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Business - Written by on Wednesday, June 4, 2008 14:15 - 3 Comments

USB hardware and sharks with laser beams

Fans of the arduino or anyone interested in making cool stuff, might want to take a look at these great USB hardware gadgets (called phidgets) offered by Trossen Robotics.  

Note: Actually I just realized that the company which produces phidgets is at phidgets.com. Apparently they’re located in Calgary, Alberta, so much closer to home for Canadian readers of the blog.

All of it works via USB connections and they offer things like servo controllers:

USB server controller

Switches and relays:

USB relay

Accelerometers:

USB accelerometers

RFID readers:

USB RFID readerUSB RFID reader

…and of course sharks with laser beams on their heads (shark not included):

USB laser beam sharks

The company claims you don’t need to be a hardware whiz to get started either:

the complexity is managed behind an easy to use and robust Application Programming Interface (API). Applications can be developed quickly in any Microsoft .NET language, Flash, Visual Basic, VBA (Microsoft Access and Excel), LabView, Java, C, C++, and more!

Now we’re talking. And of course relevant to readers of this blog, they also seem to do a reasonable job of community building for customers, including a great project contest (which features everything from flying ufos, and a laser harplaser harp, to a creepy looking animated elvis).

Has anyone tried any of these products before? Is it easy to use? How’s the latency with USB? What other similar products have you tried (or heard of) are making the hardware/PC interface easier?



3 Comments

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Textile Lasers
Jun 12, 2008 14:34

The innovation of new Lasers made it easiers to use,and now, you may use, maintain the machines, even when you are not a Hardware expert, However, a basic knowledge is what let you drive it.

Wikinomics » Blog Archive » Web server on a keychain
Jun 16, 2008 7:27

[...] complement the USB phidgets I described last week. I thought it’d be interesting to see what existed on the embedded server front. Turns out [...]

Wikinomics » Blog Archive » Poking Box (Tuttuki bako) - fingertip augmented reality
Dec 15, 2008 23:17

[...] of infrared detectors. I’ve seen the larger versions of infrared sensors in phidget form (see this earlier post), but never something so [...]

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