Solarbotics BEAM Robotics Kit 2 Manual Download Page 1

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The BEAM Photopopper 4.2

Photovore Robot

The BEAM Photopopper 4.2

Photovore Robot

BEAM Robotics

Kit #2:

BEAM Robotics

Kit #2:

Unlike most robots, this BEAM robot is

, and does

not have an off switch. Optical and touch sensors give the palm-

sized Photopopper Photovore light-seeking and obstacle-avoiding

behaviour. This robot doesn't use a microprocessor or computer

"brain", making it straight-forward and easy to construct and tune!

(Soldering skill required)

solar-powered

A Complete BEAM Solar-Powered

Robot Kit Inside

Produced by

Skill Level

Ltd.

Document Revision: February 13, 2002

PDF

FILE

- P

ublic

Release

NOTE:

This

file

is provided

for

educational

and

promotional

use

only

. R

elease

of this

document

does

not

place

it i

n the

public

domain.

Commercial

use

this

information

is STRICTL

Y PROHIBITED.

This

document

is provided

as-is.

Solarbotics

is not

responsible

for

errors

omissions

in this

document.

Ltd.,

1998

PDF

FILE

- Public

Release

NOTE:

This

file

is provided

for

educational

and

promotional

use

only

. R

elease

of this

document

does

not

place

it in

the

public

domain.

Commercial

use

this

information

is STRICTL

Y PROHIBITED.

This

document

is provided

as-is.

Solarbotics

is not

responsible

for

errors

omissions

in this

document.

Ltd.,

1998

Summary of Contents for BEAM Robotics Kit 2

Page 1: ...vel Ltd Document Revision February 13 2002 PDF FILE Public Release NOTE This file is provided for educational and promotional use only Release of this document does not place it in the public domain Commercial use of this information is STRICTLY PROHIBITED This document is provided as is Solarbotics is not responsible for errors or omissions in this document Copyright Solarbotics Ltd 1998 PDF FILE...

Page 2: ...This page left blank intentionally ...

Page 3: ... Sensor Preparation 12 Step 9 Touch Sensor Installation 13 Step 10 Final Assembly Tuning Touch Ups 14 The Wrap Up 16 A Brief History of Photovores Back Page Disclaimer of Liability Solarbotics Ltd Is not responsible for any special incidental or consequential damages resulting from any breach of warranty or under any legal theory including lost profits downtime good will damage to or replacement o...

Page 4: ...e to be attached to the solarcell 2 Copper wire for structural support 2 Augat sockets These look like pins with a little socket on the end These will be turned into touch sensors for the Photopopper 2 Sensor springs These will be used with the Augat sockets to be the touch sensors 2 1 16 Heat shrink tubing This will be used in the construction of the touch sensors and also be used for the wheels ...

Page 5: ...governing which Solarengine fires the Photopopper can avoid obstacles and go towards light The name BEAM is an acryonym for Biology Electronics Aesthetics and Mechanics It breaks down like this If you re going to create something from scratch you model it after successful designs Soooo we steal um I mean borrow many good ideas from Mother Nature There s some techniques that we can use that nature ...

Page 6: ...s light sources Or if you want you can tweak it so that it will prefer to turn one way versus the other simply by changing the way the two light sensors balance each other on their electronic see saw The light sensors are very good at what they do They re designed to view a 100 degree angle and will not let the Photopopper get itself caught in a shadow while there are better sources of light nearb...

Page 7: ...botics PHOTOPOPPER 4 2 BEAM Photovore Photovore Behaviours 4 This Photovore has the light dead in it s sights and makes a left right left right motion to get to it Your Photopopper is designed to exhibit two main behaviours Light seeking and Obstacle avoidance The primary goal of any Phototropic light seeking robot is to find and maintain access to a source of light it s primary source of energy T...

Page 8: ...der them in place Make absolutely sure that solder does not bridge across from one pad to the next this is a very common problem that will keep the Photopopper from working The 2 2k Ohm resistor has four 4 coloured stripes on it It does not matter which way it gets installed but make sure that it sits flat against the PCB before you solder it down just like in the photograph This makes your instal...

Page 9: ...Another benefit of this new technology is that your Photopopper will have a greatly enhanced low light operating capability You won t need very much light to feed this BEAM robot The 680 kOhm resistors colour coded Blue Grey Yellow Gold in this part of the circuit are used to balance how much effect the touch sensors yet to be built installed can override the eyes of the Photopopper We need this b...

Page 10: ... photo Don t forget to clip the remainder that sticks out of the other side you have been clipping the excess leads haven t you The motor connections are quite straightforward The blue or darker wire is connected to pad M1 and the red or lighter wire is connected to pad M2 Note how the fuse clip is soldered in from the sides and not from underneath Important Stuff On each motor the Blue darker wir...

Page 11: ...ghter wire going to the positive pad After that the wires down near the pads This is very important to do as the pads are not that strong and you might accidentally yank the soldered wires right off the solarcell So go do it Right now You don t want to know what Guido will do to you if you don t GLUE After the glue has dried on the wires solarcell add the solarcell to the Photopopper PCB Simply so...

Page 12: ...d down Same sort of situation Adding the power capacitor to the PCB requires you to bend the leads of the capacitor down right against the face of the capacitor Just make sure that you get the polarity correct before you bend The side with the white stripe is negative and you will want to make sure that the bend looks just like that in the above image And just like any of the other compo nents mak...

Page 13: ...e it to the front and to the right of the light the left motor should activate This is a sure fire indication your Photopopper is seeing the light and trying it s best to move itself closer to it will not As soon as you connect the power capacitor to the PCB and place your Photopopper near a source of light one of the motors should start pulsing If so BRAVO Congratulations You re the new proud own...

Page 14: ... ve pre bent it far enought that the final bend should be a minor task for you When finished trim the excess wire When finished your Photopopper should look like the one below The motor shafts and the capacitor should all be touching at the same time If it rocks on the capacitor and only one motor shaft touches you will have to de solder one end of the support wire and push it further through the ...

Page 15: ...l be used to tune the sensitivity of the touch sensor Take a spring wire and stretch it out to about 15mm so you can just see between the coils picture 5 Then push the spring onto the pin up to the tubing but not over the end If this causes some problems try twisting the spring while pushing it on so it threads onto the tubing Lastly reach between the spring coils with your knife and slide the cut...

Page 16: ...small single pad and push the sensor wire into the solder Trim off any excess wire image 2 Lastly make sure that a The spring is only on the insulation and not touching the pin and b The solder on the large pad touches only the pin collar see image 3 Image 4 shows how the touch sensors should look from straight head on If your touch sensor is bent when at rest bend the whole pin spring so the pin ...

Page 17: ...ource of light in the vicinity Start by placing your Photopopper near some very directional single source light like on a sunny desktop or a table with a single light bulb It should make a bee line towards the source of the light If you get a left or right side preference behaviour see the images then turn the trim pot a 1 2 turn in the direction of the slower motor As you get close to the sweet s...

Page 18: ...s a full point 2 2 1 The competing device must initially fit within the boundaries of a 150mm 6 cube 3 No batteries rechargeable or otherwise are be allowed on the Photovore competitor only verifiable electrical capacitors No other form of power source chemical mechanical animal etc is allowed The competitor must extract all the energy it uses from solar cells on its chassis 4 Devices are forbidde...

Page 19: ...d behave pursue it After all the on back page is a very non traditional photovore but has proven to be very aggresive and effective at the expense of its difficulty of construction don t contact us for how to build it details we don t have them We hope that you ve had fun working on your Photopopper and now that it is finished you should expect to enjoy it for another 10 or 20 years Mind you that ...

Page 20: ...ke the fig 2 New geome try using flagella arms instead of wheels was successfully experimented with in designs like fig 3 and the twins fig 4 New advances in low power electronics resulted in the expermental fig 5 and fig 6 This kit uses the best techniques learned from all these prototypes Photopopper 4 2 Photovore BEAMant PHD 1 0 Turbot 2 0 Turbot 3 0 Photopopper prototypes 4 0 4 2b Figure 1 BEA...

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