Parallax Expo Opens Its Doors and Heads to the Capitol
Kevin Cook and Rick Galinson at Parallax Expo 2012 (Photo Courtesy: (R) Rich Harman)
To close out National Robotics Week with a bang, Parallax opened its doors to hobbyists, engineers, Boy Scouts and its community at the first annual Parallax Robotics and Microcontrollers Expo on April 13-14, 2012. Over 2,000 attendees showed up to celebrate all things robotic by learning to solder and breadboard, touring the manufacturing facility, battling Sumo Bots and taking in some fun and technical talks, as well as the highlight of the show the flying ELEV-8 Quadcopter contests. Parallax friend Rick Galinson stopped by and attempted to shoot down the ELEV-8 with his Gatling gun (which incorporates the Parallax Propeller chip) that shoots over 3000 paintballs per minute. The ELEV-8 survived the attack but ended up a little painted in the process.
Check out the videos of the Gatling Gun vs. ELEV-8 Quadcopter:
Come visit Parallax at the USA Science and Engineering Festival at the Walter E. Convention Center in Washington, D.C. April 28-29, 2012. This event is free to the public and will have exhibits and stage shows to entertain children of all ages. Stop by our booth (#2145) in the Robot Fest area to learn how or perfect your soldering skills on your very own Scribbler 2 LED badge or come battle it out with our wireless Sumo-bots or learn about different sensor types with our Boe-Bots. Visit http://www.usasciencefestival.org for more information on the event.
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I wrote up an article on this and an interview with Jen J (@ParallaxInc on Twitter) and sent it over to Make. Just waiting for that to get published. If you want to see more photos from the expo between now and then: http://thoughtfix.com/photo-galleries/parallax-expo-2012/
Just a little correction on the above description, the Minigun can shoot a little over 3000 paintballs per minute, not 1500. It’s variable speed so it can shoot slowly, then really fast just by squeezing the trigger harder.
Parallax Expo was fun!
I wrote up an article on this and an interview with Jen J (@ParallaxInc on Twitter) and sent it over to Make. Just waiting for that to get published. If you want to see more photos from the expo between now and then: http://thoughtfix.com/photo-galleries/parallax-expo-2012/
Just a little correction on the above description, the Minigun can shoot a little over 3000 paintballs per minute, not 1500. It’s variable speed so it can shoot slowly, then really fast just by squeezing the trigger harder.