Gear What?

After seven months of working on some really cool stuff we are excited to finally share it with the community! So what is GearBox? At GearBox we are creating flexible hardware platforms that are controlled from your phone. We are then open sourcing the APIs for these devices so that other software developers can bring their own apps into real life!

So what types of devices are we building? Well, for our first product we are reinventing the ball and releasing a wireless robotic sphere that you can roll by tilting your phone.

Ball Prototype

Early Ball Prototype

We also have a dev board that can control or interface with almost any hardware device and we have the associated APIs to control it. Some brief specs are:

  • Bluetooth Wireless 100′ Range
  • 8x Analog/Digital Inputs
  • 8x Digital Outputs
  • 2x 1A Speed Controlled Motor Outputs
  • 4x Servo Motor Outputs
  • 1x Serial COM Port
  • 1x I2C Expansion Port

GearBox Dev Board

GearBox Dev Board

  • http://www.feld.com/wp/archives/2010/06/gearboxs-smart-ball.html Gearbox’s Smart Ball

    [...] ball, which consists of a custom circuit board inside a 3D printed spherical shell (which is pretty cool all by itself) with lots of fun things on it, is completely controlled by a smartphone (in this case, an [...]

  • http://www.dailyict.be/index.php/2010/06/30/what-every-guy-needs-smart-balls/ What Every Guy Needs: Smart Balls | Daily ICT

    [...] a robotic sphere consisting of a 3-D printed spherical shell and a custom circuit board inside. But it’s the apps that sound the most fun. Their first is [...]

  • http://www.g-trends.info/?p=1457 What Every Guy Needs: Smart Balls

    [...] a robotic orbit consisting of a 3D printed spherical shell and a bespoken journeying commission inside. But it’s the apps that good the most fun. Their [...]

  • http://www.webdesigncool.com/what-every-guy-needs-smart-balls What Every Guy Needs: Smart Balls | Web Design Cool

    [...] a robotic sphere consisting of a 3-D printed spherical shell and a custom circuit board inside. But it’s the apps that sound the most fun. Their first is [...]

  • http://perfectgadget.info/2010/what-every-guy-needs-smart-balls/ What Every Guy Needs: Smart Balls | PerfectGadget.Info

    [...] is a smart ball that can be controlled by an Android handset.It's a robotic sphere consisting of a 3-D printed spherical shell and a custom circuit board inside. But it's the apps that sound the most fun. Their first is called [...]

  • http://blog.mp3mazaa.net/what-every-guy-needs-smart-balls/ What Every Guy Needs: Smart Balls | Mp3mazaa

    [...] a robotic sphere consisting of a 3-D printed spherical shell and a custom circuit board inside. But it’s the apps that sound the most fun. Their first is [...]

  • http://blog.mp3hava.com/what-every-guy-needs-smart-balls/ What Every Guy Needs: Smart Balls | Mp3hava Blog

    [...] a robotic sphere consisting of a 3-D printed spherical shell and a custom circuit board inside. But it’s the apps that sound the most fun. Their first is [...]

  • http://www.feld.com/wp/archives/2010/07/get-out-there-and-tell-the-world-what-you-are-doing.html Get Out There And Tell The World What You Are Doing

    [...] of the world with this.”  Two days later they sent me a note that their first blog post Gear What? was up and they’ve been blogging and talking up a storm ever since, including emerging on the [...]

  • http://www.matthewcputman.com Matthew Putman

    This is very cool, and the possibilities seem limitless. I have make laboratory instrumentation, right now high resolution microscopes, and have always wanted to control test set up remotely. Have you consider the scientific instrumentation market?

  • http://www.orbotix.com Ian

    Actually that is close to our original idea. I’m an EE and for testing just doing something simple like toggling an I/O line or sending an I2C message can be a huge pain. Using the board above and an app on a phone could easily become a very valuable tool for engineers. Stick in a better ADC and faster processor and it could be extremely powerful! For instance… scriptable I/O lines, oscope, multimeter, serial USART (and I2C) to send commands or monitor a line, etc… It wouldn’t be a high-end device but for doing these simple but currently time consuming tasks it would be great! Know anyone that might be interested in working with us to develop something like that?

  • http://www.matthewcputman.com Matthew Putman

    yes. lets chat. I am in Paris at the moment, back to New York in two weeks. If you could drop me an e-mail at mcputman@nanotronicsimaging.com, we can be in touch. I am a professor at Columbia and the founder of this start up. Might be fun.

  • http://www.feedthebull.com FeedTheBull

    You have done an amazing thing. I am stoked for you and wish you the best. Congrats friend!