Solar Energy Project

In-class presentations in Week 9 (4/07/11).

Assignment: Make any solar BEAM bot. Personalize yours with a flag, colors, etc. Assemble the class bots into a terrarium to live on the floor for the rest of the semester.

More about BEAM:
BEAM circuits are simple, elegant, and often (but now always) solar powered. We're interested in the solar-powered kinds here - they will form the basis for our second rapid project and get our hands quickly onto simple solar-powered circuits. Although these projects will be small, the basic components - pv material, energy storage, monitoring circuit, load - will have counterparts in any larger project you might tackle later.

Solar-powered BEAM circuits are called "solar engines". There are many variations, but they all store solar energy and release it when some criteria is met - a certain charge level has been reached, the ambient light level has fallen, etc. They can be made with a minimum of simple parts.

A good place to start a search is for "pummers", "trimets", "symmets", or "solar rollers".

More about the assignment:
Collaborate all you want to figure this stuff out, but each person should make their own bot. Complete one simple "textbook" BEAM bot before attempting to ITP-ify this assignment.

 Resources

ITP (via Ariel) has all the basic parts to make a solar engine.

Christian Cerrito's excellent step-by-step on the Miller Engine as a companion to the documents from Make on the "standard" 1381 SE.

                Make Magazine
                They have good online documentation for solar engines and pummers. The solar engine pdf is here.

Solarbotics.net
There is a large body of online BEAM documentation. Start with this site, especially the Solar Engines part of the "BEAM Circuits" area.

Solarbotics.com
Most of the materials you need can be found here - order early if using this site, as shipping can take a while.

Electronics Goldmine
They have good surplus solar panels.

Image:
Some BEAM trimets created at an Eyebeam workshop I led.