Wednesday Cool Links: Spiderbot, Solar S...

Dave Hrynkiw
October 17, 2012

It's Wednesday! Hooray! Huzzah! We're celebrating because... Well, ok, we have nothing big to celebrate right now. So we're going to celebrate having nothing to celebrate with the traditional and only appropriate way possible... BROWSING THE INTERNET! Indeed, we've been celebrating this time-honoured tradition with steadfast dedication, and it's our pleasure to share it with all of you.

Four-Legged Spiderbot
As the website puts it, this is "a walking machine, radially symmetrical, having four legs with two degrees of freedom each, controlled through a wireless link from a hand-held controller based on two Wii Nunchucks." Very impressive articulation and range of motion. Be sure to check out the video.
The Almost Useless Machine
A solar-powered... Reciprocating saw? Make sure you have lots of patience and a cold one to enjoy while you "work"! Seriously though, while this might not be too functional, it certainly has some great craftsmanship.
Solar "Death Ray": Power of 5000 suns!
Mirrors. Lots of mirrors. 5800 of them, to be precise. It's pretty cool (and a LOT scary) what kind of power can be harnessed by arranging mirrors onto a fiberglass satellite dish and aligning it to the sun.
6 Rubens Tubes Visualizer
Hrm, a flame visualization for music? SIGN ME UP. Turn it into a handy-dandy plug-in accessory for the iPod, for the best on-the-go pyrotechnics you can possibly imagine. Might want to make sure you turn it off before tucking it away in your pocket, though.
Solar Engineer Badge on DIY
So, you think you like DIY? Well, it's time to prove your chops by completing challenges over at diy.org. They even have a Solar Engineer Badge that features a bunch of project ideas, including our Instructable for the Solar Powered Miniball.

We were once hoping that we could instead celebrate by racing giraffes through obstacle courses, but that didn't pan out. Too bad. I was planning on decking mine out with some sweet black and white racing stripes, to make it look like a very oddly proportioned zebra.

MORE POSTS

June 30, 2004
Canada Day & 4th of July

We'll be closed Thursday June 1st, as it is Canada Day! Ah, time to take off the snow-shoes and swim with the polar bears, and eat snow-cones with our Husky dogs to celebrate Canada's birthday! It's worth noting that we will be open on July 5 (most of you Americans get Monday off, right?).

July 24, 2006
Temporary Mail Difficulties

We are currently experiencing some temporary mail difficulties. If you are trying to reach us by Email and do not hear back from us please call us toll-free at 1-866-276-2687. We are sorry for any inconvenience this may cause.

March 27, 2010
Misc Tidbits, Closed for Good Friday

Well, that magical time of year where rabbits poop magical chocolate eggs is almost upon us. And, as usual, Solarbotics will be closed for Good Friday, on April the 2nd. This'd be where we talk about how you can still send emails and submit orders, and that we'll answer any correspondence/messages and resume processing/shipping orders […]

January 22, 2010
Sensors, sensors, sensors & custome...

Alriiiiight. We've teased at it off and on for the past little while, but it's official - Solarbotics now carries sensors! Right now we've just added a big fist-full of distance / proximity sensors (17 items in total!), and a couple accessories. Stay tuned - we'll be adding more to these categories as well as […]

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