Pololu Blog »
Pololu Blog (Page 69)
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…
Personalize your own Christmas ornaments
 |
Using our Custom Laser Cutting Service, you can design and cut your own Christmas ornaments. Whether this is to decorate your own tree (and show off to family and friends visiting), or to give away as gifts — personalized decorations are always a big hit for the holidays! We cut the following Pololu Christmas ornaments out of 1/8″ sapphire blue mirrored acrylic with a raster-engraved image, creating a reflective scene on a translucent background.
|
|
Let’s face it, we’re all a bit too familiar with last-minute Christmas shopping, and it’s not too late to order and have these in-hand by the holiday (though we’re getting close, so expedited service or shipping might be required)! The set of seven ornaments like the ones shown can be cut for our low minimum order charge of $25. Of course, since each person’s design will vary a bit, the exact price and quantity might vary. See our Custom Laser Cutting Guide for more information about how our laser cutting service works, or submit a quote request now to get started!
Related products
A Pololu Christmas Story (with LEDs!)
Merry Christmas! We got some new LED strips in a week or so ago that are based on the WS2812B. I was pretty excited to play around with them, so I decided I would decorate Ben’s house and make him film this video with me. (I know. I should have decorated my own house, but I live far from the office… and don’t have a wife.)
We should have the code we used for the LEDs available on our github page in a couple of days.
Powerful new U3V50x boost regulators
 |
Ever since the release of our original adjustable boost regulators, customers have been requesting higher-power versions. Doing power systems right is not easy, and minute differences in component choices and layout can make a huge difference in performance: we went through three different failed designs before arriving at our new U3V50x family of step-up voltage regulators, which we think offers a great balance of size, performance, and price.
 |
These new boost regulators can generate up to 30 V from input voltages as low as 2.9 V while allowing for input currents as high as 5 A and offering typical efficiencies of 80% to 95%, making these our most powerful boost regulators. The regulators include built-in reverse-voltage protection, over-current protection, thermal shutdown, and an under-voltage lockout that keeps the modules from behaving erratically when the input voltage gets too low. The U3V50x family includes versions with fixed 5 V, 6 V, 9 V, 12 V, or 24 V outputs and versions with adjustable 4 V to 12 V or 9 V to 30 V outputs.
|
|
The compact boards (0.6″ × 1.9″) have two mounting holes and can be assembled with the included 5mm-pitch terminal blocks or 0.1″ header pins.
 |
For other regulator options, you can take a look at our full selection of step-up voltage regulators, step-down voltage regulators, and step-up/step-down regulators.
Related products
New product: A4990 dual motor driver carrier
 |
If you’re looking for an inexpensive motor driver that works with higher voltages, but our DRV8801 carrier’s single channel isn’t enough, we now offer another option: a carrier board featuring Allegro’s A4990 dual motor driver.
The A4990 can deliver a continuous current of up to 0.7 A per channel at voltages from 6 to 32 V, making it a good choice for small, low-current motors that run on relatively high voltages. Onboard sense resistors enable the A4990 to actively limit the peak motor current to about 0.9 A per channel, and the carrier board adds a reverse-voltage protection circuit in addition to the robust IC’s built-in protection against under-voltage, over-voltage, over-temperature, and short circuits.
For more information, see the A4990 carrier product page.
New products: Addressable RGB LED strips based on the WS2812B
 |
This week we started selling new addressable RGB LED strips. These LED strips are a great way to add some color to a project, and I would like to show a little bit about how they work. Here is a close up showing one segment of a new LED strip:
 |
Close up of one segment of a WS2812B-based LED strip, with the red, green, and blue LEDs on at their dimmest setting. |
|---|
At first glance, it is easy to see the RGB LED and a capacitor, but where are all the other components, such as the LED driver? Well, let’s look more closely at the LED:
 |
Close up of a WS2812B, with the red, green, and blue LEDs on at their dimmest setting. |
|---|
The LED actually has a driver built into it, which is the large brown rectangle in the picture. This driver receives high-speed color data, storing the first 24 bits it sees and passing the rest of the bits down the strip to the next LED. The driver is connected with tiny wires to the red, green, and blue LEDs. For the photos above, we turned each of the LEDs on at its dimmest setting so you can see their colors. This integrated circuit (IC) consisting of an RGB LED and a driver is called the WS2812B.
Since the WS2812B integrates an LED and a driver into the same package, we are able to offer higher density strips than before. We offer these WS2812B LED strips that have 60 LEDs per meter:
We also offer these WS2812B LED strips that have 30 LEDs per meter:
These LED strips are meant to replace the older LED strips we have that are based on the TM1804 driver (items #2543, #2544, and #2545). The older LED strips are now on clearance.
All of our example code has been updated to fully support the new strips. We provide example code for the Arduino, AVR, and mbed microcontroller platforms. More information about the LED strips and how to use them can be found on the LED strip product page.
 |
Controlling an addressable RGB LED strip with an Arduino and powering it from a 5V wall power adapter. |
|---|
Related products
New products: Universal mounting hubs for 1/4″ shafts
 |
Are you having trouble mounting things to 1/4″ motor shafts? These new versions of our universal mounting hubs fit most 1/4″ shafts, including round and “D” shafts. Similar to our existing universal mounting hubs for 6 mm shafts, these hubs are sold in packs of two and come with two set screws each (4 total) and the appropriate Allen wrench. These new hubs are compatible with our NEMA 23 stepper motors and come in two different versions: the Universal Aluminum Mounting Hub for 1/4″ shaft, with #4-40 mounting holes or the Universal Aluminum Mounting Hub for 1/4″ shaft, with M3 mounting holes.
Related products
Free Elektor magazine December 2013
 |
Get a FREE copy of Elektor magazine’s December issue with your order while supplies last. To get your free issue, enter the coupon code ELEKTOR1213 into your shopping cart. The magazine will add 5 ounces to the package weight when calculating your shipping options.
For other issues and more information, see our Free Elektor Magazine Offers page. All issues are now available for shipping worldwide!
Related products
New product: Ultra-high-torque giant servo HD-1235MG
 |
As you might have noticed from some of our recent blog announcements, we are steadily working on expanding our selection of hobby servos, and the latest example is Power HD’s new giant-scale (also called 1/4-scale) 1235MG servo. When compared to the popular, standard-size high-torque 1501MG servo, it is easy to see why this is called a “giant” servo:
 |
What you get for the increased size is increased power — a huge 560 oz-in (40 kg-cm) of torque at 7.4 V or 490 oz-in (35 kg-cm) at 6 V. Previously, if you needed more torque than our high-performance standard-size servos could deliver, our only options were the Torxis monster servos; now, the 1235MG servo helps fill that power gap.
For more information, see the 1235MG servo product page.
We have included this servo in our Black Friday sale (along with the rest of our Power HD servos) for 25% off, but the sale ends tonight at midnight (PST), so you need to hurry if you want to get it at the sale price!
Laser-cut chandeliers by Nicole Ketchum
 |
While our laser cutting machines can only cut two dimensional parts, there are easy ways to make three-dimensional designs out of flat, laser-cut parts. A simple way to achieve this is to create slots in the vector design to allow the two parts to slide together perpendicular to one another. Some may remember this technique from childhood arts and crafts; this easy tweak allows parts to be easily assembled and disassembled.
These Chandeliers by Nicole Ketchum were created using our 3 mm acrylic with a slot width of 1/8″. You can adjust the width of the slot depending on how snug you’d like them to fit. Since Nicole’s chandeliers are meant to be hung out of reach, a really snug fit wasn’t needed. With the holidays right around the corner, these could spruce up any room of your home!
For more details on using slots to fit acrylic parts together, be sure to check out Nicole’s project in our Custom Laser Cutting Gallery. More details about our custom laser cutting service can be found here.
|
|
Related products
Sharp GP2Y0A21YK0F distance sensors on sale
 |
We just got a bunch of these in, so we are making them a late addition to our Black Friday sale for just $6.95 (50% off), no coupon required: Sharp GP2Y0A21YK0F Analog Distance Sensor 10-80cm.
Home | Forum | Blog | Support | Ordering Information | Lists | Distributors | BIG Order Form | About | Contact
© 2001–2025 Pololu Corporation
