New Product Friday: Joints and Mounts
Now that AVC is done, we have a bunch of new products to talk about.
Hello everyone and welcome to another Friday New Product Post. First, I'd like to thank everyone for coming out to AVC last weekend. Other than getting a sunburn, things went pretty well. We had some great moments, fierce competition, and a lot of fun. As a side note, I will most likely be doing a post about the VSS (video scoring system) in the future if anyone's interested in how we scored competitors at AVC this year. Post a comment if you'd like to see more on that.
For now, let's check out the video and the products.
Vimeo version here.
If you find yourself tinkering around a lot with designs, you really should get some MicroRax to play around with. It makes physical prototyping much easier and quicker. Okay, enough with the sales pitch, let's check out the products.
I've said it once, I'll say it again: we make mistakes. The EL Escudo wasn't the most reliable product and was in desperate need of a revision. We listened to our customers and came up with the EL Escudo Dos. The new revision adds optoisolators on all the triacs as well as a regulated 1.5A supply for the inverter. We've tested this out for months and it's bulletproof. No more blowing channels. A redesign on the EL Sequencer is coming soon as well. Thanks for the feedback!
This week we have a few new MicroRax accessories. First up is the knuckle hinge. This hinge allows for 90 degree movement (each way) at a right angle. Check the video above. It uses two set screws to fit into the MicroRax channel.
If you need a different type of movement, you might want to check out the elbow hinge. This hinge goes from parallel to straight, for a total of 180 degrees of movement. Check the video above for an example. It uses the same system of set screws to attach into the MicroRax channel.
If movement isn't your thing, but you just need three MicroRax beams to intersect, check out the Tri-Corner. Beams simply slide into place and are held there by set screws. Once connected, you have 3 beams intersecting at a common point, similar to the corner of a cube.
Lastly, these PCB standoffs allow you to easily attach PCBs to your MicroRax assembly. They come with the two plastic parts shown above and some washers. Simply attach them to the slide-in channel nuts and snap in your PCB.
We've carried our mini metal gearmotors for some time, but there's never been a great way to attach them to your platform. These motor mounts attach to the face and give you four mounting holes. The right-angle profile is much easier than mounting directly to the face.
If you need to mount a servo instead, we've got you covered. Our servo mounts are just simple right-angle piece of plastic with holes drilled in them. As shown in the picture above, it gives you a simple way to mount the servo at a right-angle. They mount in the standard servo mounting holes. Just keep in mind we sell them as singles, so make sure you get two of them!
We now have stock of the SMD version of the Arduino Uno R3. This is essentially the same board as the normal Arduino Uno R3, but uses an SMD version of the ATmega328. Everything else functions the same way.
The MAX3232 is a great IC for converting RS232 to TTL. We've put it on a breakout board, so you can easily use it. We've broken out all the pins, added a few necessary components, and easily labeled all the pins. It even works at 5V and 3.3V logic. Check it out if you need to translate between RS232 and TTL.
This next product may be a bit confusing, so let me try and explain it. Let's say you want to build your own Arduino-compatible microcontroller. You can use the RedBoard Breadboard Kit to make one, but in the end you just have a breadboard with a bunch of parts on it. The RedBoard PCB Add-on gives you the extra parts (PCB, headers, barrel jack, socket for ATmega328, etc) to turn the breadboard into what you see above. Put it all together and you'll end up with an Arduino-compatible development platform, similar to an Arduino Uno.
A couple weeks back we announced Cubelets. Since they are intended as a toy, they need a special battery that doesn't explode when it gets wet. Thankfully, we now have the special charger needed to charge the lithium iron phosphate batteries that are included with the Cubelet kit. Use it in your car or at home.
If you've ever used our digital calipers, you might have noticed the lack-luster battery life. Recently, I wrote a mini-tutorial showing how to add a AAA battery to your calipers to greatly increase battery life. However, if you don't want to hack up your calipers, we now have LR44 button cell batteries.
Well, there you have it, a good bunch of new products for the week. We have a lot of new things coming in daily, so be sure to check back next week where we will have (you guessed it) more new products. Thanks for reading and see you then!
