------>------->.My Robots and coming projects.. (as soon as those darn parts get here) more pictures are on the right ----->---->-->

duel solar engine photovore using two matched fled SE's to make it phototropic when the resistance is varied between the fled's. it uses 3 1000uf caps and a 24x22 cell. the motors are from my girlfriends sisters' broken CD player.

This is going to be a Photopopper. I think I'm gonna use those 1/8th inch photovoltaic cells instead of photodiodes to make it more active....I've changed the circuit around a little and we'll get to that later

sloppy picture of underside of my big photovore. not asthetic at all, Quick just flip it over again hurry befor tilden see's it! :)

another duel SE but with feelers....I'm building a panel for this one to run the servos

this is going to be my solar roller. It uses a pancake motor from a sony walkman I got for $1.00 because it was broken. just after I took this picture I added tape casset rubber wheels and I'll get that picture up later.the whole thing is made from walkman inards and a paperclip.

And here's my Microvore almost all tucked up under his tiny 24x22 solarcell except for the trimpot. verry active in sun but doesn't kick much in low light because of cell size. only one way I can get smaller.... and I have about 30 mini 1/8 in square solar cells for when I decide to be brave enough to get tiny. I have been drawing up some SMT photovore boards and have started looking for my parts....they should turn out to be about 1inch square when I'm done...this could take awhile though.

heres the panel for the above bot

this is the underside and back of my microvore. theres the trimpot. I use spectrol single turn trimmers because it is easy to tune the bot and also they turn really easy with a screwdriver and don't torque your components wich at this size and since I used no glue on this bot could rip the pads off of the solarcell

this is Symetripod. yeah, in theory he's light seeking but I'm still waiting for the cells ( I need 3, one for each engine; there's 3 SE's on this thing) I'll explain with a drawing in a later picture.

heres the solar roller with wheels.this is a really simple solaroller that can be made by a novice beamer and walkman parts.

this is my mexican jumping bean,or robot in that case. when it pops it actually jumps a 1/16th of an inch off the ground.it's just a diode charged 1381j solarengine with a pager motor with the weight still attached. can you tell I'm getting smaller at building?

this is the bottom side. It shows the PCB that I used plugable sockets to connect the caps,motors,cells and SE's so it is completley reconfigurable.frame is made from paperclip and protoboard.

heres my lightseeking head.it just uses the "beam-online" method of the suspended phototropic bicore

this is gonna be my four servo walker wich will eventually be reversing and turning. I've been looking for the right micro servos for this one because it is already asthetic so I wanna keep it that way. It is basically just four double stacked 74hct240 bicores and it does drive four big tower hobbies servos off of two AAA (thats right...triple A) batteries. at this rate I wonder how long my batteries will last. did I mention it does all this without motor drivers? well it does. I guess it's because when you invert a signal (like with a transistor) it gains a little bit of current. so if you cant drive a motor (without a motor driver) off of a bicore why not give it more power without accually giving it more voltage or amperage. just more inverters to flip....so a stonger signal is outputed.... I think,this works for me! :)

another crapy closeup.you can see the SE's better and the mubachi motors from solarbotics

this is my modified ShockPopper. it uses a FLED instead of a 1381Q and diode. I have to build one with a 1381Q and compare thier reactions

this is my most unique robot built so far,and I'm already geting ideas on how to build one with one solarcell and 3 photodiodes. it is light seeking in that when light hits a solarcell the motor directly clowise fires and pushes it toward light.this happens untill the next cell is facing the light and it continues (all day bacause it is slow) untill it has rotated itself under the light at witch point it sits and hapily pops under the light because all the cells charge at the same time .when the light is moved away a little bit and the bot is left alone for the day he pops right on over under the light to play again. I wish I could get video of this but I don't have any way to. Great robot but you have to be patient with it because it's kinda heavy and it uses fled "fred" type solar engines

and a size comparison picture....

heres the FLED shockpopper side view

I hate my camera but I love my new shockpopper! It uses a BC2 1.0 bicore board and a miller engine board that I got free from the solar botics workshop in los alamos. It's equiped with 2 .33F caps,5.5vdc cell and a 1381J. I need to replace the 1381J with a 1381Q for a longer discharge and more power. but it still goes like 2 and a half feet off of one pop.nice light-seeking ability and both motors pop at once. I can't thank everyone from the workshop enough for the free stuff! I love you guys! especially Dave, Cheryl and Grant...you guys rock!

One of my symets. it has 2 calculator cells and a FLED SE and is my slowest robot. 3 1000uf caps and a mubachi from solarbotics. My 1381J trigger symet works better at not getting stuck and this one tips over sometimes.

this is my symet kit from solarbotics. it works good and pops every second or so in full sunlite.it takes about an hour to charge in my room with low light levels

That is my almost finished walker (pond skimmer) chillin next to the Bicore and Tricore Tiles that Mark Tilden GAVE!!! me at the workshop. and I must also say thanks again to Tilden.....Hats Off Mark!!

heres the bottom view,triangle paperclip attached to the caps.motor can is grounded....paperclip outer ring is positive

heres the bottom of my round symet. all cap negetives are soldered togther...not to motor can because the motor can is posotive.

Well,heres my tiles I've been talking about. Check 'em out! they all have little surface mount led's connected to every output on overy chip. and the green hextiles also have a power indicator led. I'm not sure how to use the black or blue Nu counterclockwise tiles yet but the red tiles are SMT bicores that have all the parts installed and even have a 10 meg biasing resistor! oh yeah, and they are enable-able the green ones are also bicores with all the parts installed but no biasing resistor. Best presant I have ever recieved. and what a co-incidence that my birthday is in 2 weeks....

My little Robot Jurassic Park.. houses my duel SE photovor, both symets, and two of my new (waiting for power) robots (I hate snail mail!)

thats my first fully operational (and working good still) photovore on the left. nothing special to most people but it was proof that I could do it after a couple failed attempts. good tip: if you build a photovore freeform and it doesn't work even after going over all of your connections, you can still save almost every part in the mess. pull out those old soldered 1381's and solder new legs on them. (i'm sure you have a couple or old component leads hanging around right?

WAIT A MINUTE!!!! what was that...was that what I think it was....YEP! It's my first (working,anyway) Turbot. woohoooooo! it uses one BC3 1.0 dual motor bicore board and two MD1 motor drivers that are both out of the bicore experimentor PCB bundle. My next turbot is definatley gonna be smaller now that I have the concept down. More photos of my turbot and walker and other bots on the next page......duuuh oh yeah... the turbot also uses one of the battery charging boards off of the BEP PCB and a telephone battery to hold the charge. It charges off of my playstation power supply. cool huh? NEXT PHOTO PAGE DUDE!.....7/29/02.....I just added some more to this bot....check photo page 3 soon!