Ok, we were fed up with the strange pinouts on the L298 motor driver, and decided to do something about it. The result is the Solarbotics L298 Compact Motor Driver. It happens to be the same size as a BEP tile, offers four status LEDs, plugs for easy wiring, and screw terminals for motor and […]
Wednesday Cool Links, Announcements and ...
Solar botics
September 11, 2013
We were at the San Mateo MakerFaire, and were representing for BPS breadboards. They've announced their winners, and the first place went to Elizabeth from Houston, Texas (age 11) (and we like unicorns too):
Now that we have established our stance towards robotic (roboCorns) and regular unicorns (unicornus vulgaris), here's some links. They are just as magical:
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Fletcher Tables This is definitely out of garage-duct tape-hot glue DIY range, but the craftsmanship is amazing, especially it's worth seeing it in motion, check out the video. |
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Robosans: Robot Made Digital Typography An intersection of typography and robotics, a font created by manipulating the controller on the OWI robotic arm. |
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Completely analog electronic music box An analog music box [Steven Dufresne], that uses 555 timer and can generate 13 different tones. Electronically simple and mechanically elegant solution. And it plays music! |
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NES: Nixie Entertainment System Tiny nixies are fun! Nintendo emulator combined with a nixie clock by [Bradley W. Lewis] is all kinds of retro-tastic. |
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Watch JPL's RoboSimian Do Pull-Ups We've seen lots of articulated robots, but this one eerily resembles a simian, with all four limbs capable of mobility and manipulation. |
Oh, do I ever wish I had a roboCorn to hold things, for example as my coat rack... But isn't that a waste of unicornal resources? Dear Elizabeth from Houston, Texas, please build one for me, I would find a good use for it.
And before I conclude, wanted to mention that Solarbotics will have a booth at the MakerFaire YYC at Alberta College of Art+Design on September 13 and 14, with the various electronic goodies and the Arduino workshop. Also noteworthy are our fellow Calgary manufacturers - BPS, the makers of prototyping boards, who I mentioned at the beginning of this post in relation to the unicorns. They (not unicorns, the BPS!) will also be doing a demo on using C Programming for AVRs/Arduinos and a demo on using breadboards.
See y'all (or some) there!
MORE POSTS
Solarbotics looking for fun people
...oh, and they also should want to work with us. We have a few positions open we want to fill with people that have a good sense of humour, have some geek qualities, and can tell the difference between a diode and resistor (or sincerely want to learn!) Here are the types of people we're […]
Maker Faire, Nunchucky, PumLantern
WOW! What a week! Most of us have returned from Maker Faire, where we had a fantastic time. We met a lot of great people, saw loads of neat projects and displays, and got a chance to take in some beautiful California weather. We're absolutely exhausted after an insanely long and busy weekend, but we're […]
New Catalog!
We've just printed off our latest catalog, and if you've ordered from us in the last year, or asked for one, expect a copy in the mail shortly! Or if you can't wait, download a copy in PDF format now (1.9Mb)!
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!
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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.