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This is my first Turbot, and I am very happy
with how it came out. It uses a free-formed
Miller popper
photopopper circuit along with some very nice Escap gearmotors (same used
in Mark Tilden's VBug 1.5, also know as Walkman). I tried to keep
everything small as possible, and succeeded in getting it all to fit in
between half of two Panasonic 3733 solar cells.
In direct sunlight the motors fire almost continuously, only stopping
to switch between themselves. As for its phototropic behavior, I am a
little disappointed. It will align itself with the light, but since the
motors only rotate in one direction, sometimes it is phototropic and
others its photophobic. This could be fixed with a mercury switch that
changes the direction of the motors depending on its orientation.
I am extremely happy with this robot and plan to build another almost
identical turbot when I am able to get my hands on some more Escap
gearmotors. I want to change the arm length and might even mess with the
angle between the motors. Also, as I build the next one, I plan to take
pictures along the way and use them to make a tutorial on free-forming a
Miller popper (I
could use a nice tutorial on this site). |
