News

We would like to wish all of our Customers a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. We will be closed between Friday the 23rd December 2016 and the 3rd January 2017. We'll be back in the New Year fired up and ready to go! We hope you have a good one, see you in the new year!

Our good friends at Just Add Sharks have created a great resource detailing how you can make your own precision tools. These projects show how you can make cost effect precision tools with some plywood and access to a laser cutter.

On Monday and Tuesday of this week Kevin and Tim travelled to the beautiful city of Oslo in Norway to attend the SETT show. We were there to support our good friends Hands-On Science from Sweden as they exhibited the BBC micro:bit on their large and varied stand.

On Thursday 24th November we held our first ever Teacher training evening, here at Kitronik HQ. Joining us from Just Add Sharks were our good friends Dominic Morrow and Martin Raynsford, who brought with them their expertise of all things laser cutters.

Bitty Software have just released a fun little Xmas Bauble App that turns your BBC micro:bit into a musical and visual decoration for your Xmas tree. All you need is your BBC micro:bit, a power source for the microbit, a sounder (such as a piezo buzzer) and the Xmas bauble App and you can instantly add some Christmas cheer to anywhere that needs it.

In line with recent customer requests, we are pleased to announce that we are now stocking High Impact Polystyrene Sheets (HIPS), in seven different colours and in two different thicknesses. The colours are; black, red, purple, yellow, white, green and blue, and all seven colours are available in both 1mm and 1.5mm thicknesses and a bed size of 457mm x 254mm.

We now have a working prototype for our Kitronik Bluetooth Amplifier, find out more about when it will be available and the process we went through to design it here.

With only a few days to go we thought that the time was right to give you a little last minute inspiration and to wish you all a happy Halloween from Kitronik!

We are holding our 1st CPD Teacher Training Day and we would like to invite Teachers along to Kitronik HQ on the 24th November 2016 where there will be two sessions, one delivered by Just Add Sharks and one delivered by Kitronik.

Yesterday saw the launch of the micro:bit Educational Foundation, the new non-profit organisation tasked with driving the next stages of the BBC micro:bit development and rolling out the micro:bit to Europe and beyond.

Kitronik will be at the 5th Annual Derby Mini Maker Faire this Saturday the 22nd October between 10am - 4pm at the Derby Silk Mill, why not pop down and say hi! We'll have the 1,000 micro:bit display along with an assortment of other cool things to show you. See you there!

Now available to order at Kitronik are three new lines that will help you bring your design and technology project ideas and lessons to life. As Design and Technology is a large and varied subject we are always on the lookout for new lines that will help teachers deliver the wide ranging syllabus, be that materials, components or new electronics kits.

Team BBC micro:bit has teamed up with the health research charity the Wellcome Trust on their latest project, The Crunch. They want to hear all about how we eat, so that they can start talking about how food has the power to change our bodies and our whole environment. There will also be a BBC micro:bit firmware update that will give the BBC micro:bit the extra functionality that it will need.

As has been highlighted in the most recent BBC micro:bit newsletter, we have just launched a new and improved version of our very popular Motor Driver Board for the BBC micro:bit, The Motor Driver Board V2.

Whilst many of our customers enjoy a well earned holiday during August, we're busy putting the final touches to some exciting new kits, and bringing you a couple of additions to our materials section.

MP Michelle Donelan has secured the support of almost 90 MP's for a proposed change to EBacc that would allow schools to class design and technology as a science and offer it as a choice to students.

Robox Update Automaker To V2.01.02 . As CEL Robox have moved deeper into dual material printing, recent updates to their Automaker software have been geared towards facilitating this. There have been a number of multi-material related new features and a few days ago they updated Automaker to V2.01.02. This added another new feature for removing the gap between the support material and your part, when using a dual material head.

I never expected to be thinking about work last weekend when I was at the East Midlands Flower Show, but when I saw the fantastic creations of Burned by Design and went over to have a closer look. It turned out that the owner, Alex, is a Design and Technology teacher.

The summer holidays are almost upon us and D&T Department stocks may be beginning to dwindle, so why not replenish D&T stocks before the summer to ensure the new school year gets off to a flying start.

This week and next, armed with BBC micro:bits and accessories, Kitronik are breaking free from the office and attending fun education based events that are aimed at showing young people and educators that there is a world of opportunity out there for people with the right skills.