Hi everybody, This is my first post after reading a lot on the web about BEAM robots. I´m glad to found an active forum to talk about BEAM bots (and othes) since every other place looks like dead years ago (is BEAM robotics dying?).
Anyway, I'm ready to start with my first symet and I'm just in the process of biulding the solar engine, here in my country -Colombia- its imposible to find 1381 IC's so I decided to go with a FLED solar engine, I've tryied a lot of things and can´t get it to work just right. I don´t know the reason but I´m suspecting some things:
1. I´m using a BLUE FLED (the only type I could get). Is it a problem? I´ve read that those need a higher voltage than other colored leds like red or green. maybe this is stoping my engine to fire?
2. The supposedly 5V 70mA solar cell its just delivering mere 2.5V at its best under a 100W desk lamp. I have found a more powerful solar cell and the engine fires but it´s almost unusable because I can´t solder any wiring to it since it seems like a very thin chromed layer wich the terminals attach to (by contact) and to make things worst it looks like it´s peeling away that kind of coating so I´ll end with no cell in no time, the upper layer of the cell is a thick glass (about 2mm) and it's quite heavy which is something I don't like either. the cells are about 50 x 50 mm so it's out of question putting them in series since I'll end with a massive symet if I use more than one cell.
3. Quote from: **broken link removed**
"The D1 can be zener diode and can be replaced with 3 diodes (1N4148) in series, a flashing LED (FLED), or even a resistor (10k Ohms). Ivar Thorson found that using a flashing LED is the most efficient. And thanks to Ben Hitchcock, a modified version of FLED solar-engine ( he named it Fred) is made possible to pop its way just under desk-lamp."
Have anyone tried this? (the diodes and resistor thing)
they also mention that you can replace the solar cell with photodiodes in series, maybe a little help for my cell to increase voltage?
Should I try the FRED SE instead? with a blue FLED????
The rest it's just a matter of picking the right motor and tweaking the resistor values to work, but I'd like to hear your comments about those three issues, specially the blue FLED thing since I think it's the starting point to begin debugging my Solar Engine.
Many thanks in advance
_lowercase
Anyway, I'm ready to start with my first symet and I'm just in the process of biulding the solar engine, here in my country -Colombia- its imposible to find 1381 IC's so I decided to go with a FLED solar engine, I've tryied a lot of things and can´t get it to work just right. I don´t know the reason but I´m suspecting some things:
1. I´m using a BLUE FLED (the only type I could get). Is it a problem? I´ve read that those need a higher voltage than other colored leds like red or green. maybe this is stoping my engine to fire?
2. The supposedly 5V 70mA solar cell its just delivering mere 2.5V at its best under a 100W desk lamp. I have found a more powerful solar cell and the engine fires but it´s almost unusable because I can´t solder any wiring to it since it seems like a very thin chromed layer wich the terminals attach to (by contact) and to make things worst it looks like it´s peeling away that kind of coating so I´ll end with no cell in no time, the upper layer of the cell is a thick glass (about 2mm) and it's quite heavy which is something I don't like either. the cells are about 50 x 50 mm so it's out of question putting them in series since I'll end with a massive symet if I use more than one cell.
3. Quote from: **broken link removed**
"The D1 can be zener diode and can be replaced with 3 diodes (1N4148) in series, a flashing LED (FLED), or even a resistor (10k Ohms). Ivar Thorson found that using a flashing LED is the most efficient. And thanks to Ben Hitchcock, a modified version of FLED solar-engine ( he named it Fred) is made possible to pop its way just under desk-lamp."
Have anyone tried this? (the diodes and resistor thing)
they also mention that you can replace the solar cell with photodiodes in series, maybe a little help for my cell to increase voltage?
Should I try the FRED SE instead? with a blue FLED????
The rest it's just a matter of picking the right motor and tweaking the resistor values to work, but I'd like to hear your comments about those three issues, specially the blue FLED thing since I think it's the starting point to begin debugging my Solar Engine.
Many thanks in advance
_lowercase
)
