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We used to love supplying our international customers. Used to.
But we’re being hit with too many “This is costing too much with tariffs…” refused shipments. We’re trying to warn you – there’s at least 2 notices you HAVE to acknowledge before submitting your online order. But some customers are refusing shipments, and then claiming that the product “arrived defective”.
HOW do you refuse a shipment, then try to submit a charge-back if you never had the chance to evaluate it’s condition?
So until cross-border shipping policies shape up, we may be following up international orders for Electronic-fund transfers rather than PO or credit card.
We’re a small business – bigger than a some, far smaller than many. We can’t afford to keep having product refused, then it getting swallowed by the shipping companies as scrapped returns never to be seen again.
Bringing more value to you, we’ve added a 3rd Party shipping option!
Traditionally, you get better rates from the courier companies by shipping more. Not shipping much? Expect to pay more. BUT with the advent of small “last-mile” delivery companies leveraging their agility, they can offer more competitive rates to smaller companies like ourselves, which we’re able to offer you!
One of the major hurdles in facing off against the large online vendors is finding a cost-effective way to ship materials.
Available for both US and Canadian destinations, you can choose to have your order delivered “last-mile” via Canada Post or USPS, or by 3rd party for even more value. Our US-bound destinations will have the appropriate CUSMA/USCMA paperwork already in-place. Keep in mind not all our products are CUSMA/USCMA eligible, so there still may be tariffs applied to those items.
AHA! We’ve found the CSS bug that made the mobile-experience fail on the menu pulldown. All better now!
Tis the season to reap what we’ve sown, and in that spirit, here’s what we’ve been doing with our summer students this year, fulfilling the following tasks:
Incorporating Active-Tech Calgary Store Inventory
This has been a long-desired project coming to (partial) completion, bringing the inventory from our physical store Active Tech Calgary online. This has been a nebulous task, needing us to document every item carried in the store with photos, dimensions, and weights (generated by a previous summer-student project, the Raspberry-Pi powered “Camstation”).
We’ve been able to bring online the gist of the inventory usually available in-store via the “Item Availability” search feature on our website. Although some items can be purchased online and in-store, we are unable to bring every item online presently. There are literally a minimum of 14 parameters that have to be filled-in to bring a product online. While we prioritize this, we’re doing a blanket “Here’s what we have” update, so at least it’s indexed and searchable. This more than doubles the product listings online!
Website Refresh
We’ve refreshed our website installation, as our previous commercial web developers efforts did not give us optimal performance. That meant shifting some background infrastructure, but also let us start with a clean, quick database. The performance should be noticeable!
Left to do is bring in the support documentation (PDFs, support code, etc) to each product. If you need something sooner than later, email us and we’ll send it directly to you.
More background optimizations are in the works; stay tuned!
Let’s play “Spot the differences”!
We received some new inventory, and one of these things …was not like the other (Sesame alumni, we are!). FYI, here are some differences between the K1 series of hot-ends. I don’t believe them to be “OMG!” differences, but just worth noting. We’ve had good results with both styles, but of course the red-sock version is preferred.
Of course, neither are of the latest Creality “Unicorn” technology, which you /can/ upgrade your older K1 to, but we’ve had consistently good results with this hotend revision.
Items might not be on the website yet, but they are in-store at Active-Tech Calgary.
Earlier in January we had a very interesting discussion with the chief geeks at Evil Mad Scientist Labs.
They’ve been doing similarly-unique DIY as Solarbotics for a good long time, but they had now found themselves in the position of shuttering their operation to take some lead rolls with Bantam Tools. This meant moving from the left-coast to the right-coast of the USA, and needed to severely streamline.
We’re happy to announce that we are incorporating a subset of the Evil Mad inventory into our own! This means we’ll be continuing to stock the Flickery-Flame, 555 and 741 kit variations, plus a good lot of other goodies from their warehouse.
Unpacking continues, and database additions are happening. Stay tuned; it’ll all get online!
It’s time to put away shovels, and clean up! We’re making space in the warehouse, so we’re moving out these big boxes of 3D printers! While supplies last, in-store only, final sale!
Small, tidy, and lots of really good features – the Sermoon v1 Pro – 32% off!
Super high detail printing with a Creality LD-006 Resin Printer – 47% off!
Autumn! Time to gather your nuts, seeds and berries and hunker down for the winter, and warm yourself by the warmth given off by your …new 3D printer.
Either as a tool to build your holiday decorations & cookie cutters, or as a gift to your favorite geek or geeklet, NOW is the time to check out the sale we have on CREALITY 3D printers! Prices good until November 6th!
The original budget bullet-proof 3D printer.
20% off!
The latest in the Ender-3 series, with all the tweaks and upgrades!
15% off!
With larger build volume and auto-leveling, it’s a great printer!
20% off!
With a massive 350x350x400mm build volume and dual-Z stepper rods, The Ender-5 Plus allows for HUGE builds.
10% off!
For the ultimate in loooong builds, the CR-30 delivers practically infinite-length models.
10% off!
Ready for the precision of Resin Printing? The LD-006 will bring your designs to super-high detail reality!
15% OFF!
What makes Resin Printing easier? A matching wash & curing station! The UW-02 accommodates the LD-006 build plate for easy transfer and processing.
25% OFF!
All the leaves are brown, and the sky is … well, let’s just say with the Autumn comes planning for the the holiday building-season. We’re happy to announce these recent arrivals from eSun filaments and Creality3D printers. Amongst our many cases we’ve recently received, we got some new things to play with. In no particular order of funkiness:
eTwinkle Rainbow! (a.k.a.: Unicorn Sparklebarf)
If that “My Little Pony” Unicorn ever had an all-weekend bender, it may result in a color blend like this. It’s definitely a most intense blend of colors and sparkles. If you’re not sure what color to use, this is the one.
eTwinkle Silver
For a more … tasteful print than our first selection, you may consider the Silver flecked variant in the eTwinkle lineup. Must more refined in nature. Just screams to be used in a holiday ornament.
Silk Magic – Dual-color Red and Blue
I was introduced to “Shot Silk” when I was a kid by my eldest sibling. My young ears though she said “Shocked Silk”. After all, what would you call something that shifted weirdly from one color to another depending the angle you looked at it? In any case, eSun has taken advantage of the low-mixing characteristics of PLA plastic and developed a way to co-extrude two colors side-by side, which really does look striking.
Silk Magic – Dual-color Green and Blue
Similar to the above Green & Blue, but with a more police-esque color scheme. Mid-shift, it turns almost purple. Weird, but true.
Silk Magic – Dual-color Gold and Silver
Again like the rest, but with a very nice metallic gold and silver scheme. Another holiday favorite.
Light-Weight Foaming ePLA – Black
And…something very different. This stuff is making waves in the model aircraft and cosplay communities. This stuff expands like whipping cream out of the nozzle, then solidifies into a solid foam! It’s wack. We can’t wait to put it to use!
Light-Weight Foaming ePLA – Natural
Just like the other stuff, but in a neutral non-colored chemistry. Take a look at the datasheet on the page – the amount of foaming is controlled by your speed and temperature settings.
3D Printer – The Creality CR10 Smart Pro
Yeah, we’re on a bit of a 3D-printing-related kick today. We also have the new CR10 Smart Pro in stock. It’s a pretty polished unit, with built-in networking and video. Honestly though – not completely sold on the “Walled Garden” of having Creality talk to the cloud for my printing (albeit is pretty decent). I’m hoping for a community edition firmware that lets me have more direct control like Octoprint allows.
Looking forward to a bit of recharge time after the holiday rush! While being in that mindset, here’s our holiday schedule for both Solarbotics and the Active-Tech Calgary Storefront:
- December 24th – 9:30-1:30pm
- December 25th – Closed (HO HO HO!)
- December 26th – Closed (Whooboy… leftovers and toys!)
- December 27th – Closed (Moar leftovers… and who’s toys are these?)
- December 28th – Closed (Zzzzzzz)
- December 29th – 9:30-5:30pm (*blink* *blink* yaaaawn)
- December 30th – 9:30-5:30pm (Clean up 2021 stuff)
- December 31st – 9:30-1:30pm (Off to buy munchies and …cold snacks…)
- January 1st 2022 – Closed (Sleeping off cold snacks)
- January 2nd – (Sunday, the day of rest y’know)
- January 3rd – Closed (YAY for long weekends!)
- January 4th – Preparing for 2022, and back to regular schedule!
Let’s all send 2021 packing, and hope for a better 2022!
We know, we know. It’s more of a “Grey Wednesday” than actually Black Friday, but we couldn’t help ourselves. We have over 25 items on sale for you, with discounts ranging from a handy lil’ 5% to a whopping 30% off. What kind of items? We’re glad you asked!
- Kits
- Marble Machine Kit (Battery, Solar, and Solar Solderless): 10% Off
- Carousol Kits (Paris Flyer and Squid Hunting): 10% Off
- The GraviTrack Solar Marble Machine Kit (Battery, Solar, and Solar Solderless): 10% Off
- Solarbotics Useless Box Kit: 20% Off
- The Solarbotics Learn to Solder Kit: 30% Off
- Herbie the Mousebot: 30% Off
- 3D Printing
- Equipment
- Components and Parts
You better nab these quick; not only do the deals only last while we have inventory, but all discounts expire at the end of November 29th (which is a Monday, for those of you who like to be on top of things). If you want to check out our whole selection of deals, take a gander at our sale section.