BEAM Robots

Symet Symet is a small solar powered robot with no controller. It consists of a motor driven by a "solar engine". The solar engine charges the three 1000mf capacitors then dumps the stored electricity into the motor. The motor shaft sits on the surface causing the Symet to move around. A simple fun project made out of scrap parts. Plans can be found in a great book on BEAM robots called "Junkbots, Bugbots, and Bots on Wheels". The author has also put the plans on the web.   Headbot Headbot rotates to point to the brightest light. The base is made from the platters taken from an old hard drive. The motor is out of a cassette player and is connected to the base with a rubber band acting like a drive belt. The controller is a bicore circuit built around a 74AC240 octal inverter. Plans can be found in a great book on BEAM robots called "Junkbots, Bugbots, and Bots on Wheels". There are also a number of other plans available.   Tan Board Solar Roller This was my attempt at a solar roller for the Chibots contest in April. It uses an MN1881-C solar engine with 16,800mf of capacitors. The solar cell is a Panasonic 2433. The motor is a Mabuchi FF-030-PN. All the parts are available from Solarbotics. Although it didn't do too well it was fun to build. The main problem with solar rollers is the small solar cell area (1-1/4 sq/in). You really have to keep weight down and have a good motor. I'll keep tinkering with the design.

If you have any questions or comments please email me at: mdavey@new.rr.com