2001 Archives

Well, it’s that time of the season to shut down and spend time with the family. Solarbotics will be closing December 21, 2001 at 4pm, and we’ll reopen January 3, 2002.

We’re sorry to report that Mr. Bilton of Technology Index has informed us that his popular UK webstore is shut down due to circumstances not having to do with its business.

We hope things work out for Mr. Bilton, and that Technology Index will reopen for business when things get better.

Check out our circuits page for another neat one gleaned from our design notebooks. A dark-activated, chaotically activating, dual pummer. Ideal for lighting up…things!

In case if you want to contact us regarding orders, technical information, or questions, please use our new toll-free number: 1-866-276-2687 (1-866-B-ROBOTS).

Now, just because it’s toll-free for YOU doesn’t mean it doesn’t cost us nothing, so don’t call just to ask me what time it is, ok? Ok. Thanks!

Think you’re good at modifying toys? Got a toaster with legs? A cat with wheels? A self-pruning Chia-Pet? Well, do we have a contest for YOU:

Mark Tilden has confirmed with us that he’s willing to donate two complete sets of Wowwee/Hasbro BIOBugs (4, one of each type) to the top two hacks/modifications to be published to the Internet. Mark had a heavy hand in designing the BIOBugs, and intentionally made them very receptive to custom modifications. What does that mean? YOU decide.

Given that Mark is an aficionado of truly bizarre/innovative devices and hacks, I suggest you DO NOT limit yourself to just serious technical hacks. Amusement and twisted humour counts too! Or, go the other way, and try for serious technical hacks. Figure out the I/O pins; interface a secondary processor, add additional functionality.

Existing hacks recently witnessed thus far include:

• A general BIOBug vivisection
• Adding a waist motor to a Predator
• Adding a "flapping wing shell" to a Blue bug when it’s agitated (in fight mode)
• Stilt legs on a yellow bug

Get your BIOBug, hack it by February 28th, 2002 (gives you plenty of time after getting one from the dog as a Christmas Gift), email us your URL with the hack, and we’ll see how it goes!

What’s this got to do with Solarbotics & the BEP? Simple. If you use any of the BEP modules in your hack, and it wins (judged by Mr. Tilden), we’ll give you a $200 credit for anything at Solarbotics.

Questions? None? Good. Get to work!

Sorry for the delay in announcements, folks! Been quite busy getting these latest devices ready for sale.

The latest addition to the Solarbotics family of products is the Bicore Experimenter’s PCB (aka:) BEP. This is a collection of useful, proven circuits that have been used by Solarbotics, and many other users of Mark Tilden’s Bicore technology. We’ve gone through great pains to make sure these boards are proven error-free (3 revisions were tested, so please don’t find any problems now!), so you should be able to take a module, put in the components, power it up, and it should work as required by your design.

Demand for these modules has been quite high, so we’ve released them with a practically complete set of documentation (the MSE1 module still needs some value tables generated), and application notes are still being generated. The information included is sure to get you well on your way to building your own BEAM devices.

In addition to making these very useful raw PCB modules available, we’re also introducing them with an optional Bicore Experimenter’s PCB Bundle which contains practically all you need to make these modules functional. It’s a BIG savings over ordering the resistors, capacitors, chips, etc individually. And if that’s not complete enough for you, we’ve also listed (not included) more parts to round out your collection for actually building robots with the bundle.

Time to stock up on Solarcells and Capacitors! Once again, we have our Solarcell Christmas Specials 1 & 2, and our Capacitor Christmas Specials online. Check the "Sale Items" menu pick for details!

Wired.com recently posted a very interesting comparison between the Wowwee/Hasbro BIO-Bugs, and the Sony Aibo. Interesting comparison!

For those wanting more information, there’s the BIO-Bug vivisection page at Solarbotics.net.

If you’ve been having any problem whatsoever with our online orderform, would you be so kind to fire us a quick message about it?

We’re trying to isolate a problem we’re hearing about, but cannot reproduce, especially with the final "submit" button. A copy/paste of the error message to us would be greatly appreciated…

Besides introducing a whole new batch of Push-Pogopins (and their measurements) into the ‘misc’ category, we’ve just introduced our ‘D2′ Germanium Diode.

This diode is pretty good - better than the 1N270 and 1N34 types, with a voltage dropout of only 0.36V at 50mA! We’re not exactly sure what type it is, but since we only have a limited quantity, I suggest you jump on these while we have them.

We also have just introduced the LMP1 and LMP2 Leg Mounting Pads. If you’re familiar with our ScoutWalker kits, you’ll already be familiar with the technique we use to mount the legs to the servos. We’ve been getting requests for these things separate from the kit, so we’ve brought in two styles: The "standard" LM1 regular mounting pads, and the "Heavy" LM2 style like we use in our walker kits.

They’re sold in pairs, complete with the tiny screws needed to screw them to practically any servo arm.

More coming soon!