I took what was left of Fleet Beacon and added it to a Miller Solar Engine to create this bot. It is essentially two separate circuits on one frame. The first is a classic Miller Solar engine that charges up in the sun and manages to spin the entire robot for a few rotations. I used two 45x25mm solar panels in series for the spinner circuit, which equates to 10v at 30mA. Normally this would be total overkill for the circuit, as the voltage trigger fires at around 4.9v, but I wanted the robot to spin even in less than ideal conditions.
The second circuit is the leftover parts of Fleet Beacon, repaired and attached to the underside of the side solar panels. It is a dark activated pummer that blinks red LEDs for a few hours when the light is low enough.
I used some 1/8" channeled square brass tubing that I picked up from Ace Hardware for the frame of this robot, and I couldn't be happier with how it turned out. I love the look, and the strength is great too. For making angled turns, I clipped out a section of the tubing, bent it to the appropriate angle, then re soldered the edges together for extra strength. It also allowed me to tuck the winged solar panel wires into it to hide them quite effectively.
Overall I am very happy with this bot. It spins during the day, and blinks at night. Leaving for work in the morning he happily spins away, and coming home in the evening he will blink away until bed time.
do you think you could use a diffrent pummer circuit
ReplyDeleteI'm sure I could have! There are more energy efficient circuits out there, but I had more experience with this one, and since the circuitry was salvaged from another bot, it was a simpler solution.
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