Useless (Xmas) Machines!

Dave Hrynkiw
December 13, 2010

We're teaming up with Brett Coulthard of Saskview.com to get their version of the Useless Machine put together as a parts bundle. We just finished it Friday night, and quick-posted tweets & a few photos of it, and are shipping today!

What comes in the bundle? Pretty much everything you need to successfully build a Useless Machine of your own:

  •   1 x 39300 Black acrylic "Useless Box" construction set (with nut/bolt hardware)
  •   1 x SWT8 DPDT toggle switch
  •   1 x SWT9 SPDT lever switch
  •   2 x #2 mounting screws for SWT9
  •   1 x BHoldAA 2-AA battery pack
  •   1 x DSST (double sided sticky tape, for mounting the battery pack)
  •   6" hookup wire
  •   1 x GM4 gear motor
  •   4 x "Little Rubber Feet" to protect your Useless machine from abrasive counter tops!

We're only offering the box in black acrylic at the moment (experimented with clear - ehk), but if you ask really nicely, we probably could run one in red, blue, green, orange, white and (if you really want it), clear. Call in if you want any of those options.

Speaking of cool "Useless machines", Tony Youngblood's Christmas version was just featured on the Makezine Blog. He built his with our GM8 for super-fast response (we did our bundle with the slower GM4 - we like a more deliberate "ME: OFF" response).

MORE POSTS

October 25, 2000
BEAM Workshop in Chile!

From a post we just received from Roberto Avil

June 19, 2003
GM5a's sold out!

Gahh! Man, are these Escap motors popular! We're already sold out of these high gear-reduction versions. We'll have to see what we can do to get more online soon...

April 22, 2014
Solarbotics at Calgary Entertainment Exp...

Yes! We are quite busy preparing to the above said Entertainment Expo, that is going to take place on April 24-27 2014. Come by our booth(s), which are # 302 and 402, we are going to have lots of new exciting demos to show off.               A few preview […]

July 12, 2007
BEP Application: Pummer

The following instructions detail how to build a simple pummer using a BC2 (Bicore) BEP (Bicore Experimenter PCB). A pummer is a solar powered self activating LED flasher. The difference between a pummer and a BLFNAR (blinky light for no apparent reason) is that a pummer has a soft turn off, which means that it turns on fast, but slowly fades away.

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