Build the Mystery Solar Powered Pendulum

Electronic Gadgets,

Nuts & Volts Magazine (August 2012)

This device is a wonderful demonstration of clean, green solar power and is based on BEAM technology. It was inspired by the Magbot pendulum project in Dave Hrynkiw’s book titled, Junkbots, Bugbots & Bots On Wheels - which you can buy in the Nuts & Volts Web store!

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Links

This book that inspired this project: JunkBots, Bugbots, and Bots on Wheels is available in our Web Store.

Downloads

download

Solar Pendulum

Gerber Files and PCB

Article Comments

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Good article. I used a different coil and transistors and found I needed a 150 ohm resistor in series with the power supply so the energy could drain sufficently from the 2200 uF cap to not constanty feed back an unchanging dc via R2 into the base of Q2, keeping the coil constantly on. Also needed a small value cap between ground and the base of the NPN transistor to limit frequency response (otherwise turn on turn off is too fast).

Posted by jbike on September 24, 2012 at 2:24 PM PST

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