Saturday, February 29, 2020

Carbot Lite



Carbot Lite was built on commission with the idea of being a smaller carbot than my other versions. This version has only two suction cups, and was designed to not follow the normal radial style of the others. It has 3 4700uF capacitors in parallel, with a single 43x34mm Solar Cell providing 5V@ 40mA.


I typically use the MCP-112 450E for my solar engines, but I was concerned that the 4.7V trigger point would be too close to the max voltage output of the solar panel, so I opted for the 315E variant which triggers at 3.08V. This would result in less power to the motor, so I would have to make sure the spinner was light enough to get a few spins in. I also had to be careful to make sure the spinner was balanced, as this bot would be stuck to a window, and gravity would take effect.





The brass wire used as the frame is 12 gauge round half-hard brass wire. It was shipped coiled. So I had to find a way to straighten it out as best I could. I grew tired of using jumbo paper clips, which were actually steel and didn't solder as well as I wanted. Luckily I found this video on youtube which provided an elegant solution to my problem!




5 comments:

  1. hello! this is such a great site. i'm twelve and this has become such a useful resource, love how you've collected everything in one place. :)
    -Julian

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  2. what 1381 trigger did you use ? all of mine are mcp112-e and they don't seem to
    work with all the walkman motors that i have

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Julian! For most of my bots I use the MCP112. It is a direct drop in replacement, now that the 1381's have been discontinued. FOr this particular bor i used this part: https://www.microchipdirect.com/product/MCP112-315E/TO?productLoaded=true

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  3. Hi Phil, wouldn't a simple FLED engine work with this as the voltage trigger is so low? What's the advantage to using the Miller engine? Love your site, been really inspirational :)

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  4. Hi Chester. I like using the Miller engine because I can tune the trigger point of the solar engine by picking a different MCP112 variant. I like matching the Solar Cell I am using, the light levels I plan on having the bot in, and the behavior I want all together. Nothing wrong with good ol' FLED solar engines though!

    ReplyDelete

Carbot Lite

Carbot Lite was built on commission with the idea of being a smaller carbot than my other versions. This version has only two suction cu...