Thread: Solar panels?

Look, solar powered RC car:
[media]http://youtube.com/watch?v=A_EfWi-_b4E[/media]
[media]http://youtube.com/watch?v=WmVhK7cn8RQ[/media]

and an instructable:
http://www.instructables.com/id/Solar-RC-car/

So yes, its possible. But kind of wimpy so you probably wont be winning any competitions with that.

Originally Posted by Chairboy

Hey guys, be easy on him. His mind's already made up, he's not interested in facts. It's tough to be 15 years old (when you know everything) and dealing with a bunch of slow witted adults who obviously know the answer to your very simple question and just can't spit it out.

I might be able to put the hood as a solar panel...
but where would i have the antenna come out?

could you drill a hole?

w8 i can put one in the back and front and get a spolier and put them on that too.

But how would i keep them from breaking or getting scrached?
there any easy way of keeping like a little box or something like hard plastic to keep them from breaking?

like if i would go off a little ramp or hit something?

With the abundant solar power, there's no reason for your car to fall when it goes off a ramp, it should continue to fly, higher and higher until it disappears from view.

Point is you would need to cover the whole car in them, and even then you would go pretty slow as your car is not built to be lightweight and efficient. It is built to be cheap and mass produced.

And why drill a hole? There will be gaps between them the antenna can stick out of. And they are glass foremost, so if you are planning on playing rough, you will run out of money really fast as they are expensive.

We are forgetting the most realistic answer to this problem...MINDPOWER!!!! All it takes is practice, if you stare long enough and hard enough at the car, and you want it bad enough you can will it to go as fast as you want!!!! However it will take lots of practice, you should sit and stare at the car, trying to accomplish this feat, at least 3 hours a day until you get the hang of it. Also it may help if you make yourself a hat out of aluminum foil. This focuses the brainwaves producing more mind power.

Originally Posted by 2k1Toaster

Point is you would need to cover the whole car in them, and even then you would go pretty slow as your car is not built to be lightweight and efficient. It is built to be cheap and mass produced.

And why drill a hole? There will be gaps between them the antenna can stick out of. And they are glass foremost, so if you are planning on playing rough, you will run out of money really fast as they are expensive.

1.what if i make my own out of broken solar cells?
2.i need about 1500 mA at 7.2 or so volts how could i get that?

3.series or parallel?

4.and i would like to like ramp or something a little.
also incase if i am playing with friends and were racing if they hit me by accedent it dosnt screw up the solar panel!

5.also what about them at night?
someone said they would still work? or just reverse the polarity how could i do that?

Need all these answers
number them like i have them in the ?'s

Thank you!

Yep, to use solar panels at night, just reverse the polarity of the leads. Be careful not to do this when there's any light out, or it will actually suck power out of the car. If there's no power left, it'll start converting the parts of the car that are touching the ground into pure energy.

Originally Posted by Chairboy

Yep, to use solar panels at night, just reverse the polarity of the leads. Be careful not to do this when there's any light out, or it will actually suck power out of the car. If there's no power left, it'll start converting the parts of the car that are touching the ground into pure energy.

what do solar panels use to power?
sunlight?

or some thing like radio waves or something we cant c

because i think its some wave we cant c...


What if you would make your own solar panel then.
It would b less expencive and then u could sell them to other people to keep making them.

how would that work?

Originally Posted by Ausi319

1.what if i make my own out of broken solar cells?
2.i need about 1500 mA at 7.2 or so volts how could i get that?

3.series or parallel?

4.and i would like to like ramp or something a little.
also incase if i am playing with friends and were racing if they hit me by accedent it dosnt screw up the solar panel!

5.also what about them at night?
someone said they would still work? or just reverse the polarity how could i do that?

Need all these answers
number them like i have them in the ?'s

Thank you!

1. Broken solar cells are actually more efficient than unbroken ones. Remember, the key to solar power is density. By compacting the solar cells, you get far more cell surface per inch than just a single flat panel. I use a BlendTek blender to increase the density of mine.

2. 1500ma X 7.2v = 10,800MegaAmpVolts. Use ten 1 farad capacitors in parallel to store the energy from the solar cells and you'll be fine.

3. Series. Definitely. You need a whole series of cells to make this work.

4. Not sure what you're asking here.

5. Make sure you are wearing sunglasses or number 1 welding goggles when running the cells at night as the light leaks out it will briefly exceed 1m candlepower. Or, just look the other way and wait for the flash.