Pololu Blog (Page 68)

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…

New product: Raspberry Pi

Posted by David on 15 November 2013

We are now carrying the Raspberry Pi Model B, Revision 2.0!

In case you haven’t heard of the Raspberry Pi, it is a popular credit card-sized computer that can run Linux. It was designed by the Raspberry Pi Foundation in order to provide an affordable platform for experimentation and education in computer programming. The Raspberry Pi can be used for many of the things that a normal desktop PC does, including word-processing, spreadsheets, high-definition video, games, and programming. With its 0.1″-spaced GPIO header and small size, the Raspberry Pi also works as a programmable controller in a wide variety of robotics and electronics applications. We have seen a lot of our customers do neat things with the Raspberry Pi, and we have featured several of those projects on this blog.

Related past posts featuring the Raspberry Pi:

For more information on the Raspberry Pi, see the product page.

New product: 75:1 Micro Metal Gearmotor HP with Extended Motor Shaft

Posted by Ben on 13 November 2013
Tags: new products

Our 75:1 HP micro metal gearmotor is now available with an extended motor shaft that works with our recently released optical quadrature encoders. If there are other gear ratios that you would like to see available with extended motor shafts, we would love to hear about it.

For more information on this gearmotor, see the product page. For other options, you can take a look at our full selection of micro metal gearmotors.

New product: AR-3606HB Continuous Rotation Servo

Posted by Ben on 12 November 2013
Tags: new products

When properly modified for continuous rotation, hobby RC servos become an inexpensive, compact, easy-to-use actuator system for robotics projects, and servo manufacturers are increasingly answering the growing demand for such products with servos designed specifically for robots. One example is Power HD’s new AR-3606HB continuous rotation servo, which offers open-loop speed control rather than the closed-loop position control you typically get with a servo. It is the fastest and strongest continuous rotation servo we carry (up to 71 RPM and 93 oz*in of torque), with performance well suited for driving a small robot.

For more information on the AR-3606HB, see the product page. For other options, you can check out our full selection of continuous rotation servos or our entire RC servo category.

Related post: Understanding continuous-rotation servos and multi-turn servos

USPS closed Monday, November 11

Posted by Paul on 11 November 2013


The United States Postal Service is closed today in observance of Veterans Day. Pololu will be in operation and will ship orders via FedEx as usual. Orders scheduled for shipping via USPS on Monday will be shipped tomorrow.

New products: USB Mini-B and Micro-B Connector Breakout Boards

Posted by Ben on 8 November 2013
Tags: new products

USB Mini-B connector breakout board with included optional header pins.

USB Micro-B connector breakout board (older usb04b version) with included optional header pins.

These basic boards conveniently break out the VBUS, GND, D-, D+ and ID pins of USB Mini-B and Micro-B connectors to a set of five 0.1″-spaced pins, making it easy to power your project from a USB port or to add a USB connector to your breadboarded USB microcontroller. The compact USB Mini-B Connector Breakout Board measures 0.55" × 0.85", while the even smaller USB Micro-B Connector Breakout Board measures 0.44" × 0.5" (including the USB connectors).

New products: right-angle female headers

Posted by Paul on 7 November 2013
Tags: new products

We are now carrying female 0.1" headers with right-angle pins, in sizes from 1×2 to 1×12. You can view these and other female header products on the category page.

Our RC Switch overhaul is complete

Posted by Ben on 6 November 2013
Tags: new products

Pololu RC Switch with Digital Output.

Pololu RC Switch with Small Low-Side MOSFET.

With the release of the new RC Switch with Digital Output and the new RC Switch with Small Low-Side MOSFET, our RC switch family overhaul is now complete. These compact modules convert hobby radio control pulses to digital on/off signals for use in RC switch and simple RC adapter applications. These products replace item #752 and item #1210, which have been put on clearance and will be discontinued when the remaining stock is gone.

For more information about these products and the rest of our RC switch family, see our RC Switch category.

Related posts:

Not your average alarm clock!

Leonid Karchevsky, of Xronos Clock, used our Custom Laser Cutting Service to create an enclosure for his Arduino Based Talking Alarm Clock, the Xronos Clock. The Xronos Clock is open-source, hackable, customizable, and is available in both assembled and kit form.

New product: 4-Channel RC Servo Multiplexer

Posted by Ben on 4 November 2013
Tags: new products

The overhaul of our RC switch and RC multiplexer products continues with the new Pololu 4-Channel RC Servo Multiplexer. This compact four-channel multiplexer of hobby radio control pulses allows for easy switching between two independent RC signal sources. An auxiliary channel selects whether master or slave inputs show up on the four output channels. This makes it ideal for applications in which you have two possible control sources and want to be able to switch between them on the fly.

This product replaces items #721 and #722 and includes valuable new features such as user-configurable input direction and threshold.

For more information about the new Pololu 4-Channel RC Servo Multiplexer, see the product page.

Related posts:

Happy Halloween from Pololu

Posted by Emily on 31 October 2013


Halloween’s always a good time at Pololu. Here’s a shot of all the people here that dressed up for the holiday:

As for some of us that post on the Pololu blog regularly, Jon, Jeremy, Grant, and Brandon, who like to refer to themselves as Pololu’s “B-Team”, dressed up as…

Kevin did a twist on Iron Man and became “Ironing Man”. His costume uses some of our Wixels to control the servo used in the mask from a button in the iron.

I (Emily) used some of our LED strips to make a Luxor Hotel costume. (For those of you that don’t know, Pololu is located in Las Vegas, NV, not too far from this building.) You can see a video of this costume in action here.

If you used any Pololu products in your Halloween costume or decorations, we’d love to hear about it! Please post about it on our forum and maybe we will feature it here on the blog. Have a Happy Halloween!

New Products

4.2-15V, 3.3A Fine-Adjust Step-Down Voltage Regulator w/ Adjustable Low-Voltage Cutoff D30V33MASCMA
Motoron M2T550 Dual I²C Motor Controller (Header Pins Soldered)
7.5V, 3A Step-Down Voltage Regulator D30V30F7
Motoron M3H550 Triple Motor Controller for Raspberry Pi (Connectors Soldered)
MinIMU-9 v6 Gyro, Accelerometer, and Compass (LSM6DSO and LIS3MDL Carrier)
Ribbon Cable with Pre-Crimped Terminals 10-Color M-F 60" (150 cm)
Motoron M1T550 Single I²C Motor Controller
Graphical OLED Display: 128x64, 1.3", White Pixels, SPI, Black PCB
15V, 2.5A Step-Up/Step-Down Voltage Regulator S13V25F15
3.3V, 2.5A Step-Up/Step-Down Voltage Regulator S13V25F3
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