Well, it’s the end of the year apparently. 2011 has kinda withered up and died like some kinda… Food thing that tends to dry up if you leave it out for too long. Like jerky. Or raisins. Mm, especially raisins when they’re in oatmeal cookies (shh, don’t tell the boss. Anything but a strict chocolate + oatmeal combination around these parts is pure blashpemy). Anyways, just so y’all know, we’ll be closed on December 30th and January 2nd to do some year-end shinanigans. Business resumes as usual on the 3rd.

But that’s all kinda boring. So let’s show you something kinda neat. Youtube user SSublett1 took a Let’s Make Robots Start Here bundle and turned it into something really freaking awesome. He made a CNC wood burner that HARNESSES THE POWER OF THE SUN to, uh, burn wood. It’s like a home-made laser engraver, but the power source is a giant flaming ball of gas in space. Check out the video:

And just because we can, here’s a SECOND project video! Of a jumping/gliding robot! It doesn’t use any of our parts or anything, but it’s just so darn cool, we have to show it off.

• Watch stock levels (physical and in Quickbooks, because bits can’t always be trusted over bytes), and reorder necessary inventory
• Receive shipments
• Help watch for new product introductions by new & existing suppliers
• Order R&D stuff requested by the lab
• Generate sales reports
• Help generate Build-of-Material (BOM) lists for new products
• Develop relationships with supplier reps (some domestic, some very international!)

If you’re based in Calgary and feel like buyin’ cool robot parts and working with a fistfull of geeks, drop us a line or give us a call (403 232 6268).

…aaaand that’s it for the rest of us for the rest of the year. We hope that everyone’s 2012 is much better than their 2011. Happy holidays, seasons greetings, happy new year, autonomous robots and spicy tacos, from the team here at Solarbotics.

This may come as a bit of a shock to you, but the hands that package your orders actually belong to humans. Sure, we may be a robot company, but robo-hands just aren’t quite up to spec for what we need to do. So for the moment we’re staffed by a contingent of mortals, and as us mortals tend to do, we want to spend the holidays with our families and take it easy. So we’ll be closed for the following days:

Monday, December 26th
Tuesday, December 27th
Friday, December 30th
Monday, January 2nd

Also note that the order cutoff time for same-day shipping this Friday (the 23rd) will be at noon MST.

Standard procedure applies – because our website,  answering machines, and email address have no family or emotions, we’re telling them to suck it up and work through the break. You can still place orders and leave messages, and we’ll resume operations as normal when we’re not closed.

That being said… We hope that all of you will have a fantastic winter holiday. We could write some mushy-gushy happy feel-good stuff, but let’s face it. If you’re at all like us, you’ve probably stopped reading by  this point and are already daydreaming about turkey stuffed with candy canes, precariously balanced at the top of a decorated tree. “Carving the turkey” immediately goes from “boring tradition” to “hilarious and exciting spectator sport”. Especially if you use a snow shovel.

Anyways, from all of the team here at Solarbotics, we’re so proud to have served you over the last year, and wish you all the best in 2012.

Well it looks like that time of year when snow’s in the air and we are out of the office for those precious holiday-tastic days.  Over the next two weeks(ish) Solarbotics/HVWTech will be closed on the following dates:

• December 24th (Wednesday)
  
• December 25th (Thursday)
  
• December 26th (Friday)
• January 1st (Thursday)
  
• January 2nd (Friday)

During this time feel free to place any orders – any received over the 24th-26th will be filled and shipped out when we are back on the 29th-31st.  Orders from the 1st and 2nd we be processed the following week, as your regularly scheduled Solarbotics & HVW Technologies programming will resume in full on Monday, January the 5th.

The phones won’t be answered over the break, but if you really want to call and have a charming conversation with our answering machine you can go right ahead. We will be responding to any messages or emails as soon as we can. On the days we are open we will be operating on our usual business hours of 9AM to 5:30PM MST.

In the mean time, you don’t have much time left if you want to get in that one last order and receive it by the 25th. Most customers will be able to have their last-minute orders delivered on time by courier air. For a full list of dates and cutoffs you can go right here.

If you’re trying to find something for the picky or hard to shop for geek, we’ve just come out with gift certificates for solarbotics.com. At either $25, $50 or $100 you should be able to find that sweet spot for the person in mind. And it gets delivered with some instant email goodness – no need to worry about shipping deadlines!

From the whole team at Solarbotics/HVW Technologies, we hope you have great holidays.

Ok, we won’t lie – we have a lot of content to show you today, so we’re going to jump right in, starting with…

Shipping Cutoff Dates

It’s getting down to the wire if you want to get a few last-minute gifts for Christmas. Here are our cutoff dates for submitting an order and still receiving in before the 25th:

Office Projects

Mister Bitey, Resistor Cutter Extraordinaire!
Have you ever had to cut lots of components off of reels? No? Well aren’t you just lucky. For those of us who aren’t so fortunate, our resident IT guy took it upon himself to build something to help speed up the process. Mister Bitey is a ribbon component cutting robot based on Oomlout’s RECO (Resistor Cutting Robot). You can read more about it here.

Autonomous Brutusbot Code
The BrutusBot has been out for a few weeks now, and the R&D team just can’t stop playing & experimenting. They’ve come up with a code example that works with the Brutusbot and the Brutusbot Electronics Bundle that we featured last week that allows your bot to wander autonomously using the IR distance sensor. Use it, tweak it, modify it. Just don’t turn it into a bloodthirsty AI. That might get… Messy. You can find this code here.

New & Featured Products

	The Sumovore is a wildly popular and successful mini-sumo. What it needs, obviously, is to be turned into the most extravagant Arduino shield, ever. We’ve come up with this handy Sumovore Arduino Adapter Board that will let you interface your Arduino right into this sumo’s body (it’s even compatible with the PICAXE-28X2 Shield Base). This makes it the first full kit solution for building an Arduino-powered sumo. Plug it in, load up some delicious open-source code, and start pushin’ people around. We’ve put together this handy Arduino Sumovore Bundle so that you can get the whole shebang (Sumo, Arduino and the Adapter) together and save 10% ($13.95) over buying everything separately.
	Rainbow Herbie the Mousebot – $39.95 Without any microcontrollers or programming, you can build this fast, light-chasing (such as a flashlight), obstacle avoiding robot. Great for beginners, and comes in red, blue, white, black, pink and now in new funky rainbow colours.
	Christmas PumLantern – $29.95 We’ve whipped a fresh new holiday theme for our PumLantern kit. You can get your holiday blinky fix in black, red, blue or green. Already own a PumLantern and just want a new shell? This is what you’ll need.
	Tiny Lantern – $2.75 What happens when you cross an LED, a coin cell battery, and a little bit of laser-cut acrylic? Our new Tiny Lantern. It stands about 2″, technically qualifying for the ‘adorable’ category of small electronic lanterns. A simple and fun decoration.
	PICAXE PWM-IC – $2.66 USD / $2.95 CAD The PICAXE PWM-IC is a special 8 pin chip designed to drive a L293D motor driver chip to add speed control without any extra output pins needed from your microcontroller.
	PICAXE-28X2 Shield Base (Kit) – $17.56 USD / $18.50 CAD The PICAXE-28X2 shield base has been designed to be compatible with almost all ‘shield modules’ as used with the Arduino system. This a very affordable project board for PICAXE development!
	Serial Miniature LCD Module 1.44″ – $31.95 USD / $33.55 CAD Compact and cost effective display module, with an embedded GOLDELOX-GFX2 graphics processor that delivers ‘stand-alone’ functionality to any project. Powerful graphics, text, image, animation and countless more features are built inside the GOLDELOX-GFX2 chip.
	Arduino Cookbook by Michael Margolis – $44.99 This is like a bible for the Arduino, covering the programming language, problems, interacting via remote control, working with libraries… This book has taken some of the most useful information available and put it all into one place. But it doesn’t tell you how to actually cook an Arduino. Open Source Techno Soup may sound like it would be delicious, but it’s not.
	GM15a – 25:1 Planetary Gear Pager Motor “D” Shaft – $19.00 You might be familiar with our standard GM15 – a really tiny powerhouse (just under 6mm (0.235″) in diameter) that produces a whopping 35.28gm*cm (0.49in*oz) of torque at stall. This new unit is pretty much the same, except with a ‘D’ shaped output shaft that’ll make it a lot easier to use with your project.

Well, that’s probably enough for one more week. Remember, it’s still not too late to get your order in, but you’ll want to place it soon. We’ll do the best we can to get your shipment out as soon as we can, but mail carriers are getting pretty darn busy.

So we’ve just released a ton of awesome little bundles for our Ardweenys, and you’re thinking “Wow, what would I do with all those?”. Well friend, why not build a Strandbeest with an Ardweeny for a brain?

For those few who aren’t familiar with a Strandbeest (or don’t know it by name), they are the work of Dutch kinetic sculptor Theo Jansen, and they’re incredibly mesmerizing to watch in action:

Theo’s creations are powered entirely by the wind, and he’s working in some very BEAM-like behaviors in the hopes that his creations could one day wander the Dutch beaches on their own.

However, I’d prefer a bit more more control, and Gareth Branwyn over at Make Magazine has just posted up his plans to build a desktop sized one out of some laser cut wood and our awesome little Ardweeny and Breadboard Voltage Regulator Kit as a gift for a friend. You could very easily do the same with our newly release Ardweeny Project Pack, which includes a nifty little backpack with the voltage regulator built in, and even comes with the FTDI programming adapter, everything you need to get started. You can find detailed plans and instructions over on Jeremy Peterson aka 4volt‘s project page in case you’d like to take a shot at making your own. In fact, there’s a tiny evil voice in my head telling me to build many of these and hide them under coworkers desks and the Christmas tree at home, preferably with some kind of glowing red eyes…

What’s worse than having to wait nine months? Having to wait a year and nine months. That’s where we’re finding ourselves, with Beakerhead here in Calgary aiming to land in September of 2013. Luckily, though, this festival of art fused with technology (think MakerFaire) will have a few smaller events between now and then. We can’t wait. In the mean time, we’ll keep busy bringing you more great electronics stuff.

Ardweeny Bundles – Save 7-18%
Oh, the Ardweeny. Such a useful and compact Arduino solution. But sometimes it gets lonely being so tiny and so awesome. We’ve whipped up some bundles that’ll set you up with some of the more common and helpful items at a bit of a discount to top things off.

Project Pack – $29.95

Prototype Pack – $29.95

Single Pack + FTDI – $22.95

Triple Pack + FTDI – $39.95


BrutusBot Brains Bundle – $59.95
By now, you’re probably pretty familiar with the BrutusBot. It’s a fairly capable tank platform that can stand up to all kinds of abuse. The problem is that it only comes with the basic mechanical parts, and if you’re not quite sure what you want do, it can be pretty intimidating to figure out what you need on your own. That’s where the Brain Bundle comes in – we’ll give you 10% off on a Freeduino, motor shield, sensor, and some other parts that’ll help you get going


Sound Module – $6.95
Fun fact: You (yes, you) have a wonderful voice. The world should hear it. And in order to do that, you obviously need this exact module that will record 20 seconds of sound before playing it back. Just add a 3-cell battery pack to start the crazy fun of recording and playing back all your own sounds. The recommended supply is 4.5VDC, but we found that it operates down to voltages of 2.25VDC, so you could also use a 2-cell battery pack if you’d like.

Random Bits n’ Stuff
Winter seems to be marching relentlessly on, and the temperatures are getting lower. We’ve even seen some funny white stuff falling from the sky. Our best guess is that someone flying a plane is having a really good time with confetti. Confetti painstakingly made of ice.


Solar Cell Bundle – 4 for $29.95 (21% off)
As the days get shorter and darker, you’ll want to capture as much sunlight as possible while you can and store it for future use. To help you in this noble effort we’ve put together a simple bundle that’ll get you four compact and high-performance solar cells (two of each the SCC3733 and SCC3766).



Rechargeable Battery – 4 for $1.00 (50% off)
…and where will you store the captured power of the sun? In a battery. A small one, and a rechargeable 3.6V / 170mA Ni-Cad one at that. This unit contains three cells in a pyramid connection and comes with handy wiring. Great for those applications between medium and small.


Metal Cassette Mechanism #2 – $4.95 (17% off)
…and what do you use the captured power of the sun for? Running your very own cassette-based answering machine, of course. Or you could take this unit apart, using the two motors, load of gears, wires and rollers to make a creation of your very own. Pure DIY hacking heaven.

Well, we’ve sucessfully passed by one more week until Beakerhead. Which leaves us… Around 90 weeks to wonder what the heck they were thinking when they came up with the name. Until then, though, we’ll be keeping an eye on their Twitter account and reading up to see what’s to come.

Wireless doorbells have a tendency to… suck. I speak from personal experience on such matters. When they fail to get my attention while at home, apathy generally wins out and inevitably forces me to head down to the FedEx/UPS depot to pick up my missed package. David Watson, a man of action, took matters into his own hands.

David built a custom door bell that strikes children’s resonator bells using a custom designed Arduino clone and our GM10 geared pager motors, inspired by the Solar Xylophone featured in Make Magazine. Utilitizing the home’s existing wiring for a doorbell hidden behind the installed wireless solution, David ended up with something far more elegant that we think is just fantastic:

Keep up the good work David!

Technically, winter starts with the Winter Solstice that occurs on December 21st. But we’re pretty sure that whoever decided that is wrong, because it’s starting to feel pretty darn cold out there. And to keep things warm, what do you need? Movement. And how do you make movement? Motors. So today we have range of servos and gearmotors to help your projects beat the cold. But first, some other stuff.

Open-Source Firefly Project

Over the summer, we worked with Claudia Bustos and Vlad Amiot for their project “Calgary’s Illuminated Landscapes” for AwesomeFoundationCalgary, to make a blinking LED kit based on the Jar of Fireflies Instructables Project. We were able to help them with PCB design and production for the project, and the event turned out to be a huge success (check out some video and two newsposts). Now we’d like to release that design as open-source, so anyone can reproduce or modify it for themselves. We have Gerber files, schematics and code. You can get even more info at our project page here.

New Releases!
	Little Yellow Drum Machine – $185 We were smitten by the Little Yellow Drum Machine the first time we saw it. Let’s face it, this lil’ guy has a ton of character and an awesome sense of rhythm to boot. You should go check out the video if you haven’t already to see him in action. We’ve worked with its creator to put together a bundle, so that you can get your hands on all the electronic parts in one place if you want to make your own.
	Pocket Marquee Bundle – $42.00 USD / $44.10 CAD Sometimes, you have 126 lights. And sometimes, you want to put those lights in a box. And if this is one of those times, we have you covered. We’re offering a bundle that includes a LoLShield and red SAFE (with a clear lid and some other helpful parts), so all you need is your Arduino board of choice to set up your very own display-in-a-box. Save about $10 from buying the parts individually.
	VS-9 Micro Servo, Coreless Motor – $9.85 USD / $10.34 CAD This pico sized servo is great for tiny robots, hobby airplanes, and cars. Use them for manipulating legs, blinking eyes, or just use them for steering. It produces 0.5 kg.cm ( 6.94 oz.in ) of tourque at 4.8V.
	VS-19 Pico Linear Servo – $9.85 USD / $10.34 CAD After all these years of waiting we are now finally blessed with the gift of linear actuation. The only limits to this servo signal driven actuator is your imagination! Use it to turn ‘on’ and ‘off’ light switches, raise and lower legs, trigger a latch, and/or bring up the periscope.
	Gear Motor 23 – 1:192 Offset Shaft – $5.00 USD / $5.25 CAD This 1:192 Tiny Geared Pager Motor has an offset shaft much like the GM2, but is roughly half the size in every dimension. It’ll be handy for crazy things like wall climbing robots, automatic tooth-brushing, or fancy marble mahcines.
	Gear Motor 24 – 1:192 90 Degree Shaft – $5.00 USD / $5.25 CAD Borrowing the form factor of our popular GM3 gearbox, the GM24 is a pager-motor powered relative that is great for tight spaced applications. Make a robot so small that it can fit inside another robot!
Sales	That’s right. We’re marching straight on in an effort to add more cool stuff to our clearance category. Check it out, and if you find something you like, act quick – these and all the other clearance items have limited quantities.
	Phidget Advanced Servo 1-Motor – $25.86 USD / $27.16 CAD (20% off) Allows you to control the position, velocity, and acceleration of one RC servo motor. It also has a high resolution of 125 steps per degree; it measures the power consumption of the servo, and powers servo motors of up to 450mA. Best of all, it’s powered solely by the USB cable.
	PhidgetServo Kit 1-Motor – $36.57 USD / $38.40 CAD (20% off) A simple little bundle for controlling a singler servo motor. The kit includes everything you’ll need to get started, including the PhidgetServo 1-Motor, a servo, and a USB cable.
	PhidgetAdvancedServo 8-Motor – $70.16 USD / $73.67 CAD (20% off) This wonderful contraption allows you to control the position, velocity, and acceleration of up to 8 RC servo motors. It requires a 6-15VDC external power supply; its switching power supply allows efficient operation from 6 to 15 VDC and can be used with a wide range of batteries.
	PhidgetServo Kit 4-Motor – $114.29 USD / $120.00 CAD (20% off) This handy kit sets you up with everything you need to control 4 servo motors from your PC, with the ability to add another 4 RC servos of your choosing. It includes the PhidgetServo 4-Motor, 4 servos, a USB cable and a 12VDC 2.0Amp North American power supply.

So there you go. Get yourself a schwack-load of motors, wire ’em up, and put them together like a shirt. You’ll be stylish and might look like a bit of a weirdo. But that’s okay, because above all else, you’ll be warm. Now if you’ll excuse us, we need to go dig up our Seasonal Servo Cartigans.

Usually when it comes time to do these find-a-witty-way-to-describe-why-we-won’t-be-in-the-office-for-a-holiday posts, we like to ponder the deeper meanings of the universe while mixing in a healthy dose of the absurd with a side helping of (rather questionable) humour. But this time around, we have nothing.

Remembrance Day is an important event, and we have nothing but the utmost respect for those that serve in the name of defending our country. So we will be closed on Friday, November the 11th to honour our nation’s soldiers. Men and women of the past and present, those who have struggled, those who have fought, those who have ever put themselves in harm’s way on behalf of their fellow Canadians, and those who never had the chance to return to their families and friends. We’ll take this opportunity, with the rest of our country, to show our most sincere appreciation for their efforts.

Business will resume as usual on Monday.

IT IS NOW NOVEMBER. THIS IS NOT A DRILL. STAY CALM. While a change in month is always an unsettling event, this one is particularly dreadful. Why exactly, we’re not sure. But we have the feeling that if it was called ‘Yesvember’, things would be a lot more… Positive. So we’re doing what we can this month to reverse the trend by saying YES to a DragonTail project, tiny gearmotors, and a bunch of other items that need some lovin’.But first we just want to point out something kinda neat. Jeremie, or tech-guy extraordinaire, recently wrote a post on his blog that went into depth on the recent RC conversion project for the BrutusBot platform. His post was so well written, that it was even picked up and covered by Electronics-Lab and Build Lounge. So be sure to head over to Jeremie’s site and poke around – he has some really good stuff goin’ on.

Also, our pals at Roboteknia, who distribute Solarbotics stock (along with other robotic/electronics goodness) in Mexico, just released their first issue of their own magazine. And if you take a peek at page 48, you might notice a feature on BEAM robotics as well as Solarbotics itself. We don’t quite have any staff in the office that speaks fluent Spanish (although we have English, Russian, French, and Geek covered), so we’ll have to assume that they said some wonderful things about it. All jokes aside, however, our sincere congratulations go out to Roboteknia on their first release. Here’s hoping for many more!

In other news, VIDEO!

“What is this contraption of moving pictures all about, anyways?” you ask. Well, you may want to keep reading into our…

New Releases!
	DragonTail Navigator Project – $63.50 Ok, on with the other show. So last week we introduced you to the DragonTail – a brand new, bare-bones robotic platform. It’s shiny and slick lookin’, but… What can you do with it? Those tricky folks in our RnD department whipped up an example project, and we’ve put together a bundle for it. This project makes the DragonTail capable of navigating its environment, using long-range infrared sensors and short-range tactile sensors to go around whatever is in the way. The Arduino setup makes for a simple build without the need for a dedicated motor controller, and we’ve even put together some sample code.
	125:1 Micro Pager Planetary Gearmotor – $14.50 Good things come in small packages, awesome things come in tiny packages, and UNBELIEVABLY COOL THINGS come in medium-sized packages that are shaped like horseshoes and taste like walnuts. Just be glad that today we have something of the ‘awesome’ variety to show you. The GM25 is our latest gearmotor, and from its 4.5mm x 18.7mm (0.177x.738″) body it can produce 150~380rpm with no load, from 2.5~3.5V at 70~150mA. Oh, and torque? 0.006~0.020Kgf*cm (0.083 in*~ 0.278 in*oz). So much awesome inside so much tiny. So many possibilities…
	New Release: Sharp Sensors Some days you just need to detect distances. Whether it’s for simple rangefinding purposes or for obstacle avoidance, infra-red light (or, as those of us not in the technical department like to say, “magic”) sensors are a go-to method for understanding an environment. We’ve managed to get ahold of a supply of Sharp analog rangefinder sensors, which are very difficult to find in North America. We have two models, the GP2Y0A02YK (larger size with 20-150cm/7.9-59″ range) and the GP2Y0A21YK0F (smaller with 10-80cm/3.9-31.5″ range). Find out which one suits your application best – we used the GP2Y0A02YK on the DragonTail Navigator.
Sales	We carry some pretty neat stuff. And the only way we have to make them even more totally great, even temporarily, is to knock a few bucks off the price so that they’re easier for someone to get their hands on. This week’s neat-stuff-at-a-great-price includes a kit and a few books.
	Zendulum Kit – $26.95 (save $3.00) Build a simple solar-powered desk-toy that features a magnetic ball that will continuosly roll back and forth, as if you told friction to go take a hike. Don’t have a source of light at your desk for power? You can also plug it into a USB port to keep rollin’ in the dark.
	Make Magazine Collections – $44.95 (25% off) If you’ve just discovered Make Magazine and haven’t been subscribed for long enough to collect most of the back issues, you’re in luck. You can buy all four issues from a year within one handy-dandy set, instead of getting them separately. Make: The Third Year Make: The Fourth Year Make: The Fifth Year
	Eccentric Cubicle – $25.50 (29% off) Sometimes you need desk toys that are way better than what your co-workers have. And if you enjoy building things for yourself, this is where Eccentric Cubicle comes into the picture, featuring projects on building gadgets to protect, defend and supply your precious work surface.
	The Best of Instructables – $25.50 (15% off) If you’re dying for a collection of impossibly cool DIY projects, Instructables.com is the place to go. But if you’re also the kind that enjoys beautiful books (think of it as a physical, offline version of the internet), this collection will provide you with hours of fascinating reading and building.

Hopefully this has been an encouraging way to start off the month. We’ll be doing our best to keep the world’s morale up over the next several weeks by continuing to roll out more brand-new items and putting other parts of our inventory on sale. Until then, enjoy the first week of Yesvember!