the dark colored ones will be the ones you need, most of the time photodetectors have built in daylight filters so they will be dark colored...


B. Morse

 

Thanks for all the help. my parts from Solarbotics came in, I hit up the local hobby shop and ended buying an rc prop set up. it came with two 4.8V geared motors a mount and some other stuff that I can use for around $22. I have those motors picture below. I ended up ordering the 4.5V solar panel since the 6V is on backorder permanently it seems. I salvaged what I could from the dead bug and popped in the corretc AC240 ship. Unfortunately I'm still not getting any results. I have the thing "charging" under a lamp now but does it really need to? I pulled out my DVM and I'm getting some small readings from along the circuit but nothing to the motors just yet. Whats the best was to trouble shoot the circuit?

Also sorry for hijacking the thread.

 

Is THIS the solar cell you purchased?
http://www.solarbotics.com/products/scc2433b-mse/

It outputs 4.5v @ 18mA in SUNLIGHT - that's probably at high noon on the equator.

You will hardly get any current from it indoors, unless perhaps you have a 1,000 Watt incandescent lamp within a few inches of it.

You need a much more capable solar cell.

 

For testing purposes hook up some batteries instead of the solar panel so that you can isolate the problem (which is most likely the puny solar panel you have )

Also got my head working:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSojE2fi10Y

 

Yea, that's the one I bought, I thought it would be fine. I feel stupid.

1) Razor Concepts, thats looks awesome. It looks like you need a heavier base though. also which solar panel is that? Because it sounds like that's the one I need.

2) how much battery power should I use? Keep it in the 4.5-6V range or is a 9V ok? And I can just replace the solar panel, or the panel and the capacitor with the battery?

 

Use three 1.5v batteries in series. I suggest that you don't go above 6v.

 

I bought one of these:
http://cgi.ebay.com/5V-200mA-1W-Mon...ultDomain_0?hash=item414aac2ac0#ht_3141wt_988
5V 200mA 1W Monocrystalline Solar Panel Power Cell

They are heavy at 40 grams so you will probably need a gearmotor.

 

I took out the solar panel and the cap. and plugged in 3 new AA batteries. No dice. I'm working in a fairly dark room to begin with and I'm using one of those bright white led keychain flashlights to provoke a response. I'm not getting anything. Any advice on how to troubleshoot this other than taking it apart and trying again?

 

I decided to go back to the drawing board and start with 1dof. I decided to use Wilf's Ver 3.0 schematic:
http://www.beam-wiki.org/wiki/Image:Spsh3_layout.gif
After setting it up, I substituted the 5.1M resistor for 6.1 because that's the closest thing I had. I also didn't have any diodes and used 0.001uF caps instead. I can get the led to blink in intervals using a battery pack as the power source but I cant get any power to the motor, and the phototransistors appear to be useless. Any advice?

 

Are you using the dark phototransistors as you posted a picture of earlier?

 

Why don't you build the schematic as shown?

You can't replace diodes with capacitors and expect the circuit to function in the same way.

You might have problems with the 6.1meg for 5.1meg swap; it'll change the balance of the circuit. Better go find the right resistor.

You could use a 3.9meg and 1.2meg in series, or a 3.3meg and 1.8meg in series. A pair of 10meg in parallel should be plenty close enough.

You

 

Yea, I'm using the dark photo transistors from the picture. Also I was sure which diodes to use, 1n914? Side note, I tried the "bare bones" schematic I found online
http://grant.solarbotics.net/images/Circuits/BBPH_AL.gif
I did have the right parts for it but again no dice. I suppose I'll try again tomorrow.

When substituting in a battery supply, should I be replacing the entire MSE segment of the circuit or just the cap and solar panel?

 

So I rebuild Wilf's ver. 3 circuit. I got a response form the red led when using IR detector leds (the clear ones) in a totally dark room using a bright white led as a light source. The led flickered and dimmed and brightened in response to a light source. However I still could not get a reaction from the motor. I did build it without the motor driver like in the pdf. I will try that design tomorrow and see if it works. But getting closer!

 

I built this circuit:

However, I am unsure about which orientation the four photodiodes should be placed in, and which motors to connect them to. Is it just guess and check?

ultimately this circuit works;