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Complex, costly and performs a useless task.
The solar powered car darts from its starting position away from the lamp--only to be returned and repeat the cycle.
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The runway, in its lowered position, closes a normally open micro switch--allowing power to a 12 volt, 50 watt halogen lamp. This causes the solar powered car to race down the runway out of the light beam. An Arduino microcontroller causes a servo motor to raise the runway, thus opening the switch, shutting off the light and causing the car to roll back to the starting position. The runway is lowered and the process repeats.
Parts:
Solar Car--Amazon.com (less than $5.00)
Acrylic--estreetplastics.com
Servo HS 322--makershed.com
Arduino--makershed.com
Power supply for lamp--use a low voltage undercabinet supply of 50 watts or greater; regulated 12 volts supplies may not provide enough starting current to illuminate the lamp
Software:
#include <Servo.h>
Servo myservo;
void setup ()
{myservo.attach(5);
}
void loop ()
{
myservo.write(25);
delay (1000);
myservo.write (30);
delay (50);
myservo.write (35);
delay (50);
myservo.write (40);
delay (50);
myservo.write (45);
delay (50);
myservo.write (50);
delay (4000);
myservo.write (45);
delay (100);
myservo.write (40);
delay (100);
myservo.write (35);
delay (100);
myservo.write (30);
delay (100);
}
Parts:
Solar Car--Amazon.com (less than $5.00)
Acrylic--estreetplastics.com
Servo HS 322--makershed.com
Arduino--makershed.com
Power supply for lamp--use a low voltage undercabinet supply of 50 watts or greater; regulated 12 volts supplies may not provide enough starting current to illuminate the lamp
Software:
#include <Servo.h>
Servo myservo;
void setup ()
{myservo.attach(5);
}
void loop ()
{
myservo.write(25);
delay (1000);
myservo.write (30);
delay (50);
myservo.write (35);
delay (50);
myservo.write (40);
delay (50);
myservo.write (45);
delay (50);
myservo.write (50);
delay (4000);
myservo.write (45);
delay (100);
myservo.write (40);
delay (100);
myservo.write (35);
delay (100);
myservo.write (30);
delay (100);
}
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Build_it_Bob
And someone might accidentally do something useful :)
making something fun and useless is an art, one that's not practised enough by far
and yes, some of the greatest inventions are accidents :P
(Yes, I could lower the ramp enough to make the car move--but I didn't build an end to the ramp. It would be tricky to keep the car from running off the end by lowering the ramp for movement).