Solarbotics

01/21/2025

Creatlity K1 Hot-ends - 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.

01/21/2025

GD-2 Thermal Paste. Stuff is supposed to be a pretty high-performing alternative to standard heat-sink compounds.
In 1, 7 & 15 gram dispensers, now in stock at Active-Tech Calgary!

01/21/2025

We brought in a selection of ThermalMaster thermal camera modules for IOS/USB-C/Android devices. Check houses over the holidays, and even spotted a freshly-forming bruise on my forearm before it showed up. In store at Active Tech Calgary! More images at https://www.solarbotics.com/blog/thermal-master-thermal-imager

12/11/2024

New eSun 3D printer Filament! Available online at https://www.solarbotics.com, or in-store at Active-Tech Calgary. Got some nifty holiday bi-color filaments (Black/Gold & Red/Green)!

11/21/2024

Almost time for some winter-time microcontroller projects. On sale this Friday, in-store at Active-Tech Calgary.

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11/21/2024

It's getting colder... How cold? You tell us! In-store at Active-Tech Calgary, sale starting this Friday!

11/21/2024

It's almost time for our Holiday sale. Raspberry Pi anyone? Only in-store at Active-Tech Calgary, starting this Friday!

11/21/2024

It's almost time for our Holiday Sale, starting this Friday! In-store at Active-Tech Calgary!

07/13/2024

Creality K1C, in-store at Solarbotics / Active-Tech Calgary! Fresh off the truck!

06/26/2024

Raspberry Pi Foundation recently started offering public shares. All we got are these Pi 5 8GB modules... (available in-store at Active-Tech Calgary)

06/22/2024

Repair: Russian Guitar Effects Stomp Box Switch
This was relatively easy. Sorry I didn't take a snap of the front of it (will make mental note to take care of this in the future). Just a stomp-switch replacement with something we had in stock locally. I thought all guitarists used those calloused fingers to also solder up their own repairs, but apparently not!

Marking each wire with a paint-marker made sure everything goes back together correctly. All white & red wires...oy...

Added some red electrical tape on the switch to keep the free-floating 9V battery from shorting out on the contacts. Really needed a proper 9V holder, but nope!

06/22/2024

Repair: Fast Food Kitchen Timer. UG! Greasy, greasy, greasy! The same buttons were used over so many years that they simply were worn out. Replacement controller was impossible to source, so they asked us if we could fix it.

It took better part of an hour by itself just to identify the old switch models.

Lots of super-wash and IPA (not the beer) later, we managed to replace the most worn out switches, cleaned up the wiring and added the necessary cable stress-reliefs.

I'm going to think twice about accepting deep-fryer-related repairs!

06/22/2024

Repair: Creality K1 Filament Ball-ups. The K1 series printers are /FAST/, which also means things can go south on them quickly too. We've now repaired several K1 printers where the print let loose and the filament got balled up around and into the printer head.

Creality doesn't sell the heads as a replacement unit, and for good reason. You have to literally disassembly the whole CoreXY gantry system to swap in a new one. It's less time & money to recover the old one in-situ.

We've refined a technique with a hot air gun and high-temperature thermistor meter to set the temperature /just right/. Too hot, and you melt the other plastic components on the hot-end. Too cold and you're just wasting time.

You literally can see the filament has melted INTO the cage. We had to re-print the front enclosure with Carbon-fiber PETg.

Yes, it looks like a red slug is trying to eat the hot-end. This was a 4-hour repair because of the required reprinting of the hood & vent ducts. Still cheaper than buying a new K1 Max!

06/22/2024

Repair: Headset - Another interesting repair this spring was on a Bose A20 aviation headset. The mic-end was stepped on and crushed. OEM replacements are trés pricey. We found him a work-alike and replaced the cabling to the hand-controller. Slightly different PCB pin connector meant we had to snip and solder in the old one.

We get to work on some interesting repairs!

06/22/2024

Repair: Lulzbot Mini
Repair week! Today, here's a Lulzbot Mini brought in for service from a local Calgary School. Filament balled up around the hot-end, and the thermistor wire got snapped while they were trying to de-ball it.

Nice bit of work, these E3D designs.

1 hour work and replacement thermistor, off it goes back to work on end-of-school-year projects!

04/27/2024

Valve VIVE aficionados: We've documented the "Robin" Lighthouse pre-release Dev kits, and have them available online now! https://www.solarbotics.com/product/09019/valve-vive-alpha-surplus-light-house-base-station-set

04/27/2024

a-HA! Another handful of Raspberry Pi 5's 8GB just trickled in. Available at Active-Tech Calgary in-store!

04/01/2024

Valve VIVE developer-edition Controllers! They've been in our warehouse for too long. For the price of 8 CR123A rechargeable batteries & chargers, you can also get a pair of pre-release VIVE hand-controllers. These are excess stock released when they move facilities. New in box, final sale!

Valve VIVE Pre-release developer-edition hand-controller set