I would like to design a solar engine capable of periodically driving a motor and sound bird chaser using salvaged capacitors and a voltage trigger that will drain the caps at 12v. These are intended for rice farmers of northern Luzon who lose much of their crop to flocks of birds. Rechargable batteries are too expensive so I thought a solar engine may be possible, something that would run every five minutes or so. Is there a better alternative?

 

Northern Luzon, Must be in the Philippines..... I grew up in Angeles City (well most of my child hood was spent there)..... Have you checked out Solarbotics.com? they have a lot of circuits for solar powered motors.... but why 12 volts? Can you use a 6 volt motor or less? Or possibly use a piezo buzzer to scare off the birds??

B. Morse

 

Angeles City? That was the wild, wild east! Ifugao is north, a ten hour bus ride from Angeles.

I may be able to use something less than 12v but I need a motor with enough torque to move an apparatus that may of some weight/dimension.

 

I still have family there in Angeles, Manila, Dau, and San Fernando.....


What type of aparatus is it going to drive?
are you basically going to be using the motor to drive a "noise maker", or is it a motor driven siren? If you can provide me with a little more detail on your project, I might be a little more help....

 

I have not decided on a complete design but CD's may be mounted on long poles joined at a VCR drum. The motor will be geared and turn this wheel horizontally while a noise maker sounds to drive rice birds away. Components have to be salvaged much as possible. The Ifugao are not in a position to pay a lot of money for this device. I will be trading bolos for them.

 

I have not decided on a complete design but CD's may be mounted on long poles joined at a VCR drum. The motor will be geared and turn this wheel horizontally while a noise maker sounds to drive rice birds away. Components have to be salvaged much as possible. The Ifugao are not in a position to pay a lot of money for this device. I will be trading bolos for them.

Bolo's are sweet, I wish I had one here instead of my cheap machete.....

Most VCR's have a type of stepper motor that is driving the read spindle.... it may not work if just directly powering it..... there are other motors in a VCR that might work better for you (like the one used in the Tape loading mechanism). What would be the primary function of the poles and CD's? Will they be used as a type of visual deterrent for the birds? to be used with the noise maker?

Rice fields usually take up acres of land, are you planning on using multiple devices, or are you trying to build a device that could cover a lot of area?

I am just asking a lot of questions to get down to what you actually need to accomplish....

 

The VCR drum would only be used as hub with good bearings to mount a threaded rod inside a bamboo shaft. I have many other dc motors/gears salvaged to turn the drum. The Ifugao terraces are much smaller than lowland rice fields. http://www.pahof.de/mediac/400_0/media/DIR_7154/Batad.jpg If the device could charge/discharge capacitors every five minutes for just 5 seconds, I am sure it would be valuable to the farmers.

I sold a bolo recently on Ebay and have several more. These are made by Juan, a traditional village blacksmith. He is a rascal but a great craftsman. Here is a photo http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z215/keithgum/Bolo1.jpg If you are interested, please send a private message.