Pololu Blog (Page 91)

Welcome to the Pololu Blog, where we provide updates about what we and our customers are doing and thinking about. This blog used to be Pololu president Jan Malášek’s Engage Your Brain blog; you can view just those posts here.

Popular tags: community projects new products raspberry pi arduino more…

Active Magnetic Bearing: Tripod Floater v2.0

Posted by Ben on 1 February 2010

In this video, Meindert Norg from Norg Consulting demonstrates his active magnetic bearing, Tripod Floater. The closed-loop system uses three Pololu 18v15 high-power motor drivers as PWM amplifiers to power the magnetic coils that keep the module floating beneath the metal plate.

February, 2010 update: the Tripod Floater is now wireless:

Featured link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-f_H68Rl4g

The Haunted Organist by Mark Goodson

Posted by Paul on 22 December 2009

Customer Mark Goodson constructed this spooky animatronic skeleton using the Jrk USB Motor Controller. See the final result below:

Featured link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiimQNGnNBY

Beacon Locating Robot - Powered by Arduino and IR Transceiver

Posted by Paul on 21 December 2009

This beacon-chasing robot by Christopher Hazlett was built with our IR Beacon, an RP5 Tracked Chassis, and an Arduino.

23 Oct 2018 edit: You can find a video of it driving here and a GitHub page here.

Arduino Muscle Car

Posted by Paul on 16 December 2009

This DIY article for Popular Science shows how to use our Orangutan LV-168 robot controller to make an autonomous, obstacle-avoiding 1:32-scale Hummer. The Arduino sketch used to control the car makes use of our Arduino Orangutan libraries and is available for download on the second page of the article.

Featured link: http://www.popsci.com/diy/article/2008-07/arduino-muscle-car

Rich’s Melty B Antweight Combat Robots

Posted by Paul on 16 December 2009

Spinning antweight combat robots by Rich Olson / SpamButcher, using the Pololu Baby Orangutan robot controller and VNH3SP30 Motor Driver Carrier. These award-winning designs spin their entire body around at high speed while slightly varying the motor speeds to translate around the playing field.

Featured link: http://www.spambutcher.com/meltyb.html

Probotics America - Home of the Safety Education Bikebot

Posted by Paul on 16 December 2009

David Jannke from Probotics America is using our TReX motor controller in his safety education robots. He also sent us a short video demonstration (2MB avi).

Featured link: http://www.proboticsamerica.com/

iRobot Create Personal Home Robot

Posted by Paul on 16 December 2009

This Instructable by Danh Trinh shows how to use our 8-Servo Controller with the iRobot Create platform and a Mini-ITX computer system.

Featured link: http://www.instructables.com/id/iRobot-Create-Personal-Home-Robot/

3kg sumo by Tom Saxton

Posted by Paul on 16 December 2009

The Pololu Orangutan X2 robot controller is the brains of this 3kg sumo robot by Tom Saxton.

Featured link: http://www.idleloop.com/robotics/3ksumo/

Automated weapons turret by Colin Karpfinger

Posted by Paul on 16 December 2009

Colin Karpfinger’s turret robot, “The First Law”, won second place in the 2007 Defcon Bots competition. The First Law uses the Pololu Serial 8-Servo Controller.

Featured link: http://www.colinkarpfinger.com/projects/defcon/

SMC03A controlled by LabVIEW

Posted by Paul on 16 December 2009

Customer Roberto posted a demo to the forum, showing how to control our SMC03A motor controller using LabVIEW.

Featured link: http://forum.pololu.com/viewtopic.php?t=598

New Products

ACS72981LLRATR-100B5 Current Sensor Compact Carrier -100A to +100A, 5V
ACS72981KLRATR-150B3 Current Sensor Large Carrier -150A to +150A, 3.3V
ACS71240KEXBLT-010B3 Current Sensor Carrier -10A to +10A, 3.3V
1.4-7V, 3.4A Fine-Adjust Step-Down Voltage Regulator w/ Adjustable Low-Voltage Cutoff D30V30MALCMA
ACS37220LEZATR-100B5 Current Sensor Compact Carrier -100A to +100A, 5V
ACS72981ELRATR-200U3 Current Sensor Compact Carrier 0A to 200A, 3.3V
ACS72981KLRATR-150U5 Current Sensor Compact Carrier 0A to 150A, 5V
ACS72981ELRATR-200U3 Current Sensor Large Carrier 0A to 200A, 3.3V
ACS71240KEXBLT-050B5 Current Sensor Carrier -50A to +50A, 5V
ACS72981ELRATR-200B5 Current Sensor Large Carrier -200A to +200A, 5V
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