Tornadobot

This little guy hangs from a chain suspended from the rear view mirror in my car. Utilizing two 24x22mm solar cells in series, Tornadobot builds charge then throws all its power into the propellor which is connected to the chain on either side. The result is quite a jolt, but eventually settles into a controlled spin. I have recently re-balanced it so it doesn't bounce around as much. It has a 0.047F supercap to provide the bulk of the power, with a supplemental 4700uF cap in parallel. I was initially afraid the internal resistance of the super capacitor (I think ~200 Ohms) would be too high for this motor, so I added the extra capacitor to aid in the initial burst, but also to aid in balancing this bot.

The propellor is attached to the motor shaft with Krazy glue (cyanoacrylate) and heat shrink. I actually use Krazy glue quite often in my bots. It gives a very strong bond regardless of which materials I am bonding.

UPDATE:
So after a few years the motor started acting funky. I actually got a bit of hot glue inside of it when I first was building this bot, and I think it finally took its toll. So I updated this bot with a 600 RPM N20 gear motor. It's activation is much more calm! This will improve the bot's lifespan by putting less strain on the motor and the rest of the parts by making it less likely to fly off the chain and break its self.