audioguru

If one solar cell gives 20mA then many in series will also give only 20mA.
If you connect a big one in parallel then it will just drain into the little ones and you won't have any output.

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Uncle $crooge

Krumlink

I think that I will put the solar version on hold for a while.

Still, the walker is in the works, and I am working on it

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MechTronics

audioguru

Today my solar garden lights were outside on an overcast day.
Tonight they glowed for only about 20 minutes.

There is a one-wheel robot on the internet. It balances itself. I don't think it is smart enough yet to turn around a corner.

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Uncle $crooge

Krumlink

That is kind of pointless. A one wheeled balancing robot? Amazing!

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MechTronics

Sceadwian

Krum, try posting valid links sometime.

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Krumlink

what about what?

I am going to just make a battery powered one now, and work on developing a solar powered one later.

I want to build a sollarroller, so I am focusing on that

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MechTronics

Hank Fletcher

The solar-powered walking robot is entirely within the realm of reality for you to create. You made no claims as to the speed, duration, or other such specs of your robot, and as such there is little basis for derision of your vision. Claims that the robot will be "powerful" are entirely subjective - an ant can lift several times its own weight, does that make it powerful?

The plan for a small model is a good one. I'd even go so far as to suggest the coin-shaped watch batteries over AAs to keep the robot light. The pager motor idea blueroomelectronics suggested is also a good one. I expect that it would be a reasonable (and thrifty!) plan to modify a wind-up walking toy with a pager motor, watch battery, and solor panel.

Little helicopters like these are proof that "power" can come in small packages:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQez1-DxJOk
That's more power than your walker robot will need, and it's just a matter of how often you want it to be able to perform. A constant, directly solar-powered robot is unlikely, but there's no shame in that. How far has NASA's latest Mars explorer travelled since it landed?

One final note: the modified wind-up robot I mentioned doesn't have any plan for direction control, but how about this idea? You could mount a second pager motor vertically, with a rough sort of cam on the shaft. When the motor spins in one direction, it knocks the cam against a vertical post on the main body of the robot, hence bumping the entire robot slightly in the direction the vertical motor was spinning. When you want to rotate in the opposite direction, just reverse the vertical motor's direction so that the cam hits on the opposite side of the stationary post. No doubt some theorist on this forum will be tempted to tell you that this defies the laws of physics, but if those laws couldn't be defied, there'd be no way to spin in an office chair without your feet touching the ground.

3v0

The idea is valid. The motor spinning up exerts a small force over time which is not powerful enough to overcome the friction it has with the ground. When you move the stop bar into position a large force is applied which spins the robot.

The key is to get the friction and force in the right amounts. When more friction is needed you may want to stop the robot. Maybe time the strike to happen at a specific time/spot during its stride/step. Or spin up the motor while the robot is at rest and turn while moving. Or it may work without tinkering...

It sounds fun.

Krumlink

Yes I know! I found a solar walking robot schematic!!!



My Idea was able to go into concept!!!

I spent about 6 hours researching Nv Networks, and it is amazing. I can see robots coming together with the simple Nv network.

I renamed the non solarwalker ARM2 Walker:

Autonomous
Reversing
Motorized
2 (motors)
Walker

I may also name it if It isnt reversing just AM2

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MechTronics

Krumlink

AM2 Walker (I am going to make it just walk forward for the first model, start out simple) Will use 2 standard sized servos that consume about 50ma at 5V. I have printed out about 200+ pages on Nv Networks, how they work, and how to use them. I highly suggest to any new hobbyist that they should definately research BEAM technology, because although the circuitry is simple, it can have very very complex behavior, such as Hider, the BEAM robot that is more complex than a microcontrolled robot in my opinion. It makes it look very attractive and very amazing:
http://www3.telus.net/rfws/beam/hider/m_hidr_00.html

AM2 Walker was concieved after I bought the book Junkbots, bugbots, and bots on wheels (chapter 7). I read the book throughly, gaining valuable knowledge of BEAM technology, and discovering Nv Nets. Nv Nets are a simple circuit, consisting of a capacitor, a resistor, and a inverter. It is incredible what it can do. There is just so much you can do with it, that It would be impossible for me to tell you all the posibilities you can do with it.

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MechTronics

Krumlink

I ordered the parts last Monday and they still are not here. I wish they were, because then I could start working on it.

I am going to attach solar panels in series all over the robot, then in parallel on the batteries, so it will walk and charge at the same time.

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MechTronics

blueroomelectronics

You really really need to understand a little more about microcontrollers before you can assume that the Hiders simple logic can go beyond a microcontrolled brain. You can reduce the complexity of Hiders design with a micro and change its personality with new firmware. Hider is really not that complex a design but because it uses 74HC logic ICs it looks complex but it can take a lot of TTL ICs to do even simple things.

And here's a "primitive" computer made with TTL ICs

Just to do what this 1980s Z80 does

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Bill
Smart Kits build Smart People
http://www.blueroomelectronics.com

Nigel Goodwin

Yes it's more complex, that's the reason for using a micro-controller, to make it LESS complex - yet at the same time make it vastly more versatile and perform far better.

More complex is really a very BAD point!.

BTW - if you think complex is good, you might consider building an EMMA (Electonic Mime Mobile Animal) - this was a project in a VERY old issue of Practical Electronic (early 70's). As it predated logic IC's it was entirely descrete - and used a home made random noise generator - a little glass tube with some sort of silver chemicals in it (if I remember correctly?).

EMMA was really the first 'robot' I'd ever seen in a magazine, and almost all of the current small robots seem based on it's design - two motors with 'tank' steering, and castors on the front.

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PIC programmer software, and PIC Tutorials at:
http://www.winpicprog.co.uk

Krumlink

Yeah, I jumped the gun there.

Once I get my Headers, I will solely work on uControllers, because they are so easy to manipulate. Just the programming is what will kill me in the long run. I need a good C book. Next time I go to boarders, I will look for one. Any suggestions as to what one to pick?

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MechTronics