerable Arduino Bootloader into these chips. We normally use an AVR STK500 in HVSP (high voltage serial programming) mode, […]

Happy October everyone! The leaves are falling and there's that crisp scent of winter lurking in the air. Ah, it sure is beautiful! And you know what else is beautiful? Diodes and trimpots, of course. Check out these gorgeous new components: 3.4V Zener Diode 5.1V Zener Diode 1k Single-Turn Trimpot w/ Knob 10k Single-Turn Trimpot […]