Bare Pad
Properly
Tinned Pad
14
Construction - Axles Trimming and Solarcell Preparation
Step 13: All that you have to do here is trim the extra axle off
with your
snips. Then file or sand the edges rounds so it isn’t sharp anymore, or pull
the wheel retainers over the end of the wire so it covers up the sharp points.
If you find that your wheel retainers are a little loose on the axle, now would
be a good time to glue them down, but only apply the glue on the side away
from the wheel, so it doesn’t get gummed up.
Step 14: If your solarcell doesn’t have pre-tinned solder pads
(ie: the
solder is already on it), you’ll have to do it yourself. This can be potentially
the most delicate part of building your SolarSpeeder, so take your time.
Pre-tin the pad by melting solder to the pad in a quick, smooth motion. You
don’t want to apply too much heat to the pad, or you’ll ruin it. You can tell
when this happens, as it gets dark and no solder will stick to it.
Step 15: Solder the wires to the solarcell
, red to ‘+’ and the black to ‘-’,
and secure it to the solarcell by gluing it down to the back. THIS IS IMPOR-
TANT. You can easily rip the wires off the solarcell if you don’t!
Step 16: Connect the solarcell wires to the PCB, red to ‘+’,
black to ‘-’, just like in the illustration. Once you’ve done
that, your SolarSpeeder is “ALIVE”, but not finished - you
have to glue the solarcell to the PCB with epoxy, or similar
gap-filling glue (use hot-glue only as a last resort - it softens
under the heat of a desklamp).
Secure the solarcell to the PCB only after you’re sure it
works. Make sure it doesn’t rub on the wheels, and that the
solder pads on the solarcell don’t touch any of the solder
pads on the PCB.
Glue wires down
only in this area
15
8
13
+
-
+
-
Panasonic
BP
- 2433
16