I returned to the Bicore chip to build a light seeking head, and I chose to use Wilf Rigter's Solar Powered Smart Head Revision 3 schematic. Pretty standard design with this one. I used some solid 8AWG copper wire for the frame. I originally tried to solder the heavy gauge wire together, but I couldn't get the wire to heat up enough. So i used krazy glue yet again.
My aesthetics on this one were pretty poor, but I was more concerned with building an appropriate frame to mount the bot on. The motor is an Omron R2DG-B01-30. My smallest gear motor I had. I believe it was salvaged from a DVD drive. The storage capacitors are three 0.3F supercaps wired in series to boost the operating voltage to a max of 8.1V, which this solar panel is capable of putting out!
Unfortunately this bot doesn't perform as well as I'd hope. It seems to have trouble with the 1381 latching, similar to Simon Fraser, who used the same schematic. It will stall in bright light, not function at all in lower level light, and only seems to turn sporadically. At least it turns in the right direction. If anyone has any advice, I could use it here. I never seem to have much luck with wilf's circuits.
EDIT: So after some testing in actual sunlight, it seems to perform much, much better. Even though the solar panel is putting out more than enough voltage for the 1381 to latch, it doesn't seem to cooperate in lamp-light. I'm sure more research is needed into the circuit theory as to why this is.
could you use a 74ac240 and not an hc240 and have it still work?
ReplyDeleteHello, Yes I believe a 74AC240 would work just fine, as the AC variant has the same behavior, except allows about three times more current for driving motors. Good to go!
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