BC Robotics Gift Guide 2016 – Gifts Over $100

Welcome to the 2016 Holiday Gift Guide! Hopefully these product selections help make choosing the perfect gift for the electronics nut, aspiring programmer, or hobbyist on your list. This year we have split our gift guide up into 4 sections: Gifts Over $100.00, Gifts Under $100.00, Gifts Under $40.00, and Stocking Stuffers. Today we will start off with Gifts Over $100.00:







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SparkFun RedBot Basic Kit

The SparkFun RedBot Basic Kit is a robot in a box designed to spark interest in robotics, electronics, and programming. The robot’s chassis ships as pre-cut pieces and snaps together while the electronic components, motors, and sensors are designed connected together using the included cables – no soldering required! SparkFun makes working with the kit as easy as possible with their online experiment guide and assembly instructions. Example code is also given, meaning you can get this robot driving around with just a little coding experience.

3pi Robot

The 3pi robot is a small (9.5 cm/3.7″ diameter) robot designed to excel in line-following and maze-solving competitions. It makes a great platform for people with C programming experience to learn robotics, and it is a fun environment for ambitious beginners to learn C programming. The 3pi is compatible with the popular Arduino development platform and Pololu provides a number of sample programs to show how to use the various 3pi components.

Zumo 32U4 Robot Kit (No Motors)

The Pololu Zumo 32U4 robot is a versatile tracked robot based on the ATmega32U4 microcontroller. With the exception of motors, batteries, and a USB A to Micro-B cable, this kit contains everything necessary to build and operate a Zumo 32U4 robot. This kit will require basic tools, a soldering iron, and a moderate level of experience assembly electronics. We recommend using our 100:1 HP motors with this kit (two required). Unlike the Zumo 1.2, this version has the microcontroller built into the chassis and does not require an Arduino Uno or equivalent board.

Zumo Robot v1.2 – Assembled

The Zumo Robot is effectively a small robot chassis designed to be run with an Arduino Uno. The chassis is less than 10cm x 10cm and has an integrated battery case, motors, wheels, and tracks. The Zumo board has several built in sensors including an array of infrared reflectance sensors (for line following or edge detection), a 3-axis accelerometer, magnetometer, and gyro (for detecting impacts and tracking orientation), and a buzzer for playing tones. This kit is fully assembled and does not require any soldering. An Arduino Uno or Compatible is required but not included.

SparkFun Inventor’s Kit – V3.2

The SparkFun Inventor’s Kit is a great way to get started with programming and electronics using the Arduino programming language. The SIK includes everything you need to complete 16 circuits that will teach you how to read sensors, display information on an LCD, drive motors, and more. This kit does not require any previous programming or electronics experience and includes a full color guidebook with step by step instructions of how to connect each circuit. Full example code is also provided and even includes troubleshooting tips if something goes wrong.

Hot Air Soldering Rework Station

With many of the new electronic components getting smaller and smaller a conventional soldering iron is no longer going to cut it! A Hot Air Rework station is a must with many of these parts. This essential tool has an internal pump and heater to blow a steady stream of temperature controlled hot air onto a circuit board, allowing small components to be soldered in place using solder paste. It is ideal for rework and repairs as well! The station has a closed-loop temperature control range between 100-450°C (212-842°F) and a digital display so you can easily tell what temperature the air’s blowing at. The perfect gift for a seasoned electronics hacker!

The Arduino Starter Kit

Eager to learn about electronics and programming? The Arduino Starter Kit is the perfect starting point for anyone interested in these fields. An Arduino is a small electronic “brain” that can be programmed to do just about anything! It can be as simple as turning a light on when it gets dark out to as complex as a reading sensors and driving motors to control a robot – your imagination is the limit. The well written and illustrated 170 page workbook guides you through 15 fun projects, increasing in difficulty and expanding your skill set. By the end you will be ready to start building your own smart, interactive, devices. No soldering required!

The Official Raspberry Pi Starter Kit

The Official Raspberry Pi Starter kit is a premium kit designed to introduce even the most novice computer user to the world of the Raspberry Pi 3. So what is the Raspberry Pi 3? It is a small credit card sized computer that can be used to learn to program, learn electronics, and so much more! The kit includes everything you need to get started with the exception of an HDMI computer monitor or television. Each component in this well packaged kit is high quality and designed with the Raspberry Pi in mind. This kit is perfect for anyone who wants to start off with everything they need, no messing about.

Weller WES51 Soldering Station

The Weller WES51 is probably the last soldering station you will ever buy. The WES51 is an industry grade soldering station and will last many years of heavy usage; we use these in our shop on a daily basis and won’t use anything else! The station features a wireless temperature lockout, quick heat-up time, quick temperature recovery, and automatic shut off after 99 minutes of inactivity. The iron is attached using an extremely flexible, burn resistant, silicone cord. Included in the box are the PES51 soldering wand/pencil, the WES51 power unit, soldering iron stand, and sponge.

SparkFun Inventor’s Kit For Genuino 101

Inventor’s Kit for the Genuino 101® board is a great way to get started with programming and hardware interaction with embedded electronics using the Intel® Curie-based Genuino 101 board.
This inventors kit includes everything you need to complete 21 circuits that will teach you how to control and read the on-board and external sensors, control the Genuino 101 board through your phone, detect and analyze different sounds, and much more. Don’t worry; you won’t need any previous programming or electronics experience to use this kit.

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Holiday Shipping Guidelines

If an order is being shipped as a gift, please leave a note in the customer comments section of the checkout. Have a question or a special request? Feel free to contact us!

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Canada Post – Within Canada

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Light Packet – December 12 (No Tracking, No Insurance, No guarantee on delivery date before December 24th)
Standard – December 12 (Tracking and Insurance, No guarantee on delivery date before December 24th)
Express (XpressPost) – December 21 (Tracking and Insurance, No guarantee on delivery date before December 24th)

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Canada Post – To the United States

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Light Packet: December 12 (No Tracking, No Insurance, No guarantee on delivery date before December 24th)
Standard: December 12 (No Tracking, No Insurance, No guarantee on delivery date before December 24th)
Express: December 16 (Tracking, Insurance, No guarantee on delivery date before December 24th)

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UPS – Within Canada

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Standard: December 12 (Tracking, Insurance, No guarantee on delivery date before December 24th)
Express: December 21 (Tracking, Insurance, No guarantee on delivery date before December 24th)

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UPS – To the United States

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Standard: December 11 (Tracking, Insurance, No guarantee on delivery date before December 24th)
Express: December 21 (Tracking, Insurance, No guarantee on delivery date before December 24th)

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