BoArduinos Wok da hek is a BoArduino? Ever hear of Arduino?
It's an open-source Atmel-based microcontroller board that uses a
pseudo-C like language called "Wiring". It's small, inexpensive,
USB-connected and very well supported by a vibrant open-source
community.
Anyways, we've got the AdaFruit BoArduino, which is a prototyping-board friendly version!
Geeks
still need
food!
And how do they get their
food? By working
for it! Where are we going with this? HVW Technologies and Solarbotics
Ltd. are looking to expand our workforce a bit. Here's the type of
person we're looking for: - Full-Time Production Help -
It's busy here,
and a
set of hands that can learn and work well in our wacky office would be
very nice. Electronics experience isn't a must, but being able to tell
a resistor from a transistor would be nice. But that can be taught. A
good memory is the chief qualification! It's an ideal position for a
spouse of a techngeek who's used to picking up stray components out of
the rug...
- Übergeek
specializing in microcontrollers &
other clever electronics. Atmels, PICAxes, PICs, and Stamps, oh my! Oh,
and
discrete electronics experience is always a plus. Want to impress us?
Show off some 'bots & projects. Did I mention the
fully-furnished
R&D lab you get to share? Even has Sherline Lathes and Mills to
better make projects with! Did I mention the laser? Lasers are
fuuuun... Anyway, we don't expect you to be an expert at everything,
but a willingness to learn is essential!
So if you have a sense of humour (an absolute
necessity - we like to working with people who like coming to work),
don't mind a dog and an occasional after-school child, and want to join
us up here in the Great White North (Calgary, Alberta - where it's truly beautiful), drop us a line
with your resumé, your contact information, and if
applicable, a
link to your website. (HVW Technologies is a non-smoking workplace) Posted March 27, 2008
MAKE Controller Price Change!
 That
be a very powerful, popular microcontroller
board for the serious Übergeeken! And now that the geniuses at
MakingThings got all their ducks in a row (ever try to train ducks? Not
easy...), they've announced a price cut that we're happy to pass to
you! Down from $149 to $109 - that's enough to pay for a few
sensors, a couple of breadboards,
or to put towards some really good
books that are fun to read...
Posted March 3, 2008
PICAXE Motor Driver and MaxSonar EZ0
 See? We're making progress on that back shelf with the
unlisted stuff
on it! Ok, so I wanna play with it before I have to sell it - can't
blame a guy for having some fun!
First new item on the list is the PICAXE
Motor Driver Project board. Take a PICAXE-08, stick it on a
tidy
PCB with a L293D motor driver board, add the support stuff, and presto
- a super-tidy, motor/buzzer-driving project board for cheap! And
useful!
 Second item is the
MaxSonar
EZ0. If you're familiar with their very
popular EZ1, you'll
like this. It's like an EZ1-zilla! With increased sensitivity, we're
sure you'll find an application for this cool sensor.
Stay tuned, more coming!
Posted February 22, 2008
CCS Compilers - Price Reduction!
Custom Computer Services recently announced a series of price
changes, and the most notable is a huge price cut
on the 'PBC'
Command-line PIC compiler, down from $124.95 to $54.95! You
want to
learn/use C on a PIC microcontroller? Here's a mighty powerful way to
get started!
Posted February 22, 2008
New Stuff! Lots of new Stuff!
We have this shelf at Solarbotics/HVWTech where all the new stuff comes
and sits until it gets inventoried, photographed, and put online. That
shelf is looking clean today!
We've added to our Parallax offerings. Here's what's new:
Not only Parallax, but the great folks at MicroEngineering Labs are
represented too!:
Hold on a minute, I see somebody... HEY! Get AWAY from that shelf - I
just cleaned that off! Hey! HEY!....
Ok, stay tuned. It seems more stuff just came in, and I've got more to
do!
Posted February 12, 2008
Had a good Vacation? We did too - but back to work, you
slackers!
Oh, to go and play in the snow, but there's this other pile of white
stuff here on my desk. Darn paperwork.
 Here's
something new from HVW
Technologies / Solarbotics Ltd! The I2C-It!
Like our DIRRS+, the I2C-It is based on the excellent
Sharp
GP2D12 Infrared ranging sensor. What we've done to it is add an I2C
interface to it!
What does that mean? I2C is a protocol, or way to talk between
electronic devices. By adding I2C to the GP2D12, you can now add up to 8
sensors on a single port on your microcontroller. Now you
don't
have to dedicate a single I/O line to each sensor - just chain them up,
configure each sensor's address with simple solder-jumpers, and power
it up!
We've got sample code using the Atmel Mega8, with more code snippets in
the works. Using I2C is pretty easy if you're using a micro that
supports it (or emulate it), which is quite a few!
They're a great value, at only $11/ea, or 4-packs
for $39.95!
Posted January 4 2008
We are really excited about this stuff. Solarbotics
/ HVW Technologies has been involved with MAKE Magazine since their
first issue, and we've always
been impressed with each and every issue they've produced.
THEN, they started making books! And now we've got
them for sale here too! Here's the list:
MAKE:
The First Year Collection (issues 1-4)
MAKE:
The Next Year Collection (issues 5-8)
CRAFT:
Year One Collection (issues 1-4)
Makers:
Meet the Makers (Book)
The
Best of MAKE: 75 Projects
Making
Things Talk (to other things, to build cool stuff)
The
Eccentric Cubicle
There is not a dud in the bunch. Each and every
title & collection adheres to the excellence you expect from an
O'Reilly publication. Lots of colour, explanations, diagrams, and some
really funny writing. You'll want to put some of
these on your gift-idea list (both giving and receiving!). After all,
you can't expect to spend the winter holidays just visiting family, can
you?
November 29 2007
Po.Scopes - Affordable USB Test Gear
 That
was
hard not to use an exclamation point on that title...It's a habit I'm
trying to break!
Anyways, we've got these great new Po.Scopes. We've already sold two to
a friend who wandered through the door and asked
"Hey, what
are these on the
table?". After 5 minutes, they were gone!
They're that cool. They plug
into your USB port and give you the following functions:
- 200kHz Oscilloscope
- 8MHz 16-channel Logic Analyser
- Spectrum Analyser
- Chart Recorder
- Pattern Generator
- Square Wave / PWM Generator
- Serial Comms Analyser (UART, SPI, I2C, and 1-Wire)
Sure, 200kHz doesn't sound very fast for an Oscilloscope, but it's more
than capable for most hobby applications, especially when you have the
8MHz logic-level signal analyser to fall back on.
All this, for the very affordable price of $199.95!
(posted November 15 2007)
AVR Atmels - Compilers!
We've been getting requests for additional compilers for the Atmel, so
here's our initial offering: the very
well established CodeVisionAVR C Compiler. It's got quite an impressive
feature set, and it's affordable, in two different flavours, Standard,
and Light.
 HVWTechnologies
now is under
new management!
Mr. Mark
Hillier has a major new priority in his life (the type that crawls
around and drools on things), and approached us at Solarbotics to take
over the care and feeding of HVWTech.com! The transition has gone
smoothly, and now your orders are being processed and supported by the
fine staff at Solarbotics.
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