Introduction: Solar Spin Ball

About: 28 green plumber and gasfitter from melbourne - Australia. Artisan by trade . I make the tools I need for the job project . im going to do. Sourcing )all) recycled materials on my bicycle. 100% recycled ma…

My first Instructable. A simple one.
Material required :
Solar garden led light -
Plastic ball any size -
7-11 slurpee plastic straw
Electronic motor - CD/DVD drive eject motor.
Plastic Milk bottle cap
Tools required:
Knife
Lighter

Method : cut the slurpee straw into 1 inch pieces. This will be your makeshift positive and negative cable shrink wrap .
Remove solar panel from plastic led garden light .carefully retaining the positive and negative wires connected to the panel. Strip the ends of the two wires about 3/4 of an inch. connect to the positive and negative of the motor to the solar panel. positive to positive negative to negative. twist connected wire ends together and slip your shrink wrap over the twists , just heat the straw with your lighter and press slightly to flatten. It's hot.
Heat the shaft of the motor abit and then press onto the shaft your milk bottle cap. Shaft will melt through the cap and make a self sealing hole. Cut two holes in the ball. Place motor inside the ball with bottle cap at bottom cap protrusion allowance is about 5mm , cut the hole so the motor surround fits snug inside the ball so no glue is needed. With your fingers inside the ball press your bottle cap onto the shaft. Second hole is for solar panel protrusion. Second hole is big and loose to fit motor and wires so don't stress. Cut a slit to push the solar panel through so it will hold without glue. Place your Project in direct warm sunlight , with cap on the bottom surface as a footing , the completed ball with Motor inside and panel ontop will spin all day until the sun goes away,

Fine tuning the position of the panel will take 5 mins. This should be done in sunlight : to ensure inertia and power co efficient co operation. Ball spins on axis at 360 degrees so at some point the panel will be shadowed at some point of rotation this doesn't matter because the spinning balls inertia will keep it spinning past that point provided your panel is acting as a counter weight.

Hope it makes sense. Good fun . I've left these around the city and people don't know what there looking at.
Peace

Step 1: End Is Niue

I hope to load the video of the ball
But can't find the video attachment option..

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