Solar Micro #3
 

Here is my third solar micro. This car is built on a stock Zip chassis. This car is a combination of what I learned building cars 1 and 2. It contains a 2.5VDC 1Farad aerogel cap and sports the solar array (2.7VDC @ 324mA) like SM1.

The body is custom made from polystyrene sheets. The chassis clips into the body using the standard front and rear Zip chassis tabs. The body is a bit on the wide side as it was built to accomidate the wider solar cells. But, this allowed for lowering the body quite a bit, so I am pleased with the outcome.

The car is using the blue ZZ gear set and the green motor. Performance is exactly what I wanted these little solar micros to do. It runs as if it had a dual cell mod. It runs continuously at very high power levels much like it was battery powered. It can run for quite some time on the cap alone, so there is no problem when driving through shade or in overcast conditions. The car begins moving before the cap is filled and continues to charge the cap during use. The range is incredable, well over 300 ft. The car will raise the front end off the ground when accelerating in reverse and slamming into forward.

i want to be the first to say SWEET A!

that really is super cool..not only is it solar powered it looks great

:D ;) :D

I must say I'm very pleased with this car's performance. It runs fast. It runs for unlimited run times. And, it has a nice aesthetic look to it. The cost would tend to keep it out of the range of the average builder, but if solar is your bag then this is the car.
The cost is as follows:
1 Zip Zap....20.00
1 Aerogel Cap....4.00
5 super solar cells... 37.50 (links to these can be found in my other solar posts)
total.............................61.50
Not that bad really. You would offset this cost quickly in batteries alone.
This car is built on a 27Mhz chassis. Solar Micro 1 was built on a 49 Mhz chassis. Solar Micro 2 was built on a 49Mhz chassis, but does not interfere with SM1 since it is a MotorWorks car. This allows me to race them all day long in the hot Georgia sun without a recharge!:D

As usual, excellent stuff!

Could you tell me where you bought the cap and the Super Solar Cell from?Sundance doesn't have them.That car absolutely blew me away!I wanna build one of those so BAD!Please reply ASAP,because I wanna build one!:D

PS,could you also give me any tips when building it.


Thanks alot Matt

You can get the solar cells here:
http://www.solar-world.com/SuperCell...tovoltaics.htm
You will need the .5 VDC @ 250-400Ma. And, I would go as big as you can.
I got those 1F super caps at solarbotics.com. But, you can also get Panasonic gold super caps in that range at Digikey.com.
The conversion is pretty straight forward. Take the stock battery out. Remove the battery connector/charging tabs, and desolder the wires that are connected to them. Take 5 (four will work too, but 5 seems optimum) of the solar cells hooked together in series and solder the positive and negative leads of the solar array to the cap and the two power leads you just unhooked from the old battery terminals. Just solder both negative leads and both positive leads to the positive and negative leads of the cap. Place the cap where the battery used to be. I usually solder the cap, PCB power leads, and two long pieces of insulated wire together and reassemble the chassis with the long leads coming up through the PCB cover. This way you can attach the solar array later after the chassis is reassembled and all those delicate bits are safe. Now, just hook the wires to the solar array leaving enough slack between the body and the chassis to make getting back into the chassis again easier. Or, find a tiny micro two prong connector to attach the body's solar power leads to the chassis. Now, just put it in the sun for endless fun! Well, as long as it doesn't rain anyways. Good luck and let us see a picture when you're done.

Just beautiful!

thats really neat, the body alone could be cool. I thought of a solar powered car myself a long time ago, but i didnt have a way to actually get the cell on the car in anyway.

Thats incredible!

great work!

hmmm.. wouldn't that be the bit/zz record?? how did you manage to get that range??? i guess you ment 30ft

I don't know about any rtecords, but the range is accurate. I have other cars that get over 400ft of range. I've posted about this many times, but get few responses. I suppose I am not believed, but that's OK. It's simply a matter of tuning the antennas to a proper length and adjusting the antenna coil.

Wow. That is truly impressive. A+ in my book.

umm... ok Azimov

it's hard to belive your bits can be controlled accross a football feild... well if soo maybe you can try making a solar bit plane.. or a solar blimp with that range