How to Use Solar Panels for Robotics

Depending on the power needs of your robot, you may need more or less powerful solar panels.

Solar panels have come a long way in recent years, from inefficient monstrosities of size and price to modern-day, miniaturized, highly efficient consumer grade models. Luckily, these advances make it possible to replace many traditional power sources in consumer hobbyshop robotics with solar panels, thus easing a good-sized chunk of the finances you would ordinarily spend on batteries. Best of all, it's relatively simple to swap out batteries with solar panels, and can be accomplished either during the construction process itself, or in an after-the-fact modification.

Things You'll Need

• Soldering iron
• 2% silver solder
• Solar panel (commensurate with power requirements)

Instructions

1. Locate your currently existing power supply's positive and negative power output wires. If you're still in the robot's building process, you'll want to locate the wires in the area where a power supply is located in your design.

2. Separate the positive and negative wires of the solar panel from one another. They're always denoted on the underside of the panel or the wires themselves as either "+" or "-", respectively.

3. Connect and solder the positive wire from the solar panel to the positive wire in the robot's power schematic. Connect the negative wires the same way, and wait at least 20 minutes for the solder to harden and cool thoroughly.

4. Make sure your solar panel is receiving plenty of bright, consistent light, and fire up your mechanism. It will work at optimum efficiency in the brightest light you can find.

References

• Evil Mad Scientist: Simple Solar Circuits