Solarbotics K MSE-U Bedienungsanleitung
(Soldering
Req’d)
MSE Solar Engine Kit
MSE Solar Engine KitMSE Solar Engine Kit
www.solarbotics.com
1-866-276-2687
Document Revision: May 25th, 2010
SKU: K MSE-U
Build Time:
2hrs
Skill Level:
Beginner
High Performance SCC3733-MSE Version
http://www.solarbotics.com/products/k_mse-u/
For true DIY, hack the included cassette
mechanism into a solar-powered device
using the high performance Miller
Solarengine, which converts light into
impressive bursts of energy.
Motor mechanism
may not be exactly
as shown
Table of Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Parts Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Solarengine Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Essential Skills of Soldering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Building It! (PCB Construction) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Free Form Miller Solarengine. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Trouble Shooting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Lets Get Moving! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Techniques. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Another Hint Box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Ideas for your Solarengine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Ideas - The Photovore Light-Seeking Robot! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Ideas - The CassetteMech Solaroller! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Racing - Solaroller Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
We strongly suggest you inventory the parts in your kit to make sure you have all the parts listed. If anything is missing,
contact Solarbotics Ltd. For replacement parts information.
Disclaimer of Liability
Solarbotics Ltd. Is not responsible for any special, incidental, or consequential damages resulting from any breach of
warranty, or under any legal theory, including lost profits, downtime, good-will, damage to or replacement of equipment
or property, and any costs or recovering of any material or goods associated with the assembly or use of this product.
Solarbotics Ltd reserves the right to make substitutions and changes to this product without prior notice.
Introduction
First off, you should know that BEAM Robotics is a research and education organization dedicated to the
promotion and construction of unorthodox robots and gizmos for fun and real world applications. This kit
is designed as an entertaining and easy starting point for those who wish to explore the principles of
BEAM philosophy.
The components in this kit are the bare necessities for achieving mechanical movement from the
universe’s most common energy source - LIGHT. This means no dependancy on batteries, adaptors,
wind up springs, or even you for it to continue "living" its merry life. With careful and sturdy construction,
you should be able to pick up your BEAM critter in 20 years and say "Look! It’s still working!" This kit is
the Type-I solarengine, which depends on a voltage-sensative trigger, meaning once it stores enough
power, it triggers. The other types of solarengines are time interval based (Type-II), and "charge-curve
differentiated" (Type-III).
Once the kit’s electronics are assembled, you can move on to find applications for your solarengine, like
a solar dragster (solaroller), a bidirectional robot (SYMET), or anything else you’d like to apply battery-
less motion to. Advanced applications of this kit include solar rope-climbers, high & long jumpers,
aquavores & photovores (light-seeking robots). Other bizarre applications are solar-powered name-tags,
flag-wavers, baby satellite dishes, and ornament turners. Go wild and find your own applications to add
to this list.
Finishing this kit will mean that you have achieved several significant tasks:
A basic understanding of transistors, resistors, capacitors, and solar cells
Recognition of fundamental motor drive systems
How to solder electronic components onto a printed circuit board (PCB)
How to get your partner to hold components together while you burn their fingers with a soldering
iron.
In other words, you should have fun assembling something that moves by itself while we try to sneak
educational things into your head.
The kit should contain the following goodies:
1 - Motor/cassette mechanism
1 - PN2222 transistor (small black thingy with 3 leads)
1 - 1381 voltage detector (another slightly bigger black thingy with 3 leads)
1 - Diode (another tiny cylindrical thingy with a lead out of each end)
1 - C2 Power Storage Capacitor (0.33Farad, 2.5V maximum, the diameter of a pencil, 1” long)
1 - C1 Timer Capacitor (6.8µF electrolytic, looks like a small can with two leads)
1 - Solar Cell (the squarish solar-cell looking-thing, with circuit panel on backside)
1 - Length of wire to hook up the motor (if your motor doesn’t have wire already)
1 - Instruction book (well, of course, right?)
You will require:
- A soldering iron & electronics solder (not plumbing solder)
- A pair of snips, old scissors, or other metal-trimming device
- A pair of safety glasses
- Glue, be it from a hot-glue gun, epoxy, Superglue, or whatever
- A sense of humour. Otherwise, you’ll be finding this manual very strange.
1
Parts Overview
This is the part you’ve probably skipped over unless either you’ve already got your circuit
working and want to know more about why, or you’re waiting for a bus to pick you up and
take you to work/school (please don’t read this while driving). Whatever your reason, here’s
the poop:
The circuit is made of types of electronic components, of which the first three make up a five
good 80% of what you will find in almost any electronic device. These are:
Resistors - These are devices that "resist" the flow of electric current. Think of them like a
narrow neck in a river. But we won’t be using one in this circuit - heh!
Capacitors - Capacitor acts much like a small rechargeable battery, except that they charge
and discharge much more efficiently. Think of these like water tanks on the
side of the river that can be filled then emptied back into the river.
Transistors - Transistors are essentially switches that use a tiny amount of current to control
the flow of a much larger current. These are like dam floodgates on a river.
Diode - This is like a one-way check valve, allowing current to flow through it in one
direction only.
1381 - The 1381 voltage trigger is a small three pin integrated chip (IC) that looks
much like a transistor. It was originally designed to detect low voltage levels in
the batteries of portable electronic devices, like cellular telephones and
portable computers. These take very little power to monitor the voltage,
making it much more efficient than older trigger devices like zener diodes or
flashing LEDs.
Solar Cell - Solar cells are very thin specialized chips that convert the photons impinging
the PN junction into electrical current. Translation: The thingy that turns light
into electricity. Usually the bigger, the better.
Motor - The motor you’ll be using in this kit is from a micro-cassette player. This
mechanical assembly was originally designed to be used in an answering
machine, but you’re going to use it for the motor and other mechanical bits you
may want to rip off it. A motor is simply a way to turn electrical energy into
mechanical motion we can see and use.
Please note that motor mechanism may not be exactly as shown.
2
Solarengine Theory
The Miller Solarengine (MSE) is a simple, effective Type-1 (voltage triggered) solarengine with
configurable turn-on voltage and discharge time. The turn-on voltage is determined by the type
of 1381 selected, and the discharge time configured by the size of capacitor C1.
While the solarcell charges the capacitor, its status is monitored by the 1381. When a preset
voltage is reached, the 1381 turns on the PN2222 transistor, which pulls power through the
motor, making the motor turn. R1 is presently a zero ohm resistor - the same thing as a piece of
wire. You can change R1 to something else if you are planning on driving components other
than a motor, like a LED, or another electronic circuit. Raising R1 will make the circuit stay on
longer, but it won’t pass as much power.
The 1381 stays on as long as it thinks there is sufficient voltage between its trigger value and
(trigger voltage - 0.3V) i.e.: 2.7V down to 2.4V (for the 1381E). To extend how long it stays on, we
use capacitor C2 and a diode. C2 gets charged up through the diode at the same time as the
solarengine main storage capacitor C1, but discharges much slower through the 1381 voltage
trigger to the transistor. We use the discharge time of C1 through the 1381 to set how long the
circuit stays on.
Using a C1 of 6.8µF, we get a discharge time of approximately 2 seconds while powering the
motor out of a micro-cassette mechanism. If you want, you can put in a smaller C1 (1.0µF) to get
more frequent, high-power bursts, or a larger for longer bursts, but the default 6.8µF capacitor is
practically ideal for the components in this kit.
D1
+
1381
3
2 1
PN2222
Transistor
Motor
C2 C1
Miller Engine (MSE)
3
" Ø®µÆ¨ ІªØ∞∫ Ά Motor Time On: Time to Recharge: Result:
Larger C1 Storage Cap Same Same Longer initial charge-up, quick, high-energy bursts. This is because C2 sets how long it stays on for. Make C2
larger to increase how long it stays on for when increasing C1.
Larger Solarcell Same Quicker Quicker initial charge-up and recharge times.
Larger C2 Timer Cap Longer Longer The motors stays on longer, which pulls more power out of the capacitor. This takes longer to recharge, but gives
a longer motor pulse.
Smaller C2 Timer Cap Shorter Shorter This will result in quick, high-energy bursts, but won't spin the motor for as long.
Higher 1381 Trigger Same Longer The 1381 sets at what voltage the circuit activates. If it gets too high, it gets harder for the solarcell to charge the
circuit up to that point.
Soldering - The Essentials:
The most important skill needed to successfully construct your device is soldering. Soldering is melting
a special metal (called, um..., “solder”) between two components to make an electrical connection. We
can also use solder like glue, to build things out of metals. You must make sure to use electrical solder,
and not plumbers solder, which is used for piping and really isn’t good for electronics.
Much like you, solder likes to go where it’s the warmest (this is why Florida is so popular). The trick to
successful soldering is to make the parts hot, and the melting solder will run there. If you don’t heat up
the parts first, the solder will find the hottest thing around - your soldering iron, and not your parts! Do
not melt solder to the tip of your iron and try to smear it onto the parts, as it just won’t work. You’re a
roboticist, not a painter!
Here’s how to successfully solder to your MSE-style solar cell circuit board. It doesn’t have holes to
poke the parts into, so we’re going to pre-tin (pre-apply solder) to the circuit-board pads.
1) Wipe the hot tip of the soldering iron on a wet sponge each time, to clean it.
2) Melt some solder to the set of pads you want to solder something too, leaving a
little mound on the pad.
3) Melt a little solder to the legs of the component (very little needed).
4) Place the part on top of the pads, and re-melt the part into the mound on the pad
by pressing on the leg with the hot soldering iron tip.
5) DON’T Rush - electronics are hard to burn up!
1. Presolder the pads... 2. ...so it looks like
this!
3. Presolder the component
leads too.
4. Push the lead into the pad... 5. ...so it looks like this! 6. Yuck! Don’t bridge pads!
4
Building It!
This is the fun part - actually building the circuit. Follow the instruction boxes in order, and
you will turn these parts into your own functioning Miller Solarengine!
Construction Hints:
If you have NEVER soldered before, hunt down the “How To
Solder” instructions in this book first!
Since we’re soldering directly on the circuit board (no holes),
you will find it is easier to add some solder to each pad first,
then remelt it when adding the part.
Fold, fit, and pre-trim the leads of each part before soldering.
It’s much easier than trying to force it to fit on-the-go!
Step 1: 1381 Trigger
1381
SCC3733-MSE
MSE Solar Cell
03/09
Solarbotics.com
1381
C1
Timer
Cap NPN
Mtr-
Mtr+
D1
Diode
C2
Pwr Cap
OPTIONAL SOLARENGINE
<-- Do Not Use Do Not Use-->
Step 4: D1 Diode
The 1381 watches the voltage stored in the power
capacitor, and turns the circuit at the voltage level
determined by what “flavour” of 1381 you’re using
(C/E/G...). Make sure it’s FACE DOWN, like in the
diagram!
C1 tricks the 1381 into staying on longer than it
should, so it acts as a time-setting device for how
long the Miller Solar Engine will stay activated for.
The higher the value, the longer you dump power!
1381
2N
2222
Timer
Cap
SCC3733-MSE
MSE Solar Cell
03/09
Solarbotics.com
1381
C1
Timer
Cap NPN
Mtr-
Mtr+
D1
Diode
C2
Pwr Cap
OPTIONAL SOLARENGINE
<-- Do Not Use Do Not Use-->
Step 2: C1 Timer Capacitor
Note the
side with the
stripe goes
to the square
pad!
Step 3: 2n2222 Transistor
The transistor is the part that actually switches the
power on so the load (motor, LED, whatever...)
receives power. Like the trigger, this goes face down.
The diode keeps the power in the C1 capacitor from
going anywhere but the 1381. Get it in backwards,
and you’ll definitely have a malfunctioning circuit!
Note the
side with the
stripe goes
to the square
pad!
5
1381
Timer
Cap
SCC3733-MSE
MSE Solar Cell
03/09
Solarbotics.com
1381
C1
Timer
Cap NPN
Mtr-
Mtr+
D1
Diode
C2
Pwr Cap
OPTIONAL SOLARENGINE
<-- Do Not Use Do Not Use-->
1381
2N
2222
Timer
Cap
SCC3733-MSE
MSE Solar Cell
03/09
Solarbotics.com
1381
C1
Timer
Cap NPN
Mtr-
Mtr+
D1
Diode
C2
Pwr Cap
OPTIONAL SOLARENGINE
<-- Do Not Use Do Not Use-->
SCC3733-MSE
MSE Solar Cell
03/09
Solarbotics.com
1381
C1
Timer
Cap NPN
Mtr-
Mtr+
D1
Diode
C2
Pwr Cap
OPTIONAL SOLARENGINE
<-- Do Not Use Do Not Use-->
Step 7: Testing!
Step 5: C2 Power Capacitor Step 6: Motor / Load
C2 is what actually
stores the power for
the load to use up.
Bigger isn’t always
better, but it makes
for a more impres-
sive motion!
Remember:
Backwards caps
don’t charge well!
The load can be any electrical device that doesn’t
draw too much power. If you were to try to start your
car with this circuit, you’d be very disappointed! As
long as what you’re trying to power used to be
battery-powered from AA cells, this circuit should
make it twitch.
That means you can use things like LEDs, solenoids
and even coils (put a magnet over the coil to see it
jump). Of course, the more power-efficient the load
is, the more “bang for your buck” you’ll get!
Now the fun part - watching it go! Put your device in
light, like sunlight or under a 100 watt incandescent
or halogen bulb (fluorescents and flashlights will give
disappointing results).
With the large 0.33F power storage capacitor, the
very first charge will take the longest, approximately
one minute in direct sunlight (3 minutes under a
100W bulb). Then you should see the motor burst
into action for a few seconds, then the cycle should
restart about every 20 seconds afterwards!
Note the side
with the stripe goes
to the square pad!
Don’t worry about wire colors - if the motor
spins in the wrong direction, just reverse the
connection!
6
1381
2N
2222
Timer
Cap
SCC3733-MSE
MSE Solar Cell
03/09
Solarbotics.com
1381
C1
Timer
Cap NPN
Mtr-
Mtr+
D1
Diode
C2
Pwr Cap
OPTIONAL SOLARENGINE
<-- Do Not Use Do Not Use-->
1381
2N
2222
Timer
Cap
SCC3733-MSE
MSE Solar Cell
03/09
Solarbotics.com
1381
C1
Timer
Cap NPN
Mtr-
Mtr+
D1
Diode
C2
Pwr Cap
OPTIONAL SOLARENGINE
<-- Do Not Use Do Not Use-->
1381 PN
2222
474
4700uF
1
1381 Voltage Trigger
PN2222 Transistor
21381/PN2222/Diode
3
Final Assembly
7
Main Storage Capacitor
6
Timer Capacitor
5
Find a solar cell without the circuit board on it?
Build your own “free-form” version!
You will need a PN2222 transistor, a diode, a
1381 trigger (C or E), a storage capacitor
(1000µF or higher), a timing capacitor (0.47µF
to 10µF), wire, a motor and a solarcell (solarcell
must generate 3.2V MINIMUM).
(And it’s all fit onto one easy-to-read single
instruction page!)
90°
Up
90°
Up
90° to the Side
Place the 1381 and PN2222 transistor side-by-side,
and join the inner legs with the diode as shown. Note
that the black band of the diode is on the RIGHT side.
Bridge the vertical legs of the 1381 & the PN2222 with a
wire, then cut off the excess leads. If you can bend &
solder the legs together, you won’t need a wire at all.
Solder the main capacitor so the capacitor leg nearest
the stripe on the capacitor body (-) is soldered to the
left leg of the PN2222, and the other leg (+) is
soldered to the middle leg of the 1381.
Install the motor by
soldering one connection
to the (+) side of the
main storage capacitor
(the lead opposite the
striped side).
Solder the other
connection to the
right leg of the
PN2222 transistor.
Mount the desired discharge timer capacitor (in this
case, 0.47µF) across the middle and right legs of the
1381. If the capacitor has polarity, connect positive
(+) to the middle leg of the 1381.
Bend the left side lead (the output) 90° up so it points
towards you.
Bend the right side lead (the collecter) 90° to the side.
Bend the middle lead (the base) 90° up, so it points up
at you.
=Solder point
=Solder point
=Solder point
=Solder point
=Solder point
1381
PN
2222
1381
1381
PN
2222
PN
2222
Wire
4
1381
474
1381 closeup
1381 PN
2222
474
4700uF
The Free-Form Miller Solarengine
7
Trouble Shooting
Well, you take yer six-shooter, line up the troublesome BEAM critter on a wooden fencepost and... aw, it’s
really not that hard to fix this circuit. There isn’t much that can go wrong with this particular layout. Run
through this checklist and see if you can isolate your problem. If you’re still stumped after this, leave it for a
day and come back when your sanity returns.
Problem:
1381/transistor/diode installed the wrong
way around
Backwards polarity on the capacitor
Solder Bridge (solder crosses copper
pads on PCB)
Remedy:
Make sure the part is installed in the
spaced marked for it - there’s not that
many parts to get mixed up!
BOTH capacitors are polarity sensitive,
meaning they have to be installed the
right-way around. Striped side always is
the ‘-’ side.
Carefully examine the PCB to see if any
solder hasn’t accidently "bridged" from
one pad to another. Remove any
bridges by melting it with the soldering
iron and then sharply tapping the PCB
against a hard surface.
Another valuable diagnostic tool is a voltmeter. If you have one available, connect it to the
capacitor leads. Voltage in the capacitor should climb to about 2.6 before it dumps the power to
the motor.
Be sure that none of the existing component leads are accidently pressing against any other
leads or PCB traces. The traces that make the electrical connections are usually protected by the
green or black plastic covering on the back of the solar cell, but it can be scraped off (making a
short circuit, which is bad!).
Push come to shove, call us - but NOT in the middle of the night. The circuit’s not designed to
operate at night anyway (yeah, yeah - that’s the reason...). Or use your digital camera on “Macro”
mode (usually a setting with a flower symbol) to take a clear picture, and email it to us.
8
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